Individual differences in executive function partially explain the socioeconomic gradient in middle‐school academic achievement

Children from families with low socioeconomic status (SES) earn lower grades, perform worse on achievement tests, and attain less education on average than their peers from higher‐SES families. We evaluated neurocognitive mediators of SES disparities in achievement in a diverse sample of youth whose data were linked to administrative records of performance on school‐administered tests of 7th grade reading and math proficiency (N = 203). We used structural equation modeling to evaluate whether associations between SES (measured at ages 8–9) and achievement (measured at age 13) are mediated by verbal ability and executive function (measured at age 10), a suite of top‐down mental processes that facilitate control of thinking and behavior. Children from relatively higher‐SES families performed better than their lower‐SES peers on all neurocognitive and achievement measures, and SES disparities in both reading and math achievement were partially mediated by variation in executive function, but not verbal ability. SES disparities in executive function explained approximately 37% of the SES gap in math achievement and 17% of the SES gap in reading achievement. Exploratory modeling suggests that SES‐related variation in working memory may play a particularly prominent role in mediation. We discuss potential implications of these findings for research, intervention programming, and classroom practice.     

Attention and executive functioning in infancy: Links to childhood executive function and reading achievement

This study provides the first analyses connecting individual differences in infant attention to reading achievement through the development of executive functioning (EF) in infancy and early childhood. Five‐month‐old infants observed a video, and peak look duration and shift rate were video coded and assessed. At 10 months, as well as 3, 4, and 6 years, children completed age‐appropriate EF tasks (A‐not‐B task, hand game, forward digit span, backwards digit span, and number Stroop). Children also completed a standardized reading assessment and a measure of verbal intelligence (IQ) at age 6. Path analyses on 157 participants showed that infant attention had a direct statistical predictive effect on EF at 10 months, with EF showing a continuous pattern of development from 10 months to 6 years. EF and verbal IQ at 6 years had a direct effect on reading achievement. Furthermore, EF at all time points mediated the relation between 5‐month attention and reading achievement. These findings may inform reading interventions by suggesting earlier intervention time points and specific cognitive processes (i.e. 5‐month attention).     

Joint roles of parenting and nutritional status for child development: Evidence from rural Cambodia

Substantial work has demonstrated that early nutrition and home environments, including the degree to which children receive cognitive stimulation and emotional support from parents, play a profound role in influencing early childhood development. Yet, less work has documented the joint influences of parenting and nutritional status on child development among children in the preschool years living in low‐income countries. Using panel data from 2016 to 2017 on the parenting, nutritional status, and early developmental outcomes (executive function, language, early numeracy, and socioemotional problems) of 6,508 Cambodian children ages 3–5 years, our findings demonstrate that inequities in early development associated with family wealth are evident at age 3 and increase among children ages 4 and 5 years. Using hierarchical regression analysis, a significant share of these inequalities is explained by differences in parenting and early nutritional status, measured by stunting. Better‐educated parents engage in more stimulating and supportive parenting practices. However, the positive association between parenting and language and early numeracy outcomes is 35–54% stronger for non‐stunted children, and parental activities explain only about 8–14% of the cognitive gap between the lowest and highest wealth quintiles. The results highlight the need for additional research outlining interactions between environmental factors that link family wealth and child development.     

Intergenerational transmission of literacy skills among Filipino families

We examined the joint role of parental word reading skills and conventional home literacy environment measures among 320 Filipino low‐ to middle‐income families in Cebu City, Philippines with children aged 5–8 years old. A ranking of parent‐reported ratings of their frequency of engaging in home literacy activities and adult literacy practices revealed that book‐related behaviors were less frequently practiced relative to other behaviors, and mean ratings on the home literacy resources scale suggested a relatively print‐poor environment. Nevertheless, scale items about book reading and direct literacy instruction at home correlated with child's language and literacy skills. Structural equation modeling showed that parent's education and frequency of engaging in home literacy activities uniquely accounted for variance in child's oral language and print knowledge skills. In a second model, parent's word reading skills were significantly related to child's skills, but did not eliminate or attenuate influences from parent's education and home literacy activities. Results are important in relation to theories on the intergenerational transmission of literacy skills and the generalizability of findings from developed countries to developing country contexts.     

Bayley‐III: Cultural differences and language scale validity in a Danish sample

The purpose of this study was to investigate cultural differences between Danish and American children at 2 and 3 years as measured with the developmental test Bayley‐III, and to investigate the Bayley‐III Language Scale validity. The Danish children (N = 43) were tested with the Bayley‐III and their parents completed an additional language questionnaire (the MacArthur‐Bates CDI). Results showed that scores from the Danish children did not differ significantly from the American norms on the Cognitive or Motor Scale, but the Danish sample scored significantly higher on the Language Scale. A comparison of the Bayley‐III Language subtests with the CDI showed that the two measures correlated significantly, but the percentile score from the CDI was significantly higher than the percentile score from the Bayley‐III Language subtests. This could be because the two instruments measure slightly different areas of language development, or because the Bayley‐III overestimates language development in Danish children. However, due to the limitations of the current study, further research is needed to clarify this issue.     

The Role of Parent Education and Parenting Knowledge in Children's Language and Literacy Skills among White,Black, and Latino Families

This study investigated the role of parenting knowledge of infant development in children's subsequent language and pre‐literacy skills among White, Black and Latino families of varying socioeconomic status. Data come from 6,150 participants in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort. Mothers' knowledge of infant development was measured when children were 9 months old, and child language and pre‐literacy skills were measured during the fall of the preschool year prior to Kindergarten when children were approximately four years old. Mothers' knowledge of infant development was uniquely related to both maternal education and race/ethnicity. Reported sources of parenting information/advice also varied by education and race/ ethnicity and were related to parenting knowledge. Further, controlling for demographic factors, parenting knowledge partially mediated the relation between parent education and child language and pre‐literacy skills, and this relation differed by race/ethnicity. One way to eliminate socioeconomic status achievement gaps in children's early language and literacy skills may be to focus on parents' knowledge of child development, particularly in Latino families. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Physical home environment is associated with prefrontal cortical thickness in adolescents

Biologically embedded experiences alter developmental trajectories in ways that can influence health, learning, and/or behavior. These systematic differences in experiences may contribute to different biological outcomes as individuals grow and develop, including at the neural level. Previous studies of biologically embedded experiences on neurodevelopment have focused on large‐scale institutional or economic factors (e.g. socioeconomic status [SES]) and psychosocial factors (e.g. caregiving behavior). Less attention has focused on how the quality of the immediate home settings, such as the physical home environment (PHYS), influences neurodevelopment. Moreover, no study has investigated these effects in adolescents, who undergo significant physical maturation and neurodevelopment that may influence how they respond to their physical environments. The goal of the current study was to examine whether PHYS quality is biologically embedded in the developing adolescent brain as evidenced by cognitive achievement and cortical development in 56 (48% female) healthy adolescents (14–18 years (M = 16.83 years, SD = 1.17). Using in‐home assessments of the physical home environment, anatomical brain scans, and indices of academic achievement, we found that adolescents who have more physical problems in the home (e.g. structural hazards, crowding, excessive noise, poorly lit) have thinner prefrontal cortices, which was associated with lower levels of reading achievement, independent of SES and psychosocial factors. By conducting home visits to assess physical characteristics of adolescents’ home, we highlight a typically overlooked aspect of the home environment that has relevance for adolescents’ cognitive and brain development.     

Multilingual assessment of early child development: Analyses from repeated observations of children in Kenya

In many low‐ and middle‐income countries, young children learn a mother tongue or indigenous language at home before entering the formal education system where they will need to understand and speak a country's official language(s). Thus, assessments of children before school age, conducted in a nation's official language, may not fully reflect a child's development, underscoring the importance of test translation and adaptation. To examine differences in vocabulary development by language of assessment, we adapted and validated instruments to measure developmental outcomes, including expressive and receptive vocabulary. We assessed 505 2‐to‐6‐year‐old children in rural communities in Western Kenya with comparable vocabulary tests in three languages: Luo (the local language or mother tongue), Swahili, and English (official languages) at two time points, 5–6 weeks apart, between September 2015 and October 2016. Younger children responded to the expressive vocabulary measure exclusively in Luo (44%–59% of 2‐to‐4‐year‐olds) much more frequently than did older children (20%–21% of 5‐to‐6‐year‐olds). Baseline receptive vocabulary scores in Luo (β = 0.26, SE = 0.05, p < 0.001) and Swahili (β = 0.10, SE = 0.05, p = 0.032) were strongly associated with receptive vocabulary in English at follow‐up, even after controlling for English vocabulary at baseline. Parental Luo literacy at baseline (β = 0.11, SE = 0.05, p = 0.045) was associated with child English vocabulary at follow‐up, while parental English literacy at baseline was not. Our findings suggest that multilingual testing is essential to understanding the developmental environment and cognitive growth of multilingual children.     

Gender and its contribution to the prediction of cognitive abilities at 5 years

Gender-related differences in the prediction of five year-olds' cognitive abilities from measures of distal environment, proximal environment and infant test scores were examined in a random sample of 93 boys and 90 girls. Distal environmental data included maternal IQ, maternal and paternal education. Proximal environmental data included two variables derived from the Home Screening Questionnaire: the Home Questions and the Toy Checklist. The Bayley MDI was administered at age 13 months, whereas WPPSI-R was used as cognitive outcome measure at age 5 years. The relationship between paternal education and child IQ, and between proximal environmental variables and child IQ was significantly stronger for boys than for girls. The associations between proximal environment and IQ in boys, were accounted for by the distal environmental variables. Bayley MDI correlated significantly higher with girls' IQ compared to boys' IQ. Findings are discussed in terms of parental gender-differentiated socialization processes.     

School achievement strongly predicts midlife IQ

The relationship between measures of IQ and standardized school achievement tests is well established at around r ≈ 0.5 when the two are measured in close proximity. The current paper examined the stability of this correlation when comparing elementary school achievement (grades 3–8) and midlife IQ. Iowa Adoption Study participants who had standardized school achievement measures (ITBS) on file were given the WAIS-III. Mean age at IQ testing was 44.01 years (SD 6.65 years). The correlation between school achievement and WAIS-III FSIQ was r = 0.64, suggesting substantial life span stability in this relationship. Furthermore, elementary school achievement was substantially correlated with occupational status and household income at midlife. These findings suggest that standardized school achievement data is a useful measure of premorbid IQ.     

What has caused the Flynn effect? Secular increases in the Development Quotients of infants

Results of five studies show that during the second half of the twentieth century there were increases in the Development Quotients (DQs) of infants in the first two years of life. These gains were obtained for the Bayley Scales in the United States and Australia, and for the Griffiths Test in Britain. The average of 19 data points is a DQ gain of approximately 3.7 DQ points per decade. Similar gains of approximately 3.9 IQ points per decade have been present among preschool children aged 4–6 years. These gains are about the same as the IQ gains of school age students and adults on the Wechsler and Binet tests. This suggests that the same factor has been responsible for all these secular gains. This rules out improvements in education, greater test sophistication, etc. and most of the other factors that have been proposed to explain the Flynn effect. It is proposed that the most probable factor has been improvements in pre-natal and early post-natal nutrition.     

Improving mother–child interaction in low‐income Turkish–Dutch families: A study of mechanisms mediating improvements resulting from participating in a home‐based preschool intervention program

This study examined whether the effects on cognitive and language outcomes of a recently developed home‐based educational intervention program, Opstap Opnieuw, for 4–6‐years‐old disadvantaged children could be explained by improved mother–child interaction. The present sample (n=30) was drawn from a larger sample of Turkish–Dutch families (n=181) for which in a previous study significant effects of Opstap Opnieuw were found on children's (first) language and cognitive pre‐math skill, 5 months after the program ended. The present study focused on two facets of interaction quality as possible mediators of these program effects: the mean cognitive distancing level of mothers' communication and instruction behaviour as an indicator of the cognitive and verbal stimulation provided, and the degree of cooperation as an indicator of mothers' social‐emotional support to their children. Both measures were based on systematic observation of mother–child interaction during sorting tasks. Participation in the program appeared to improve mothers' social‐emotional support behaviour substantially, but not their cognitive distancing behaviour. For Turkish (first language) vocabulary, about half of the program effect appeared to be mediated by the improved social‐emotional support. For cognitive pre‐mathematical skills, two‐thirds of the program effect appeared to be mediated by improved social‐emotional support. Mothers' cognitive distancing was moderately‐strongly related to children's vocabulary development, but did not mediate program effects. Some implications of the results are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fluid intelligence but not vocabulary has increased in Britain, 1979–2008

New standardizations of the Coloured and Standard Progressive Matrices in Britain in 2007 and 2008 show that on the Coloured Progressive Matrices the intelligence of 4 to 11 year olds increased over the years 1982–2007 by 8 IQ points, representing a gain of 3.2 IQ points a decade, and on the Standard Progressive Matrices the intelligence of 7 to 15 year olds increased over the years 1979–2008 by 6.2 IQ points, representing a gain of 1.85 IQ points a decade. IQ gains were greater among those at the low ability level. New standardizations of the Crichton Vocabulary Scale and the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale in Britain in 2007 and 2008 show a marginal decline on the Crichton Vocabulary Scale among 4 to 11 year olds, and a marginal increase on the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale among 7 to 15 year olds, suggesting there has been little change in vocabulary over the same time periods. These results are more consistent with the improvements in nutrition theory than with the improvements in education and greater cognitive stimulation theories of the secular gains in intelligence.     

Educational Justice: Closing Gaps or Paying Debts?

The question of our educational obligations to disadvantaged students has typically been conceptualized using the language of achievement gaps: how and to what extent should we ameliorate gaps between students in terms of their attainment of certain valuable outcomes that are correlated with education? Recently, some have argued that the language of achievement gaps is misconceived and problematic, and that we should instead conceptualize our obligations to students as an education debt that is owed to certain disadvantaged students as descendants of historic and structural injustices. Underlying this argument is a deeper conviction that the moral requirement to bring about a fair patterned distribution of educational outcomes is constrained by an obligation to rectify historical injustices. By conceptualizing the issue as a debt, rather than a gap (the argument goes), we can keep the priority of historical obligations squarely on the table. In this article, I defend the conceptual framework of achievement gaps in primary and secondary education by arguing that patterned principles of educational justice are not constrained by any claims and obligations that arise in virtue of historic injustices.     

Relation of infant motor development with nonverbal intelligence,language comprehension and neuropsychological functioning in childhood: a population‐based study

Within a population‐based study of 3356 children, we investigated whether infant neuromotor development was associated with cognition in early childhood. Neuromotor development was examined with an adapted version of Touwen's Neurodevelopmental Examination between 9 and 20 weeks. Parents rated their children's executive functioning at 4 years. At age 6 years, children performed intelligence and language comprehension tests, using Dutch test batteries. At age 6–9 years, neuropsychological functioning was assessed in 486 children using the validated NEPSY‐II–NL test battery. We showed that less optimal neurodevelopment in infancy may predict poor mental rotation, immediate memory, shifting, and planning; but not nonverbal intelligence or language comprehension.     

Associations among parental education,home environment quality,effortful control,and preacademic knowledge

This study used a longitudinal design to examine whether effortful control mediated the associations of parental education and home environment quality with preacademic knowledge in toddlers and young preschoolers. The sample consisted of 226 children (2 to 4 years of age at T1) from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Parents provided data on parent education and home environment quality. Children completed effortful control, early literacy, and early math assessments. T2 effortful control partially mediated the associations of T1 parental education and T1 home environment quality with T3 emergent literacy after accounting for child age, gender, race/ethnicity, T1 effortful control, and T2 early literacy. T2 effortful control partially mediated the association between T1 parental education and T3 emergent math after accounting for child age, gender, race/ethnicity, T1 effortful control, and T2 early math. Prior to entry into preschool, parental education and home environment quality may shape effortful control which in turn influences preacademic knowledge.     

Gender gaps in cognitive and social‐emotional skills in early primary grades: Evidence from rural Indonesia

This paper examines the magnitude and source of gender gaps in cognitive and social‐emotional skills in early primary grades in rural Indonesia. Relative to boys, girls score more than 0.17 SD higher in tests of language and mathematics (cognitive skills) and between 0.18 and 0.27 SD higher in measures of social competence and emotional maturity (social‐emotional skills). We use Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to investigate the extent to which gender differences in early schooling and parenting practices explain these gender gaps in skills. For cognitive skills, differences in early schooling between boys and girls explain between 9% and 11% of the gender gap whereas differences in parenting practices explain merely 3%–5% of the gender gap. This decomposition result is driven largely by children living in villages with high‐quality preschools. In contrast, for social‐emotional skills, differences in parenting styles toward boys and girls explain between 13% and 17% of the gender gap, while differences in early schooling explain only 0%–6% of the gender gap.     

Exploring the Relations between Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) Cognitive Abilities and Mathematics Achievement

As standardized measures of cognitive abilities and academic achievement continue to evolve, so do the relations between the constructs represented in these measures. A large, nationally representative sample of school‐aged children and youth between 6 and 19 years of age (N = 4,194) was used to systematically evaluate the relations between cognitive abilities and components of academic achievement in mathematics. The cognitive abilities of interest were those identified from the Cattell–Horn–Carroll model of intelligence. Specific areas of mathematics achievement included math calculation skills and math problem solving. Results suggest that fluid reasoning (Gf), comprehension‐knowledge (Gc), and processing speed (Gs) have the strongest and most consistent relations with mathematics achievement throughout the school years.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meta‐Analyses of the Relationship of Creative Achievement to Both IQ and Divergent Thinking Test Scores

There is disagreement among researchers about whether IQ tests or divergent thinking (DT) tests are better predictors of creative achievement. Resolving this dispute is complicated by the fact that some research has shown a relationship between IQ and DT test scores (e.g., Runco & Albert, 1986; Wallach, 1970). The present study conducted meta‐analyses of the relationships between creative achievement and both IQ and DT test scores. The analyses included 17 studies (with 5,544 participants) that established the correlation coefficients between IQ and creative achievement and 27 studies (with 47,197 participants) that established the correlation coefficients between DT test scores and creative achievement. Marginal, but statistically significant, Fisher's Z‐transformed correlation coefficients were revealed. The analysis found a significantly higher relationship between DT test scores and creative achievement (r = .216) than between IQ test scores and creative achievement (r = .167). The differences in the correlation coefficients were explained by differences in DT tests, creative achievement types, predicted time periods, and creativity subscales. The significant independent moderator effect for different DT tests indicates that the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) predict creative achievement better than any other DT test included in this study. Among the creative achievement types, music is predicted the best by IQ and all others are predicted best by DT tests. Among the time periods evaluated, the relationship between DT test scores and creative achievement had the highest correlation at the period of 11–15 years.     

Herrnstein''s syllogism: genetic and shared environmental influences on IQ, education, and income

Genotypes may influence the phenotypic associations among IQ, education, and income. To investigate this hypothesis, we believe that the appropriate methodology requires estimation of genetic and environmental influences using data able to separate these influences. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) is a nationally representative sample that contains genetically-informative full- and half-siblings (28–35 years old in 1992; Ns=1943 full-siblings, 129 half-siblings). A biometric genetic model was fit that estimated the shared environmental and genetic variance components of IQ, years of education, and hourly income. The total heritabilities were 0.64 for IQ, 0.68 for education, and 0.42 for income. Heritabilities due to a common genetic factor were 0.35 for IQ, 0.52 for education, and 0.12 for income. Environmental influences due to a common shared environmental factor were 0.23 for IQ, 0.18 for education, and 0.08 for income. The model predicted a correlation of 0.63 between IQ and education and 0.34 between IQ and income. Sixty-eight percent of the former and 59% of the latter was genetically mediated; the remainder was mediated by common shared environment. These findings suggest that social inequality in the United States has its origin in both genetically-based traits and in different environmental backgrounds.