Using an epidemiological sample (N = 1,117) and a prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of preverbal and verbal communication (15 months to 3 years) on executive function (EF) at age 4 years. Results indicated that whereas gestures (15 months), as well as language (2 and 3 years), were correlated with later EF (φs ≥ .44), the effect was entirely mediated through later language. In contrast, language had significant direct and indirect effects on later EF. Exploratory analyses indicated that the pattern of results was comparable for low- and not-low-income families. The results were consistent with theoretical accounts of language as a precursor of EF ability, and highlighted gesture as an early indicator of EF.
VL - 85 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Early Childcare, Executive Functioning, and the Moderating Role of Early Stress Physiology. JF - Developmental Psychology Y1 - 2013 A1 - Berry, Daniel A1 - Clancy Blair A1 - Ursache, Alexandra A1 - Michael T. Willoughby A1 - Granger, Douglas A. AB -Intervention studies indicate that children’s childcare experiences can be leveraged to support the development of executive functioning (EF). The role of more normative childcare experiences is less clear. Increasingly, theory and empirical work suggest that individual differences in children’s physiological stress systems may be associated with meaningful differences in the way they experience these early environments. Using data from a large population-based sample of predominantly low-income rural families, we tested the degree to which children’s childcare experiences—quantity, quality, and type—in the first 3 years of life predicted emerging EF. Moreover, we examined whether these effects varied as a function of children’s basal cortisol levels in infancy and toddlerhood— an indicator of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis stress physiology. Our results showed that higher quality care predicted more effective EF at 48 months, irrespective of quantity or type. This relation did not vary as a function of children’s early cortisol levels. Attending greater hours of care per week was also related to EF; however—consistent with theory—the positive association between spending more time in childcare and more positive EF extended only to children with low levels of basal cortisol at 7 or 24 months of age. Attending center-based care was unassociated with EF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
UR - http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/a0034700 JO - Developmental Psychology ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy interact to predict executive functioning in early childhood. JF - Developmental Psychology Y1 - 2013 A1 - Ursache, Alexandra A1 - Clancy Blair A1 - Stifter, Cynthia A1 - Voegtline, Kristin AB -The relation of observed emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy to executive function in early childhood was examined in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from predominantly low-income and rural communities. Children participated in a fear eliciting task at ages 7, 15, and 24 months and completed an executive function battery at age 48 months. Results indicated that the relation of child negative emotional reactivity at 15 months of age to executive functioning at 48 months of age was dependent on observed emotion regulation. High levels of executive function ability were observed among children who exhibited high levels of emotional reactivity and high levels of the regulation of this reactivity. In contrast, low levels of executive function ability were observed among children who exhibited high levels of reactivity but low levels of regulation. Among children exhibiting low levels of emotional reactivity, emotion regulation was unrelated to executive functioning. Moreover, emotionally reactive infants exhibiting high levels of emotion regulation were more likely to have primary caregivers who exhibited high levels of positive parenting behavior in a parent–child interaction task. Results provide support for a neurobiologically informed developmental model in which the regulation of emotional arousal is one mechanism whereby supportive environments are associated with higher levels of self-regulation ability for highly reactive infants. Findings are discussed with implications for differential susceptibility and biological sensitivity theories of child by context interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
VL - 49 UR - http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/a0027728 IS - 1 JO - Developmental Psychology ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Executive function in early childhood: Longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental change. JF - Psychological Assessment Y1 - 2012 A1 - Michael T. Willoughby A1 - Wirth, R. J. A1 - Clancy Blair AB -This study tested the longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental changes of a newly developed battery of executive function (EF) tasks for use in early childhood. The battery was administered in the Family Life Project—a prospective longitudinal study (N = 1,292) of families who were oversampled from low-income and African American families at the birth of a new child—at assessments conducted when the child was 3, 4, and 5 years old. All 6 individual EF tasks exhibited strong measurement invariance over time. The EF battery, which was derived from the 6 individual tasks, exhibited partial strong invariance over time. Second-order latent growth curve models revealed individual differences in the levels but not rates of change in latent EF ability. The functional form of change was nonlinear; 60% of the total change in EF ability that was observed between the 3- and 5-year assessments occurred between the Year 3 and Year 4 assessments. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of establishing scalable measures of EF ability prior to investigating experiences that predict or are predicted by changes in EF during early childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
VL - 24 UR - http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/a0025779 IS - 2 JO - Psychological Assessment ER - TY - JOUR T1 - EEG power and coherence during preschoolers' performance of an executive function battery JF - Developmental Psychobiology Y1 - 2011 A1 - Swingler, Margaret M. A1 - Michael T. Willoughby A1 - Calkins, Susan D. KW - development KW - EEG coherence KW - EEG power KW - executive function KW - frontal lobe KW - preschool AB -The current study investigated a set of abilities collectively referred to as executive function (EF). Substantial improvement in EF ability occurs between 3 and 6 years of age (e.g., Carlson [2005] Developmental Neuropsychology, 28(2):595–616). This improvement is thought to reflect changes in brain development, especially in areas of prefrontal cortex and frontal cortex, which occur during this time period (e.g., Luu & Posner [2003] Brain 126:2119–2120). Little work has examined preschoolers' cortical activity during EF tasks, despite the frequent use of performance on such tasks as indirect measures of (pre)frontal functioning. The current study measured continuous EEG activity in 104 preschool aged children as they completed a battery of EF tasks. Changes from baseline to task performance in EEG activity (power, coherence) were used as predictors of EF ability. Results indicated that changes from baseline to task engagement in EEG coherence, but not EEG power, were significantly related to performance on the EF battery in our sample. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 53:771–784, 2011.
VL - 53 UR - http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/dev.v53.8http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/dev.20588 IS - 8 JO - Dev. Psychobiol. ER -