The Association between Parenting Behavior and Executive Functioning in Children and Young Adolescents

Abstract

Executive functioning (EF) is associated with various aspects of school achievement and cognitive development in children and adolescents. There has been substantial research investigating associations between EF and other factors in young children, such as support processes and parenting, but less research has been conducted about external factors relating to EF in older children and adolescents. Therefore, the present study investigates one possible factor that could correlate with EF in school-age children and adolescents: parenting behavior. The cross-sectional study design gathered data from 169 children in primary schools, middle-schools, and Gymnasien, and their corresponding parents. All children underwent a standardized task to measure EF, the computer-based Erikson Flanker task, which evaluates EF as a function of error rates and response time. A self-report questionnaire was used to assess parenting behavior. Multilevel analysis was implemented to test the effects of parenting behavior on EF in school-age children. The results show significant associations between various parenting behaviors and children's EF: High scores on parental involvement or parental responsibility are associated with low error rates on the Erikson Flanker task, whereas high parental scores on inconsistent discipline are associated with high error rates. These correlations between parenting behavior and EF remained significant despite controlling for child age, maternal education, family income, and baseline performance (i.e., congruent trials on the Erikson Flanker task). No associations were found between parental behavior and reaction time on the Erikson Flanker task. These results indicate the important association between parenting behaviors and EF skills in school-age children, and foster the necessity to inform parents about ways in which they can optimally support their children's cognitive development.

Mechanisms and Pedagogical Counterforces of Young People’s Social Exclusion: Some Remarks on the Requisites of Social Sustainability

“…It has been noticed that the cost-benefit relationship of family political investments is unusually high among poor families. Positive parenting and family life have been shown to be significant protective factors against the risk behavior of children and young people (see [116][117][118][119][120][121]). It is wise to organize social-political support for families, thus strengthening their capability for supporting the sound social and emotional development of young people.…”

Improvement of Planning Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder After an Educational Intervention: A Study From a Mixed Methods Approach

“…Another aspect that has also shown influence on the development of executive functions in children is social interaction (Carlson, 2009;Lewis and Carpendale, 2009;Amadó et al, 2016;Sosic-Vasic et al, 2017). Modeling, anticipation, and scaffolding are the most common social interaction strategies (Bibok et al, 2009;Hughes and Ensor, 2009;Devine et al, 2016).…”

Parental Warmth and Hostility and Child Executive Function Problems: A Longitudinal Study of Chinese Families

“…Numerous cross-sectional studies have showed that parental warmth and hostility are associated positively and negatively with child executive function skills, respectively ( Hughes and Ensor, 2009 ; Schroeder and Kelley, 2010 ; Hopkins et al, 2013 ; Linebarger et al, 2014 ; Sosic-Vasic et al, 2017 ). Longitudinal work is rarer, but several studies showed that maternal warmth, measured in infancy and toddlerhood, was positively linked to child executive function skills ( Matte-Gagné et al, 2015 ; Meuwissen and Englund, 2016 ) and negatively linked to child executive function problems, measured in early childhood ( Kraybill and Bell, 2013 ).…”