Parental Behaviours Predicting Early Childhood Executive Functions: a Meta-Analysis

Valcan, Debora; Davis, Helen; Pino-Pasternak, Deborah

doi:10.1007/s10648-017-9411-9

Cited by 178 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 136 publications

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“…A developmental sequence involving EF and prosocial behavior in the prediction of school readiness, albeit theoretically and empirically sensible, is probably incomplete, as EF is unlikely to represent the true beginning of any developmental process. Indeed, it is now clear that child EF is under biological and social influences, including the emotional quality of parentchild interactions (Valcan et al, 2017). In this study, we focused specifically on mother-child attachment security due to both theoretical and empirical reasons.…”

Section: Stepping Back Earlier In Development: Parent-child Attachmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Early Relationships to Preacademic Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Developmental Cascade to School Readiness

2018

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This study aimed to test a four‐wave sequential mediation model linking mother–child attachment to children's school readiness through child executive functioning (EF) and prosociality in toddlerhood and the preschool years. Mother–child attachment security was assessed when children (N = 255) were aged 15 months and 2 years, child EF at age 2, prosocial behavior at age 4, and finally cognitive school readiness in kindergarten (age 6). The results revealed three indirect pathways linking attachment to school readiness: one through EF only, one through prosocial behavior only, and a last pathway involving both EF and prosocial behavior serially. These findings suggest that secure attachment may equip children with both cognitive and social skills that are instrumental to their preparedness for school.

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Section: Stepping Back Earlier In Development: Parent-child Attachmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Early Relationships to Preacademic Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Developmental Cascade to School Readiness

2018

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“…This work has demonstrated that maternal behavior in these contexts predicts child performance on tasks measuring EF abilities like IC (e.g., Blair et al, ; Conway & Stifter, ; Cuevas et al, ; Leerkes, Blankson, O'Brien, Calkins, & Marcovitch, ; Rochette & Bernier, ; Rogoff, ; Zeytinoglu et al, ). In particular, maternal use of emotional support, defined as encouraging autonomy, providing positivity, encouragement, and praise when needed, and helping the child to manage frustration and negativity, has been shown to uniquely relate to these, even when other aspects of parenting behavior like cognitive support and general emotional responsiveness were also measured (Leerkes et al, ; Valcan et al, ; Zeytinoglu, Calkins, & Leerkes, ).…”

Section: Importance Of Maternal Emotional Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the development of IC across the preschool period is clearly supported by normative brain development, recent theoretical and empirical work has suggested that developing EF skills are also influenced by the child's caregiving environment (Bernier et al, 2010;Towe-Goodman et al, 2014;Valcan et al, 2017;Zeytinoglu, Calkins, Swingler, & Leerkes, 2017). Given that the development of IC depends heavily on underlying neural development also occurring in the preschool period, one way in which the environment may impact the development of IC abilities is through an influence on neural processes which support them.…”

Section: Influen Ce S Of C Areg Iving B Ehavior On Neur Al De Velopmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A rich literature has established that IC processes improve rapidly in the preschool and early school‐aged years (e.g., Bunge, Dudukovic, Thomason, Vaidya, & Gabrieli, ; Carver, Livesey, & Charles, ; Casey, Trainor, Orendi, et al, ; Davidson, Amso, Anderson, & Diamond, ; Diamond, ; Durston et al, ; Gerstadt, Hong, & Diamond, ; Jones, Rothbart, & Posner, ) and that this depends heavily on coincident brain development occurring in the frontal cortex (e.g., Casey, Castellanos et al, Casey, Castellanos, Giedd, et al, ; Casey, Trainor, Orendi et al, Casey, Trainor, Orendi, et al, ; Diamond, ; Durston et al, ). Recent work has provided evidence that the child's social environment, and particularly close relationships like that of the mother–child relationship, may also have an important influence on the development of neurocognitive functions like IC and other dimensions of EF in early childhood (e.g., Bernier, Beauchamp, Carlson, & Lalonde, ; Bernier et al, ; Matte‐Gagné, Bernier, & Lalonde, ; Rhoades, Greenberg, Lanza, & Blair, ; Valcan, Davis, & Pino‐Pasternak, ). One possibility is that maternal behavior may have a direct influence on neural mechanisms that support the development of IC in early childhood, and that this results in individual differences in behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maternal behavior predicts neural underpinnings of inhibitory control in preschoolers

Swingler

Isbell

Zeytinoglu

et al. 2018

Developmental Psychobiology

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Separate lines of research have revealed that the rapid development of inhibitory control in the preschool period is closely tied to normative brain development and influenced by early mother-child interactions. One potential theory is that maternal behavior in the context of early interactions influences the neural underpinnings of inhibitory control in development, with implications for child behavior. The purpose of this paper was to examine whether maternal emotional support, measured during a mother-child problem-solving game, predicted child neural responses (frontal-central N2 event-related potential) and behavioral performance (discrimination index, d') in a go/no-go task of inhibitory control in a large, diverse sample of mother-child dyads (N = 276) observed in children's last year of preschool (mean age = 56 months). Results of a structural equation model revealed significant direct effects from maternal emotional support to child right hemisphere frontal-central N2 responses to no-go (inhibitory control) trials; greater observed emotional support predicted larger N2 responses. Larger right hemisphere N2 responses to no-go trials were also associated with better overall observed task performance (d'). A test of indirect effects from maternal emotional support to child observed performance via right hemisphere N2 responses was significant, suggesting that underlying neurophysiology is one mechanism through which maternal emotional support is associated with a child's rapidly developing inhibitory control behavior in the preschool period. This work joins a growing literature demonstrating that caregiver behavior within a "normative" range is an important environmental factor contributing to the development of neural processes supporting child functioning.

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“…Caregivers' characteristics and attitudes have been suggested to moderate both executive function (e.g., Schroeder and Kelley, 2010;Valcan et al, 2018;Hughes and Devine, 2019) and aggression (e.g., Sulik et al, 2015;Jung et al, 2018) as well as the relationship quality with their children (e.g., Pai and Ha, 2012). These findings suggested that positive caregivers' factors (e.g., parental warmth and attitudes to the child) protected children and adolescents from executive function deficits and aggressive problems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Caregivers’ Grit Moderates the Relationship Between Children’s Executive Function and Aggression

et al. 2020

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Objective: Previous studies have shown that the impairment of executive function is positively related to aggression in children and adolescents. What is worth investigating is the moderator of such a relationship so that aggressive behavior can be reduced effectively in those who have executive function problems. The present study examined the association between executive function and two major subtypes of aggression (proactive and reactive aggression) and whether their caregivers' grit (perseverance) moderated such relationship.Method: Executive function and reactive and proactive aggression were assessed in 254 children and adolescents aged 8-19 years old, and their caregivers' grit was measured.Results: Results show that caregivers' grit plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between children's executive function and proactive aggression after controlling for the covariates including the children's age, gender, and family income. Specifically, children's executive function became more negatively associated with proactive aggression when caregivers' grit was high while the association was positive when it was low. On the other hand, the association between children's executive function and reactive aggression did not vary across different levels of caregivers' grit.Conclusion: These findings suggest that proactive aggression may be reduced in those who have better executive function by enhancing their caregivers' grit, which inform the design of interventions in adjunct with the current approach (e.g., executive function training) to reduce aggression in children and adolescents in the community.

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Parental Behaviours Predicting Early Childhood Executive Functions: a Meta-Analysis

Cited by 178 publications

References 136 publications

From Early Relationships to Preacademic Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Developmental Cascade to School Readiness

From Early Relationships to Preacademic Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Developmental Cascade to School Readiness

Maternal behavior predicts neural underpinnings of inhibitory control in preschoolers

Caregivers’ Grit Moderates the Relationship Between Children’s Executive Function and Aggression

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