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The measurement of executive function at age 5: psychometric properties and relationship to academic achievement.

ABSTRACT: This study examined the psychometric properties and criterion validity of a newly developed battery of executive function (EF) tasks for use in early childhood. The battery was included in the Family Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of families who were oversampled from low-income and African American families at the birth of a new child (N = 1,292). Ninety-nine percent (N = 1,036) of children who participated in the age 5 home visit completed 1 or more (M = 5.8, Mdn = 6) of the 6 EF tasks. Results indicated that tasks worked equally well for children residing in low-income and not low-income homes, that task scores were most informative about the ability level of children in the low-average range, that performance on EF tasks was best characterized by a single factor, and that individual differences on the EF battery were strongly related to a latent variable measuring overall academic achievement, as well as to individual standardized tests that measured phonological awareness, letter-word identification, and early math skills.

SUBMITTER: Willoughby MT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3315058 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The measurement of executive function at age 5: psychometric properties and relationship to academic achievement.

Willoughby Michael T MT Blair Clancy B CB Wirth R J RJ Greenberg Mark M

Psychological assessment 20111003 1

This study examined the psychometric properties and criterion validity of a newly developed battery of executive function (EF) tasks for use in early childhood. The battery was included in the Family Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of families who were oversampled from low-income and African American families at the birth of a new child (N = 1,292). Ninety-nine percent (N = 1,036) of children who participated in the age 5 home visit completed 1 or more (M = 5.8, Mdn = 6) of ...[more]

PMID: 21966934

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Project description:BackgroundElucidating risk pathways for under-achieving at school can inform strategies to reduce the number of adolescents leaving school without passing grades in core subjects. Maternal depression can compromise the quality of parental care and is associated with multiple negative child outcomes. However, only a few small studies have investigated the association between perinatal maternal depression and poor academic achievement in adolescence. The pathways to explain the risks are also unclear.MethodProspective observational data from 5,801 parents and adolescents taking part in a large UK population cohort (Avon-Longitudinal-Study-of-Parents-and-Children) were used to test associations between maternal and paternal depression and anxiety in the perinatal period, executive function (EF) at age 8, and academic achievement at the end of compulsory school at age 16.ResultsAdolescents of postnatally depressed mothers were 1.5 times (1.19, 1.94, p = .001) as likely as adolescents of nondepressed mothers to fail to achieve a 'pass' grade in math; antenatal anxiety was also an independent predictor of poor math. Disruption in different components of EF explained small but significant proportions of these associations: attentional control explained 16% (4%, 27%, p < .001) of the association with postnatal depression, and working memory explained 17% (13%, 30%, p = .003) of the association with antenatal anxiety. A similar pattern was seen for language grades, but associations were confounded by maternal education. There was no evidence that paternal factors were independently associated with impaired child EF or adolescent exams.ConclusionMaternal postnatal depression and antenatal anxiety are risk factors for adolescents underachieving in math. Preventing, identifying, and treating maternal mental health in the perinatal period could, therefore, potentially increase adolescents' academic achievement. Different aspects of EF partially mediated these associations. Further work is needed, but if these pathways are causal, improving EF could reduce underachievement in math.

Project description:OBJECTIVES:Previous research has studied the influence of physical fitness on academic achievement through executive functions. However, the nature of this relationship remains unclear. This study aimed to analyze how cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and executive functions are associated with academic achievement and to examine whether the relationship between CRF and academic achievement is mediated by executive functions in schoolchildren. METHODS:This was a cross-sectional study including 570 schoolchildren, aged 8 to 11 years, from Cuenca, Spain. Data were collected from September to October 2017. Sociodemographic variables, family socioeconomic status, pubertal status, academic achievement, CRF (20-meter shuttle run test) and executive functions (inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory, NIH Toolbox battery in Spanish, v 1.8; iPad Pro, Apple, Inc.) were measured. RESULTS:Overall, ANCOVA models controlling for age, gender and mother educational level showed higher scores in language and mathematics in children in higher categories of CRF, inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory than in children in lower categories. The effect sizes were moderate (p < 0.05, partial eta squared: from 0.05 to 0.12). Moreover, the mediation analysis showed that inhibition partially mediated the relationship between CRF and language (c' = 0.058; IC = [0.005; 0.028]) and mathematics (c' = 0.064; IC = [0.005; 0.030]) grades. Similarly, cognitive flexibility mediated CRF's relationship with language (c' = 0.059; IC = [0.003; 0.028]) and with mathematics (c' = 0.066; IC = [0.003; 0.029]); however, a significant relationship remained. For working memory, mediation analysis showed no significant results (c' = 0.92; IC = [-0.002;0.025] P > 0.05 in language; c' = 0.103; IC = [-0.002;0.029] P > 0.05 in mathematics). Mediation ranged from 13.38% to 36%. CONCLUSIONS:Children in higher categories of both CRF and executive function showed higher grades in mathematics and language. The findings indicated that a significant proportion of the positive influence of CRF on academic achievement was mediated by improvements in inhibition and cognitive flexibility. Thus, this study supports the hypothesis that improvements in CRF may contribute to increasing academic achievement not only through a direct mechanism but also through improvements in executive functions.

Project description:IntroductionAcademic achievement (AA) is associated with smoking rates. Can we determine the degree to which this relationship is likely a causal one?MethodsWe predict smoking in male conscripts (mean age 18.2) assessed from 1984 to 1991 (N = 233 248) and pregnant females (mean age 27.7) receiving prenatal care 1972-1990 (N = 494 995) from AA assessed in all students at 16. Instrumental variable (IV) analyses used the instrument month-of-birth as in each school year, older children have high AA. Co-relative analyses used AA-smoking associations in the population, cousins and siblings to predict the AA-smoking relationship in MZ twins, thereby controlling for familial confounding.ResultsIn males, higher AA was associated with a substantial decrease in risk for smoking (odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence intervals [CIs]] per standard deviation [SD] = 0.41 [0.40-0.41]) while the parallel figures obtain from our IV and co-relative analyses were 0.47 (0.39-0.57) and 0.51 (0.43-0.60), respectively. In females, these figures for pre-pregnancy smoking were, respectively, 0.39 (0.39-0.39), 0.50 (0.46-0.54) and 0.54 (0.51-0.58). Results for heavy versus light smoking suggested a causal effect but were inconsistent across methods. However, among females smoking prior to pregnancy, AA predicted a reduced risk for continued smoking with ORs for uncontrolled, IV, and co-relative analyses equaling, respectively, were 0.54 (0.53-0.55) 0.68 (0.56-0.82) and 0.78 (0.66-0.91), respectively.ConclusionsTwo different methods produced consistent evidence that higher AA has a causal effect on reducing smoking rates and increasing cessation rates in smoking pregnant females. Improving AA may result in meaningful gains in population health through reduced smoking.ImplicationsThis study provides consistent evidence across two different methods that high AA is causally related to reduced rates of smoking and increasing rates of smoking cessation among pregnant women. Our results suggest that interventions that improve educational achievement in adolescence would reduce tobacco consumption, thereby improving public health.

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The measurement of executive function at age 5: psychometric properties and relationship to academic achievement.

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The measurement of executive function at age 5: psychometric properties and relationship to academic achievement.

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