Executive Functioning Mediates the Association between Cumulative Risk and Learning in Ghanaian Schoolchildren

• In Event: Factors affecting child development and executive functioning in three low income counties

Abstract

Executive function (EF) is a set of cognitive skills that is central to child learning across contexts and cultures (Author citations redacted). EF allows children to regulate emotions and behaviors, follow directions, and juggle tasks. It is positively associated with learning, both directly and by supporting children in navigating the classroom environment (e.g., Blair et al., 2015).
Exposure to adversity can hinder the development of children’s EF (Blair & Raver, 2012). Children experience adversity at different rates around the world, yet most research on EF comes from a small set of high-income countries. Cumulative risk (CR) models dichotomize risk factors and sum them into an index. This approach may be applicable in sub-Saharan Africa given the relatively high rates of adversity, and exposure to multiple risks that, when combined, may undermine development (Black et al., 2017).
The current study tests the mediating role of EF in the association between CR and learning during middle childhood in Ghana, a lower-middle-income country in West Africa. The sample of children (N=371, M(age)=9.3 years, 49% female) comes from Ghana’s Greater Accra region and was part of larger longitudinal study.
Risks considered in this study assessed if the child has: (i) worked for pay; (ii) lived in unsafe area; (iii) experienced hunger, and (iv) lived in an aggressive home (D’Sa, 2019). EF was measured via Assessment of Motivation, Effort, and Self-regulation (AMES) tablet-based direct assessment and the EF composite variable is comprised of two tasks: Hearts and Flowers and Working Memory (Author citation redacted). Literacy and numeracy skills were measured using the Early Grade Reading (Dubeck & Grove, 2015) and Early Grade Math Assessments (Platas et al., 2014).
EF was positively correlated with both literacy and numeracy. CR was negatively correlated with EF, literacy, and numeracy (see Table 1). Path analysis was used to test the associations between CR, EF, and learning outcomes. All models included individual- and-school-level covariates, as well as caregiver education as a proxy for socioeconomic status. CR was negatively associated with EF, and EF was positively associated with both literacy and numeracy skills (see Figure 1). No statistically significant direct effects were found for CR on learning. However, indirect effects revealed that EF partially explained the relations between CR and learning (β = −.05, p < 0.05 for literacy and β = −.07, p < 0.01 for numeracy) with EF accounting for 42.4% of the association between CR and literacy and 58.4% for numeracy.
The results contribute to a small evidence-base explaining how adversity negatively affects children’s learning through reduced EF skills. The study also expands how adversity has been conceptualized and operationalized in Ghana through the application of a CR model. Prior studies examining EF as a mediator between adversity and academic functioning has yet to show a clear link, with some research finding indirect effects for both reading and math (e.g., Fitzpatrick et al., 2014), and others for math only (e.g., Lawson & Farah, 2017). Our finding suggests that interventions targeting EF could help reduce educational disparities in LMICs.

Authors

• Noelle Suntheimer, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Michael J. Sulik, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sharon Wolf, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author