Does Child Vocabulary Mediate the Relationship Between Parental Sensitivity and Child Executive Function? A Mixed Picture

• In Event: Parental sensitivity and its correlates

Abstract

Objectives: Parental sensitivity has been well documented to predict children’s language ability and executive function (EF; Blair, 2002). Children’s language ability has also been identified as a crucial predictor of their development of EF (Carlson, 2003). However, less has been focused on the mechanism of how parental sensitivity impacts children’s EF and the association between parental sensitivity, children’s language ability, and children’s EF. In addition, how parental sensitivity influences child EF might differ regarding different dimensions of EF, as EF is an umbrella term that encompasses a range of cognitive abilities (Diamond, 2006). The current study investigated whether child language ability mediates the relationship between parental sensitivity and child inhibitory control and working memory, aiming to better understand how parent-child interactions impact children’s development of EF.

Methods: This study draws from a larger longitudinal Research-Practice Partnership between university researchers and educators in a public school district in Southern California (authors, 2020). Study participants were 34 parent-child dyads (Mage= 67mo, 50% boys, 61.8% Hispanic; 67.6% maternal education > some college, 17.6% parents mainly spoke Spanish). Dyads participated in a 10-minute semi-structured play interaction using the “Three Bag Task” during a home visiting session. Video-recorded interactions were coded for parental sensitivity using a global 7-point scale (Fuligni & Brooks-Gunn, 2012). Child vocabulary and working memory were measured by Picture Vocabulary and Sentence Repetition of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Early Cognitive and Academic Development (ECAD IV; LeForte et al., 2015). Child inhibitory control was assessed using the pencil tapping task (Suchodoletz et al., 2015). Mediating models were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4.0 (Ringle et al., 2022).

Results: Path analysis indicated that parental sensitivity significantly predicted child vocabulary, and child vocabulary significantly predicted child inhibitory control (see Figure 1). The direct path from parental sensitivity to child inhibitory control was significant, but the indirect effect from parental sensitivity through child vocabulary to child inhibitory control was not significant. The entire path model explained 37% of the variance of child inhibitory control. Parental sensitivity significantly predicted child vocabulary, and child vocabulary significantly predicted child working memory (see Figure 2). The direct path from parental sensitivity to child working memory was not significant, but the indirect effect from parental sensitivity through child vocabulary to child working memory was significant. The entire path model explained 58.5% of the variance of child working memory.

Discussion: Study findings show that children’s language mediates the relationship between parental sensitivity and child EF, but only in the working memory aspect of EF. This study adds to the growing body of research that has begun to investigate the effects of social interactions on child development of EF and suggests one pathway that parental sensitivity can impact children’s working memory, which is through children’s language ability. The value of parent-child daily interactions to promote children’s cognitive development should be incorporated into future interventions. Future research could focus on other dimensions of parental behaviors in parent-child interactions and other components of children’s EF.

Authors

• Yan Jiang, University of California - San Diego
  Presenting Author

• Alison Wishard Guerra, University of California - San Diego

• Shana R Cohen, University of California, San Diego

• Monica Molgaard, University of California - San Diego

• Naomi T Lin, University of California - San Diego

• Rogelio Becerra Songolo, University of California - San Diego

• Huilin Li, University of California - San Diego