1-010 - Direct and indirect effects of proximal contextual factors on the development of children’s executive function and language skills

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

According to the bioecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), the development of young children’s executive function (EF) and language skills is embedded in proximal contexts, such as the home and school environment, that may facilitate or constrain opportunities for development. Most research, however, has examined direct relationships between contextual factors and child outcomes. Raver et al. (2011) argue that investigating indirect pathways might deepen researchers’ understanding of the underlying mechanisms in children’s skill development. The symposium aims to add important information on direct and indirect pathways between developmental and contextual processes. Three papers from different countries (Germany, Portugal, USA) investigated whether home or classroom characteristics function as proximal mediating processes in the development of children’s EF and language skills. The first paper reports findings from a large longitudinal study investigating the role of parental language use for EF among children from low-income and non-urban settings. The second and third paper tested the effects of proximal classroom processes on the development of EF and language skills. Both papers used a cross-lagged design to examine reciprocal associations between EF and language skills. The second paper examined teacher-child closeness and autonomy support as possible mediators, while the third paper investigated effects of teachers’ emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support on the reciprocal associations between EF and language skills.

Discussion of communalities and differences of these studies, and their implications for optimizing children’s development, will by a leading expert in the study of children’s school readiness skills.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi

Discussant

• Megan McClelland, Oregon State University

Individual Presentations

• Caregiver vocabulary and parenting sensitivity, but not language complexity, mediate the relation between early SES and child EF - Presenting Author: M. Paula Daneri, New York University; Laura Kuhn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Clancy B. Blair, New York University; Lynne Vernon-Feagans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Michael Willoughby, RTI International; William Roger Mills-Koonce, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Bidirectional associations between vocabulary and executive function: The mediating role of closeness and autonomy support - Presenting Author: Joana Cadima, University of Porto; Tiago Ferreira, University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences; Teresa Leal, University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences; Karine Verschueren, University of Leuven (KU Leuven)

• Children’s executive function and language skills: Testing direct and indirect effects of teacher-child interaction quality - Pauline Slot, Utrecht University; Presenting Author: Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi