Executive Inhibitory Control and Cooperative Behavior During Early School Years: A Follow-Up Study

Abstract

Several links between aspects of executive functioning and the development of social competence have been established. The present study investigates the relation between executive inhibitory control and cooperative/non-cooperative behavior, in an ecological setting, and from a longitudinal perspective. Elementary school children (n=195) of three age groups (7, 9, 11 years, initially) were measured at two consecutive time points, at a one-year interval, with tasks tapping executive inhibitory control (the Stroop test), and social competence (a collaborative puzzle solving task). Executive inhibition was identified as the most influential stable predictor only in the case of non-cooperative behavior and presented strong concurrent relations with both cooperative and non-cooperative behavior at follow-up, even when controlling for previous level of the same behavior. The findings imply the need to consider the important role of executive inhibitory processes in multifactorial models of social competence development and in the refinement of present interventions.

Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools

“…Research has highlighted a relationship between social competence and cognitive abilities (Riggs et al 2006). Longitudinal research by Ciairano et al (2007) demonstrated that difficulty with executive inhibitory cognitive control was the most influential and stable predictor of non-cooperative behaviour in elementary school children. Ramos et al (2013) found that preschoolers with lower cognitive scores in verbal, quantitative and memory domains also had lower teacher-reported social competence.…”

The role of inhibitory control in children’s cooperative behaviors during a structured puzzle task

“…This study was part of larger longitudinal project examining cooperative behaviors during childhood (see Ciairano et al, 2007). For all participants, parental consent was obtained in accordance with Italian law and the ethical code of the Association of Italian Psychologists.…”

“…Stroop interference (the ''Stroop effect'') occurs when automatic word reading interferes with the processing of ink color in conditions where the word and ink color are dissimilar. Our previous research has already revealed concurrent and prospective associations between cooperative behaviors among children and Stroop interference, with children demonstrating lower interference scores behaving in a more cooperative manner compared with children with higher interference scores (Ciairano, Bonino, & Miceli, 2006;Ciairano, Visu-Petra, & Settanni, 2007). That is, children who are better able to inhibit their own automatic response to a stimulus are also more likely to behave in a cooperative manner.…”

Perfil multicontextual de los niños con Trastorno por Deficit de Atención e Hiperactividad en sus Competencias Sociales

“…Del mismo modo, puede reducir la agresividad en los niños con TDAH, mejorando sus competencias sociales (Ciairano et al, 2007). También, se ha mostrado en poblaciones clínicas que existe una correlación positiva de las FE con los déficits en las habilidades sociales (Stichter, et al, 2016 En definitiva, es necesario tener una mejor comprensión de que FE y síntomas centrales del trastorno interfieren en el deterioro social de los niños con TDAH, para mejorar y focalizar el contenido de las intervenciones sociales que se emplean en los niños con TDAH.…”

“…Del mismo modo, puede reducir la agresividad en los niños con TDAH, mejorando sus competencias sociales (Ciairano et al, 2007). También, se ha mostrado en poblaciones clínicas que existe una correlación positiva de las FE con los déficits en las habilidades sociales (Stichter, et al, 2016).…”