Neuropsychological and socio-emotional functioning in children from an afro-descendant ethno-linguistic community: A cross-sectional descriptive study

Objectives: Rural low-resource settings face structural barriers that can delay detection of neurodevelopmental needs. In rural Afro-descendant ethno- linguistic communities, socioeconomic and territorial stressors may affect development, yet local evidence remains scarce. This study characterized neuropsychological and socioemotional functioning in children aged 7-12 years from a rural Afro-descendant community in the Colombian Caribbean, focusing on age-referenced classifications and areas of relative strength or lower performance. Materials and Methods: Quantitative, observational, cross-sectional descriptive study. Forty-one children (51.2% girls) without documented neurodevelopmental/psychiatric diagnosis were recruited by convenience sampling. Neuropsychological functioning was assessed with the evaluación neuropsicológica infantil (ENI-2), and self-perceived socioemotional functioning with the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version (EQ-i: YV). Analyses were descriptive; no inferential comparisons with normative means were conducted. Results: ENI-2 showed broadly age-expected performance in visuoconstruction, perception, core language, and attention. Lower performance appeared in auditory-verbal learning/free recall, semantic and graphic fluency, selected flexibility indices, reading speed, symbolic number processing, and mental calculation. EQ-i: YV self-report scores were within the average range. Conclusion: Among participating children, findings suggest predominantly age-expected neuropsychological and self-perceived socioemotional functioning with selected areas of lower performance. Given the modest convenience sample and possible cultural-linguistic limits of normative references, these preliminary results should not be generalized to rural Afro-descendant communities as a whole.