Executive Function Skills and Academic Achievement Gains in Prekindergarten: Contributions of Learning-Related Behaviors

• Published in: Developmental psychology 2015-07, Vol.51 (7), p.865-878
• Main Authors: Nesbitt, Kimberly Turner, Farran, Dale Clark, Fuhs, Mary Wagner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Gains; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Classrooms; Cognitive Ability; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Early childhood education; Early Intervention (Education) - methods; Educational Status; Emergent Literacy; Executive Function; Executive Function - physiology; Female; Human; Humans; Interaction; Interpersonal Relations; Interpersonal Relationship; Language; Language Skills; Learning; Literacy; Male; Mathematical Ability; Mathematics; Mathematics Skills; North Carolina; Predictor Variables; Preschool Children; Preschool Education; Preschool Students; Skills; Social interaction; Socioeconomic Factors; Statistical Analysis; Structural Equation Models; Student Behavior; Student Evaluation; Student Participation; Tennessee; United States; Vulnerable Populations; Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement; Young Children
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/dev0000021

Although research suggests associations between children's executive function skills and their academic achievement, the specific mechanisms that may help explain these associations in early childhood are unclear. This study examined whether children's (N = 1,103; M age = 54.5 months) executive function skills at the beginning of prekindergarten (pre-K) predict their learning-related behaviors in the classroom and whether these behaviors then mediate associations between children's executive function skills and their pre-K literacy, language, and mathematic gains. Learning-related behaviors were quantified in terms of (a) higher levels of involvement in learning opportunities; (b) greater frequency of participation in activities that require sequential steps; (c) more participation in social-learning interactions; and (d) less instances of being unoccupied, disruptive, or in time out. Results indicated that children's learning-related behaviors mediated associations between executive function skills and literacy and mathematics gains through children's level of involvement, sequential learning behaviors, and disengagement from the classroom. The implications of the findings for early childhood education are discussed.