The role of family factors and executive function in low-income Latino preschoolers’ academic outcomes

• In Event: 3-214 - Family Contributions to the Developmental Outcomes of Latino, Low-Income Children in Early Care and Education Settings

Integrative Statement

Background/Purpose:
Research has found that family factors, such as parental education and language, to be particularly important in children’s academic outcomes, particularly cognitive development (Reardon, 2011). Additionally, preschoolers’ executive function skills have been correlated to both early literacy and math scores (Ursache, Blair & Raver, 2012; Jacob & Parkinson, 2015). While several studies have documented the relation between low income children’s executive function and academic achievement, few have investigated Latino children separately and considered the role of family factors (White & Greenfield, 2017). Understanding these associations can help extend knowledge on how to address Latino preschoolers’ poor academic outcomes. This descriptive study examined whether Latino preschoolers’ executive function predicts their pre-literacy, and pre-numeracy skills and the potential moderating role of family factors, such as bilingualism and parental education, that affect this relationship.

Methods:
Participants are a subset of children from a larger study examining the impact of Maryland’s pre-kindergarten expansion efforts on students’ school readiness. Data were collected from 105 Latino preschool children attending federally funded Pre-K in Baltimore City (Mage=55.56 months; SD = 3.86). Prior to the beginning of Pre-K, 76.9% of the children spent the majority of time at home with their primary caregiver, who predominantly spoke Spanish at home (94.4%) and 48.6% had less than high school education. Children were assessed in the fall of their preschool year. Executive function was measured in the child’s preferred language using the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS, Ponitz et al., 2009). Early literacy and math ability was assessed in English with four subtests of the Woodcock Johnson IV (WJ4, Schrank et al., 2014). Letter-Word Identification, Passage Comprehension, and Word Attack subtests were used to measure early literacy and reading skills and the Applied Problems subtest measured children’s early numeracy and math ability.

Results:
A series of regression analyses revealed that children’s executive function significantly predicted early literacy and math scores in two subtests of the WJ4, controlling for child’s gender and classroom. Children’s scores in the HTKS significantly predicted their math skills in the Applied Problems subtest (F(3,99)= 3.996, p< .01) and early literacy skills in the Word Attack subtest (F(3,100)= 4.865, p< .01). Children’s executive function did not predict children’s scores in Word Identification (F(3,100)= 2.666, p=.052) or Passage Comprehension subtests (F(3,100)= 0.31, p=0.82). Bilingualism and parental education were examined as potential moderators of the relation between executive function and children’s academic achievement. Neither bilingualism nor education were significant moderators of this relationship. Parental education, however, was a marginally significant moderator of the relation between children’s executive function and Word Identification, (F(1, 67)= 3.07, p=.06, R2 = 0.04).

Conclusions/Implications:
Consistent with prior research (Fitzpatrick et al., 2014), children’s executive function significantly predicted children’s academic skills, specifically early math abilities and emergent phonological literacy skills. Parental education marginally moderated the relation between executive function and word identification. Understanding the relation between executive function and early literacy and math aptitudes in low-income Latino children can help to identify strategies to address these children’s academic needs during their early school years.

Authors

• Laura Jimenez Parra, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Brenda Jones-Harden, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bonnie Brett, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author