Do Children’s Executive Functions Underlie the Effects of Autonomy-Supportive Parenting on Children’s Achievement?

• In Event: Parental Support of Engagement and Achievement: Mediating, Interactive, and Longitudinal Associations

Abstract

When parents support children’s autonomy (e.g., by allowing them to take initiative), children’s achievement benefits (for a review, see Pomerantz et al., 2012). However, the underlying mechanisms have received limited attention. This research examined whether children’s executive functions (e.g., inhibition), a form of engagement that predicts children’s achievement (e.g., Blair & Razza, 2007), underlie the effect of parents’ autonomy support on children’s achievement. Autonomy-supportive parenting may foster children’s internal motivation to engage in activities (e.g., waiting one’s turn) requiring executive functions, thereby facilitating the use of executive functions.

The current research focused on the role of parents’ autonomy support in the development of children’s executive functions during the preschool years, as this is a key time of development for such engagement (e.g., Garon et al., 2008). The implications of autonomy-supportive parenting, via children’s executive functions, for achievement at two important periods of children’s lives – elementary and high school – were investigated. We also went beyond prior research by evaluating whether autonomy-supportive parenting has a unique effect over other forms of parenting (i.e., cognitive stimulation and warmth).

Data from 1,306 mother-child dyads (81% European American) in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were analyzed. Parenting was coded from videotapes of a semi-structured play task at 6, 15, 24, and 36 months. Autonomy support reflected how much mothers encouraged children to actively participate and follow their own pace versus how intrusive mothers were. Warmth (i.e., affection and positive regard for the child) and cognitive stimulation (i.e., attempts to teach or engage the child in age-appropriate activities thought to enhance development) were also coded.

Children’s executive functions were assessed at 54 months with three measures which were combined: (1) The Day/Night Stroop task measured children’s ability to inhibit a prepotent response; (2) children’s delay of gratification was assessed with Mischel’s paradigm (i.e., children are told that if they wait before eating a snack of their choice, they will get a larger serving); (3) the continuous performance task assessed children’s sustained attention and inhibition. Achievement was assessed during elementary and high school using math and reading subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson Pyscho-Educational Battery.

Structural Equation Models in which all three forms of parenting simultaneously predicted children’s executive functions yielded an effect of autonomy-supportive parenting (β =.29, p < .05) above and beyond the other types of parenting and demographic covariates (e.g., mothers’ education). Autonomy-supportive parenting was also a unique predictor of achievement in elementary (β = .27, p < .01) and high (β = .40, p < .001) school. Mediation models indicated that there was an indirect effect of parents’ autonomy support on children’s achievement through executive functions (Sobel test zs > 2.93, ps < .01). Executive functions accounted for 74% and 34% of the effect of autonomy-supportive parenting on children’s elementary and high school achievement, respectively.

Findings support the idea that autonomy-supportive parenting enhances children’s achievement over time by building their executive functions during the preschool years. The effects of such parenting are independent of other forms of parenting.

Authors

• Samantha Worzalla Bindman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Eva M. Pomerantz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign