Nationally Representative Evidence That Elementary School Executive Function Mediates Between Father Absence and Mathematical Achievement

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Memory and Executive Functioning Across Academic Subjects (Table 13)

Abstract

Executive function skills, critical in supporting an individual's goal-directed behavior, have been strongly linked with a student's knowledge acquisition. Using the national representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (N = 8,554), this study examined three subdomains of executive functioning as mediators of the established relation between father absence and mathematical achievement in fifth grade. The findings of this study, which show that working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control significantly mediate the relation between father absence and mathematical achievement, underscore the crucial role of executive function skills in educational outcomes. These findings contribute to the literature on father absence and mathematical achievement by identifying mechanisms for interventions to support mathematical learning.

Authors

• Sydney Baker, University of Houston

• Allison Master, University of Houston

• Weihua Fan, University of Houston