Poster #96 - Examining the Relation between Parents’ Goals and Values and Children’s Executive Function

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Introduction
Substantial research posits that certain parenting behaviors (e.g., sensitivity, responsivity, autonomy support) are associated with children’s executive function (EF) (for review, Fay-Stammbach, Hawes & Meredith, 2014). Additional work, however, demonstrates that the relations among these behaviors and children’s EF may vary across cultures (Lewis et al., 2009). Such differences in EF development may stem from parents’ endorsement of specific goals and values for their children (e.g., collectivism goals, such as interdependence or family cohesion or individualism goals, such as independence and autonomy; Kohn, 1969; Luster et al., 1989; Suizzo, 2007). Taking a relational developmental systems perspective (McClelland et al., 2015), such values may subsequently shape children’s development of self-regulation skills as parents and children interact in specific contexts (for review, see Jaramillo, Rendon, Munoz, Weis, & Trommsdorff, 2017). Despite this theoretical grounding and hypothesized relations between parents’ goals and values and children’s EF, no studies to date have investigated these associations.

Research Aims
In the current study, we investigate whether five dimensions of parents’ goals and values for their children’s development (i.e., tradition and conformity, power/authority, relatedness, agency and self-direction, and benevolence and prosociality; Goals and Values Questionnaire [GVAQ]; Suizzo, 2007) are associated with children’s EF, after controlling for demographic variables including parents’ education, ethnicity, and child’s age.

Methods and Results
Data were collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk via the Qualtrics survey platform. All participants (N = 1,122) were parents of a preschool-age child (M age = 51.37 months, SD = 9.91). Parents completed a broader survey battery that included 45 items addressing how important they feel it is for their child to reach specific goals or have specific values on a Likert-type scale (Goals and Values Questionnaire [GVAQ]; Suizzo, 2007). Scores were calculated for each dimension of the GVAQ (α = .77 - .91). Parents reported on their children’s EF using two measures – the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006) and the Ratings of Everyday Executive Functioning (REEF; Nilsen, Huyder, McAuley, & Liebermann, 2017).
A composite score of children’s EF was created by standardizing and aggregating children’s score on the CBQ and the REEF. Correlations among key demographics, independent and dependent variables are included in Table 1. A multivariate linear regression was used to determine if specific dimensions of parents’ goals and values for their children’s development were significantly associated with children’s EF after controlling for parents’ ethnicity, education, and child’s age. Only parents’ endorsement of agency and self-direction was significantly positively related to children’s EF (β = .27, p < .001; R2 = .14, F[14, 1093] = 12.34, p < .001).

Conclusions
The current work demonstrates that parents’ goals and values – specifically their endorsement of agency and self-direction – may be positively associated with children’s EF. Such findings align with prior work demonstrating a positive association between autonomy supportive behaviors and children’s EF (Hammond, Müller, Carpendale, Bibok & Liebermann-Finestone, 2012; Hughes & Ensor, 2009). Future research should investigate possible mechanisms among parents’ goals and values for their children, their parenting behaviors, and their children’s EF.

Authors

• Ellen Litkowski, Purdue University
  Presenting Author

• Sara Schmitt, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author