Poster #9 - Mechanisms Linking Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: Cognitive Stimulation, Verbal Ability, and Executive Function

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with academic achievement (Finn et al., 2016). However, the mechanisms underlying these disparities remain poorly understood. Executive functions (EF) have been shown to play an essential role in academic performance (Best, Miller, & Naglieri, 2011). It has been proposed that language ability may be a mechanism explaining the link between early environmental experiences and EF as language presents the opportunity for children to “practice” EF (identifying, differentiating, and classifying complex stimuli) as it develops (Daneri, 2018). We sought to identify aspects of the early home environment related to SES that predict verbal ability and EF, which in turn predict academic achievement. We hypothesized that cognitive stimulation would mediate the association between SES and verbal ability in early childhood. Furthermore, we predicted that the relation between cognitive stimulation and EF would be mediated by children’s verbal ability and that verbal ability would predict later academic achievement through EF.
Using a longitudinal design, we conducted home visits in a sample of 101 children between 60-75 months old. SES was measured at baseline using the income-to-needs ratio and the highest level of parental education attained. Cognitive stimulation in the early home environment was measured using the HOME Inventory. Child verbal ability was measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. EF was measured by children’s performance on three tasks that measured working memory (WM), inhibitory control (IC), and cognitive flexibility (CF). Academic achievement was assessed 12 to 27 months later using reading, spelling, and math tasks from the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement IV.
We first examined whether cognitive stimulation mediated the link between SES and verbal ability. Both measures of SES were positively associated with both cognitive stimulation in the home environment (βs > 0.46, ps < 0.001) and children’s verbal ability (βs > 0.36, ps < 0.001). Cognitive stimulation, in turn, predicted verbal ability (β= 0.4, p < 0.001). We found a significant indirect effect of SES on verbal ability through cognitive stimulation, accounting for 61% of the association between SES and child verbal ability.
Second, we examined whether verbal ability explained the link between cognitive stimulation and EF. Both cognitive stimulation and verbal ability predicted performance on all three EF tasks (βs > 0.32, ps < 0.01). Furthermore, cognitive stimulation had an indirect effect on WM, IC, and CF through verbal ability. Verbal ability explained between 36 to 65% of the association between cognitive stimulation and EF.
In testing the final level of our mediation model, follow-up data suggest that verbal ability at baseline predicts reading achievement and that WM performance predicts reading and spelling achievement (βs > 0.32, ps < 0.05). Moreover, verbal ability at baseline had an indirect effect on academic achievement through WM, with WM accounting for 36 to 71% of the association between verbal ability and achievement. Taken together, these findings suggest that interventions targeting cognitive stimulation in the early home environment could reduce SES-related differences in academic achievement by fostering the development of EF through children’s verbal abilities.

Authors

• Lucy Lurie, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Maya Rosen, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katie McLaughlin, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author