Developmental Profile of Executive Functioning in School-Age Children From Northeast Brazil

Abstract

The development of executive functions (EF) is recognizably correlated to culture, contextual and social factors. However, studies considering all the basic EF are still scarce in Brazil, most notably in the Northeast region, which is known for its social inequality and economic gap. This study aimed to analyze the developmental trajectories and structure of four EF, namely inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning. In addition, the potential effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and gender were examined. The sample included 230 Brazilian children between 7-12 years old, homogeneously distributed by age, gender and type of school. The EF were assessed through the Brazilian version of the Child Executive Functions Battery (CEF-B). A global effect of age was found for most of the EF measures evaluated. Gender effect was mostly non-significant, except for 4 of the 12 tasks. There was a significant SES effect on 8 tasks, all in favor of private school children. Exploratory factorial and correlation analysis showed a 4-factor EF structure, corroborating the theoretical distribution considered in the CEF-B. A developmental progression is evident in the results for all of the EF measures evaluated. While gender had little influence on EF, SES seems to significantly impact the development of EF. As normative data are still lacking in Northeast Brazil, this study may help to understand EF development trajectories and provide tools for neuropsychological evaluation.

Pieces of evidences of reliability of the Brazilian version of the Child Executive Functions Battery (CEF-B)

“…Results revealed evidences of developmental validity and a factorial structure compatible with the theoretical proposition of the battery, revealing consistent evidence of construct validity. In addition, data regarding the negative impact of low SES on EF performances also corroborate with the literature and show a satisfactory sensitivity of the battery in identifying these potential differences (Guerra et al 2021).…”

“…The same study showed a sensitivity of CEF-B to identify the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on executive development, which agrees with the current literature (Farah 2017;Merz et al 2019). This study on the trajectory and structure of the EF in the pediatric population of northeast Brazil presents initial evidence of validity which endorses the theoretical and methodological premises of the CEF-B (Guerra et al 2021). In addition, convergent and divergent validity analyses were also carried out.…”

“…Concerning the Brazilian version, a significant improvement with age (developmental validity) was observed between 7-and 12-year-old children (Guerra et al 2021). A 4-factor EF structure was also found through an exploratory factorial and correlation analysis that corroborate with the theoretical assumption considered in the CEF-B.…”

“…It should be mentioned that in addition to the findings regarding reliability evidences, the study by Guerra et al (2021) allowed to expand the CEF-B adaptation process (Guerra et al 2020b) by presenting preliminary normative data and evidences of validity that favor the use of this version in the Brazilian context. Results revealed evidences of developmental validity and a factorial structure compatible with the theoretical proposition of the battery, revealing consistent evidence of construct validity.…”

“…Table 2 presents a brief description of the 12 tests that compose the CEF-B (for a more detailed description of the tasks and variables used, see Guerra et al 2021). The order of application of the tests that integrate the protocol was defined in a systematic and pseudo-random manner, alternating the investigated executive skills and their verbal/non-verbal nature.…”