Social Roots of Executive Function Development: The Parent-Child Interaction

• In Event: Exploring Parent-Child Relationships in Latinx Families: Perspectives From Infancy to Adolescence

Abstract

Introduction: Dyadic reciprocity, or give-and-take back-and-forth exchanges, within the parent-child interaction is an exceptionally important component of the caregiving environment, with long term effects for child socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes (e.g., Feldman, 2007). Executive function (EF), in particular, is a universal cognitive process that emerges early and continues to mature as individuals progress throughout subsequent developmental stages. Surges in EF development during early childhood may be supported by engagement in reciprocal social relationships (e.g., turn-taking). Within a sample of Mexican American children, this study utilizes a dual latent change score framework (McArdle & Hamagami, 2001) to examine change in dyadic reciprocity from child age 24 weeks through 3 years as a function of constant (e.g., slope) and proportional effects (e.g., the effect of prior level on later change). Relations between latent change and parent-reported day-to-day EF in middle childhood are explored. Latent change in dyadic reciprocity is expected to be negatively related to parent report of problems related to executive functioning.

Sample: Participants include 322 Mexican American mothers and their children (54% female). Women were recruited through clinics in the Phoenix metro area during routine prenatal care visits. At the time of recruitment, women were, on average, 28 years old (range 18 – 42), 30% were married, 82% preferred Spanish as their primary language, and 83% were unemployed.

Methods: Dyadic reciprocity was assessed at the 24-week, 1-, 1.5-, 2-, and 3-year time points during 5-minute structured teaching tasks via the Coding Interactive Behaviors system (CIB; Feldman, 1998), a global coding system designed to capture the quality of mother and child behavior and emotions across a number of critical dimensions. Between child age 7.5 and 9 years, mothers completed the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning, 2nd Ed. (BRIEF-2; Gioia et al., 2015) over the phone. A univariate dual latent change score model was specified in Mplus v8.4 (see Figure 1), with a phantom variable used at 2.5 years to keep the 6-month time lag constant.

Preliminary Results: Preliminary results are from a partial dataset (N = 302). Once coding of observational data has been completed, multiple imputation will be used to account for all missing data and competing models will be explored (e.g., no change, linear change, proportional change). With each 6-month increment, dyadic reciprocity was found to increase by an average of 3.734 units (SE = .042, p < .001; e.g., constant change parameter). A negative proportional change parameter indicated a deceleration in dyadic reciprocity growth across the timepoints assessed. The latent true score at 3 years marginally negatively predicted the Global Executive Composite (T score) from the BRIEF-2,  = -.231, SE = .120, p = .055, such that greater dyadic reciprocity was associated with lower problem ratings. Relations between latent change and individual indices on the BRIEF-2 will be examined.

Implications: Dynamic changes in dyadic reciprocity during infancy and early childhood may support surges in neurocognitive abilities and lay the groundwork for the maturation of higher-order EF skills in middle childhood.
 

Authors

• Laura K. Winstone-Weide, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Linda J. Luecken, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author