Executive function and the promotion of social–emotional competence

Social Competence in Children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1: Relationships with Psychopathology and Cognitive Ability

“…While group means were not significantly different from those reported in published normative data, over half (56.5%) of the children with NF1 in our cohort were rated by their parents as demonstrating difficulty at a clinically significant level in at least one executive domain, supporting previous research showing significant day to day executive dysfunction in this population [11]. Previous studies have shown significant relationships between social deficits and executive dysfunction in typically developing children [41,42], ASD [43,55], and other genetic disorders, including 22q11 deletion syndrome [56], but no existing study has explicitly explored the relationship between social competence and executive function in NF1. While the lack of relationships between functional executive behaviours and social competence are not clear, one possible explanation is that our study solely relied on parent report questionnaires of executive function, which only measure children's executive abilities in the home environment and so may be less sensitive than other executive function measures.…”

“…Notably, NF1 is associated with significant functional executive difficulties, with particular deficits evident in sustaining working memory, self-monitoring, and planning and organisation [11]. Executive function and social competence have been shown to be significantly related in the typically developing population [41,42], and in other developmental disorders, including ASD [43], but no published study to date has directly investigated the relationship between executive function and social competence in NF1.…”

“…It was hypothesised that social competence would not be related to overall levels of intellectual functioning in children with NF1 (Hypothesis 5). In keeping with observations from typically developing children [41,42], it was hypothesised that social competence would be related to day to day executive function in children with NF1, such that children with more executive difficulties would display lower social competence (Hypothesis 6).…”

Executive Functions as Predictors of School Performance and Social Relationships: Primary and Secondary School Students

“…Furthermore, although the relation between EFs and helpfulness towards classmates and peer acceptance (Hay, Payne, & Chadwick, 2004) has been less studied, it is known that EFs do play an important role in self-control of behavior and emotional self-regulation (Blair & Diamond, 2008;Checa, Rodríguez-Bailón, & Rueda, 2008;Eisenberg, Valiente, & Eggum, 2010;Riggs et al, 2006;Rueda, Checa, & Rothbart, 2010). In early adolescence, students with a higher level of effortful control show greater empathy (Zorza, Marino, de Lemus, & Acosta, 2013) and are more likely to be accepted and chosen by peers (Checa et al, 2008).…”

“…They may be used to develop abstract thinking (e.g., to solve logic problems) or to facilitate social behavior (e.g., respecting turn-taking in conversations) (Best, Miller, & Naglieri, 2011;Riggs, Jahromi, Razza, Dillworth-Bart, & Mueller, 2006). Further, it has been observed that some executive operations are specifically related to certain academic domains: working memory has been linked to mathematics performance and cognitive flexibility to the language domain (van der Ven, Kroesbergen, Boom, & Leseman, 2012).…”