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Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?

Preschool age is a golden period for the emergence of executive functions (EFs) that, in turn, predict learning and adaptive behavior throughout all life. The study was aimed to identify which EFs measures significantly explained the learning prerequisites and the mediation role of self-regulatory a...

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Autores principales: Ruffini, Costanza, Marzocchi, Gian Marco, Pecini, Chiara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8617927/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34828677
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children8110964
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author Ruffini, Costanza
Marzocchi, Gian Marco
Pecini, Chiara
author_facet Ruffini, Costanza
Marzocchi, Gian Marco
Pecini, Chiara
author_sort Ruffini, Costanza
collection PubMed
description Preschool age is a golden period for the emergence of executive functions (EFs) that, in turn, predict learning and adaptive behavior throughout all life. The study was aimed to identify which EFs measures significantly explained the learning prerequisites and the mediation role of self-regulatory and executive behavior recorded in structured or free settings. One hundred and twenty-seven preschoolers were remotely assessed by standardized tests of response inhibition, working memory, control of interference, and cognitive flexibility. Teachers provided a global measure of learning prerequisites by an observational questionnaire. Self-regulatory behavior during the assessment was evaluated by a rating scale filled by the examiners. Executive function behavior in daily life was measured by a questionnaire filled by parents. Accuracy in tasks of response inhibition and working memory explained about 48% of the variability in learning prerequisites while response speed and accuracy in the control of interference and in cognitive flexibility were not significant. EFs also had indirect effects, mediated by the child’s self-regulatory behavior evaluated during the assessment but not in daily life. The results are interpreted with respect to the contribution of the main EF components to school readiness and the mediation of the child behavior as measured in structure contexts.
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spelling pubmed-86179272021-11-27 Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites? Ruffini, Costanza Marzocchi, Gian Marco Pecini, Chiara Children (Basel) Article Preschool age is a golden period for the emergence of executive functions (EFs) that, in turn, predict learning and adaptive behavior throughout all life. The study was aimed to identify which EFs measures significantly explained the learning prerequisites and the mediation role of self-regulatory and executive behavior recorded in structured or free settings. One hundred and twenty-seven preschoolers were remotely assessed by standardized tests of response inhibition, working memory, control of interference, and cognitive flexibility. Teachers provided a global measure of learning prerequisites by an observational questionnaire. Self-regulatory behavior during the assessment was evaluated by a rating scale filled by the examiners. Executive function behavior in daily life was measured by a questionnaire filled by parents. Accuracy in tasks of response inhibition and working memory explained about 48% of the variability in learning prerequisites while response speed and accuracy in the control of interference and in cognitive flexibility were not significant. EFs also had indirect effects, mediated by the child’s self-regulatory behavior evaluated during the assessment but not in daily life. The results are interpreted with respect to the contribution of the main EF components to school readiness and the mediation of the child behavior as measured in structure contexts. MDPI 2021-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8617927/ /pubmed/34828677 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children8110964 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ruffini, Costanza
Marzocchi, Gian Marco
Pecini, Chiara
Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?
title Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?
title_full Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?
title_fullStr Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?
title_full_unstemmed Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?
title_short Preschool Executive Functioning and Child Behavior: Association with Learning Prerequisites?
title_sort preschool executive functioning and child behavior: association with learning prerequisites?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8617927/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34828677
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children8110964
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