Poster #4 - Modeling the Associations Between Socioeconomic Risk Factors, Executive Function Components, and Literacy Among Children in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Background: Executive Functions (EF) are a set of cognitive mechanisms, including inhibition, cognitive flexibility (CF) and working memory (WM) that support children’s reading development. Both EF and reading development are influenced by family socioeconomic status (SES) and evidence from a growing number of studies suggests that EFs mediate the effects of SES on reading (Albert et al., 2020; Corso et al., 2016; Crook & Evans, 2014). However, little is known about the role of individual EF components in mediating the SES-reading achievement gap. Furthermore, a majority of current findings are focused on high-income countries and little is known about the relationship between these variables in low and middle income countries (LMICs), such as Côte d’Ivoire, where unique developmental contexts may make children especially vulnerable to socioeconomic disadvantages. This includes SES risk factors such as lack of access to household resources, lower maternal literacy rates, and increased prevalence of children living away from their parents in foster care. Therefore, the current study examines the relationship between individual EF components, SES risks, and reading among children in rural Côte d’Ivoire by asking: (1) Do individual EF components (inhibition, CF, and WM) equally support reading? (2) Do all three EF components mediate the relationship between SES and reading?

Methods: The sample consists of 5th grade children between ages 9-11 (N=369). Risk scores from three variables (household assets, maternal literacy, and foster care) were added to create cumulative SES risk scores for each child. EF was measured using the Hearts and Flowers and Dot Matrix Task scores from the Assessment of Motivation Effort, and Self-Regulation (AMES; Obradovic, 2019). Reading ability was measured using the letter, word, and non-word reading subtasks from the French language Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA; RTI International, 2011). Two separate structural equation models were constructed to test the research questions: Model 1 included cumulative SES risk scores while Model 2 was conducted as a secondary analysis to evaluate how individual SES risks relate to EF.

Results: Model 1 revealed that higher SES risk was associated with poorer WM (β= -0.118, p= 0.047), which was related to lower reading scores (β=0.159, p=0.008). There was no significant direct association of cumulative SES risk or the other EF components (inhibition and CF) with reading. Although no significant mediation effect was observed for WM between cumulative SES risk and reading, WM fully mediated the negative effects of foster care on reading scores (β=-0.065, p=0.033).

Conclusion: These results suggest that individual EF components differentially contribute to reading, with WM being the most important domain within EF in predicting reading ability and mediating SES-related reading gaps, especially in relation to foster care practices. This highlights how unique socioeconomic contexts within LMICs influence the development of EF and reading and reinforces the importance of assessing EF components individually. Therefore, it is important to continue examining how underlying cognitive pathways influence the SES-reading achievement gap in order to support childhood reading development among children in low SES contexts.

Authors

• Faryal Khan, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Joelle Hannon, University of Delaware

• Amy Ogan

• Michael J. Sulik, Stanford University

• Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University

• Kaja K Jasinska, University of Toronto