Gains in Executive Functions Support Sustained Intervention Effects in a Parent-Focused School Readiness Intervention

• In Event: 1-013 - Family Engagement in Early Childhood: New Findings Across Developmental Periods, Intervention Types, and Ecological Settings

Integrative Statement

School readiness at kindergarten entry supports children’s subsequent academic performance and is predictive of lifelong success across multiple domains of functioning (Duncan et al., 2007). Children growing up in poverty often show reduced school readiness, including deficits in both emergent academic skills and executive functions (EF, Raver, 2004). Theorists have speculated that addressing the early deficits in EF may be critical to support the sustained benefits of preschool intervention and promote later school success (Blair & Raver, 2014).

Conceptually, poverty constrains and interferes with family processes that promote parents’ capacity to provide children with the kinds of social-emotional support and cognitive stimulation that promote EF growth. An intervention that removes or reduces those constraints could have a lasting influence on EF growth, by empowering parents to more effectively support their children’s development (Lengua, Honorado, & Bush, 2007).

The REDI (Research-based Developmentally Informed) Parent program (REDI-P) was designed to strengthen children’s social-emotional and academic school readiness and emphasized parenting strategies linked with EF growth. The 16-session program extended from Head Start over the transition into kindergarten. Parents were provided with learning materials to use at home and they were coached in strategies to support child EF development (e.g. interactive reading, emotion coaching, problem-solving dialogue).

This study examined the degree to which REDI-P promoted growth in children’s EF between kindergarten and 3rd grade. The study also tested the hypothesis that gains in EF would mediate sustained intervention effects on later academic and social-emotional outcomes.

Participants were 200 pre-kindergarten children attending Head Start and their caregivers, randomized to receive REDI-P home visits or to receive alternative learning materials in the mail. Assessments were conducted at baseline (Head Start), kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade and consisted of structured in-home interviews with parents, direct assessments of children, and teacher ratings. Two domains of executive function were measured: Working Memory and Inhibition. Third grade outcomes were composite measures of children’s academic performance and social-emotional skills. Analyses controlled for family socioeconomic status, as well as children’s age, sex, and racial or ethnic background.

In the first step of analyses, post-intervention growth in children’s Working Memory and Inhibition was modeled using latent growth curves. Time was centered at 3rd grade, enabling the intercept to represent the end point of children’s growth trajectories. Next, post-intervention growth trajectories and intercepts were regressed on intervention status. Results showed that the REDI-P intervention demonstrated significant post-intervention effects on growth in children’s Working Memory and Inhibitory Control between kindergarten and 3rd grade. In addition, tests of indirect effects found significant mediation between REDI-P and children’s Academic Skills via Working Memory and between REDI-P and children’s Social Skills via Inhibitory Control.

These results add evidence to the crucial function that neurobiological development serves in children’s school success and indicate the potential for early childhood intervention to enhance this development. They also highlight the role that parent involvement may play in helping to promote long-term growth in children’s academic performance and social adjustment, as well as the underlying neurobiological capacities that support these competencies.

Authors

• John Loughlin-Presnal, The Pennsylvania State University
  Presenting Author

• Karen Bierman, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Janet Welsh, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Robert Nix, University of Wisconsin
  Non-Presenting Author