TY  - JOUR
T1  - Two approaches to estimating the effect of parenting on the development of executive function in early childhood.
JF  - Dev Psychol
Y1  - 2014
A1  - Blair, Clancy
A1  - Raver, C Cybele
A1  - Berry, Daniel J
KW  - Attention
KW  - Child Development
KW  - Child, Preschool
KW  - executive function
KW  - Family
KW  - Female
KW  - Humans
KW  - Individuality
KW  - Inhibition (Psychology)
KW  - Longitudinal Studies
KW  - Male
KW  - Memory, Short-Term
KW  - Models, Statistical
KW  - Neuropsychological Tests
KW  - Parent-Child Relations
KW  - Parenting
AB  - <p>In the current article, we contrast 2 analytical approaches to estimate the relation of parenting to executive function development in a sample of 1,292 children assessed longitudinally between the ages of 36 and 60 months of age. Children were administered a newly developed and validated battery of 6 executive function tasks tapping inhibitory control, working memory, and attention shifting. Residualized change analysis indicated that higher quality parenting as indicated by higher scores on widely used measures of parenting at both earlier and later time points predicted more positive gain in executive function at 60 months. Latent change score models in which parenting and executive function over time were held to standards of longitudinal measurement invariance provided additional evidence of the association between change in parenting quality and change in executive function. In these models, cross-lagged paths indicated that in addition to parenting predicting change in executive function, executive function bidirectionally predicted change in parenting quality. Results were robust with the addition of covariates, including child sex, race, maternal education, and household income-to-need. Strengths and drawbacks of the 2 analytic approaches are discussed, and the findings are considered in light of emerging methodological innovations for testing the extent to which executive function is malleable and open to the influence of experience.</p>
VL  - 50
IS  - 2
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Test-retest reliability of a new executive function battery for use in early childhood
JF  - Child Neuropsychology
Y1  - 2011
A1  - Michael T. Willoughby
A1  - Clancy Blair
KW  - Early childhood
KW  - executive function
KW  - Latent variables
KW  - preschool
KW  - Retest reliability
AB  - <p>This study reported test-retest reliability for a newly developed executive function battery designed for use in early childhood. A total of 140 predominantly low-income children (<em>M</em>&thinsp;=&thinsp;48.1 months; 51% male; 43% African American) completed up to six tasks on two occasions an average of 18 (<em>Mdn</em>&thinsp;=&thinsp;16) days apart. Pearson correlations between individual task scores indicated moderate retest reliability (mean <em>r</em>&thinsp; =&thinsp;.60; range&thinsp;=&thinsp;.52&minus;.66) similar to that observed in other retest studies of executive function in preschool, school-aged, and adult samples. In contrast, confirmatory factor analyses of performance on the task battery across time indicated high retest reliability (<img alt="" src="http://www.tandfonline.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/tandf/journals/entities/03D5.gif" />&thinsp; =&thinsp;.95) that was identical to that observed in a recent study that used an identical method involving a sample of older adults. The short-term test-retest reliability of executive function in early childhood is comparable to that observed in childhood and adult samples. The retest reliability of children&#39;s performance on batteries of executive function tasks is appreciably stronger than the retest reliability of their performance on individual tasks. Studies that focus on inter- and intraindividual differences in executive function would be better served by using scores that are derived from task batteries than those derived from individual tasks.</p>
VL  - 17
UR  - http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09297049.2011.554390
IS  - 6
JO  - Child Neuropsychology
ER  -