Executive Function, Self-Regulation, Parental Knowledge of Child Development and Kindergarten Mathematics Knowledge and Skills

• In Event: 2-005 - A Focus on Executive Function

Abstract

Children’s mathematics achievement trajectories remain relatively static after first grade (Nores & Barnett, 2014; Reardon & Portilla, 2016), if the goal of education to help children improve, it is necessary to understand and assimilate research on malleable factors such as executive function, self-regulation, and parental knowledge of child that influence the acquisition of mathematics knowledge prior to first grade. This study examined how empirically and theoretically, the interrelations among meaningful family environment predictors and child self-regulation and executive function contribute to the development of mathematics knowledge and skills in kindergarten. This question was examined using structural equation modeling with longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 15,000 kindergarten students using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011). Mathematics knowledge and skills was assessed during spring of kindergarten using a standardized mathematics assessment that measured children’s conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and problem solving skills (Tourangeau et al., 2012). Predictors of mathematics outcome included: (a) kindergarten teachers’ response to five scales from the adapted Social Skills Rating System (NCS Pearson, 1990), (b) child executive function (working memory and cognitive flexibility) which was assessed individually by trained personnel using the Dimensional Change Card Sort (Zelazo, 2006) and the Numbers Reversed subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (Mather & Woodcock, 2001), respectively, (c) family sociodemographic stability variables (socioeconomic status, absence of money problems, mother’s marital status, and grandparents closeness to the child), (d) parental knowledge of child development (parent rating of child’s comparative skills in learning, independence, paying attention, and coordination), and child self-regulation (parent response to five scales adapted from the Social Skills Rating System (NCS Pearson, 1990)), and (e) family activities which captured the weekly frequency of doing ten different activities with the child. Descriptive results are presented in Table 1. Estimated latent factors for family stability, parental knowledge, family activities, self-regulation, and executive function accounted for 72% of the variance in outcome (see Figure 1a). Executive function, self-regulation and parental knowledge were the strongest predictors of mathematics outcome after controlling for race/ethnicity. Family stability and family activities had a direct effect on parental knowledge, executive function, and self-regulation. Parental knowledge had a direct effect on executive function and self-regulation. Findings from this study suggest that increasing the accuracy of parental knowledge of child development, self-regulation, and executive function at home is a promising strategy to improve children’s mathematics knowledge and achievement trajectories.

Author

• Aubrey Wang, Saint Joseph's University
  Presenting Author