Reciprocal feedback processes between experience and development are central to contemporary developmental theory. Autoregressive cross-lagged panel (ARCL) models represent a common analytic approach ...intended to test such dynamics. The authors demonstrate that—despite the ARCL model's intuitive appeal—it typically (a) fails to align with the theoretical processes that it is intended to test and (b) yields estimates that are difficult to interpret meaningfully. Specifically, using a Monte Carlo simulation and two empirical examples concerning the reciprocal relation between spanking and child aggression, it is shown that the cross-lagged estimates derived from the ARCL model reflect a weighted—and typically uninterpretable—amalgam of between- and within-person associations. The authors highlight one readily implemented respecification that better addresses these multiple levels of inference.
Literature has suggested that ADHD may be associated with increased risk of obesity. If so, this would have important clinical implications.
To clarify the size of the association between ADHD and ...obesity and to evaluate key moderators of the association including medication, gender, age, and psychiatric comorbidity.
Two preliminary studies are presented to supply critical additional data for the meta-analysis: a two-year longitudinal study of an ADHD case–control sample of 313 children aged 7–11, and a national survey study of 45,309 families in the United States using the 2012 National Survey of Children's Health. Formal meta-analysis was then conducted. The identification procedure yielded 43 studies, reporting 225 comparisons or effect sizes, studying 703,937 participants An overall effect size was estimated with a random effects model (after pooling within study using a modified fixed effects model). Effect size was then examined in relation to medication, gender, age, and psychiatric comorbidity.
The new study of children revealed no reliable association of ADHD and body mass index at any age or time point. In the national survey, ADHD was associated with obesity only in adolescent girls but not in children or boys; this effect was statistically accounted for by covarying of depression and conduct disorder. In the meta-analysis, the composite effect size was OR=1.22 (95% CI=1.11–1.34); 22 studies provided effects with medication controlled, yielding a composite effect size of OR=1.30 (95% CI=1.12–1.50). Pooled across age the association without covariates was reliable in females (OR=1.19 1.01–1.41) but not males (OR=1.10 0.95–1.23) although males and females did not statistically differ. Pooled across gender, the association was significantly larger in adults (>18years) (OR=1.37 1.19–1.58) than in youth (OR=1.13 1.00–1.27), p=.04.
ADHD has a small overall association with obesity, but this effect is moderate in adults. The effect is likely to be of no clinical significance in children, possible clinical significance in adolescent girls with comorbid disorders, and of clinical relevance by adulthood.
•ADHD and obesity may be associated but effect moderators are unclear.•A meta-analysis of 43 studies was conducted.•A reliable overall ADHD-to-obesity association was found with a small effect size.•The effect was larger in adults over 18years old than in children.•This association may be of minimal clinical impact in children but more in adults.
Children with higher levels of executive function (EF) skills consistently demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement. Despite the consistency of these associations, fundamental questions ...remain about whether efforts to improve an individual child's EF skills result in corresponding improvements in his or her academic performance. In the absence of experimental evidence, developmentalists have used repeated measures designs to test the nature, magnitude, and direction of the associations between EF skills and academic achievement. In contrast to previous studies, this study described how between- and within-person associations between EF and achievement address different questions. Using data from a subsample of participants (N = 6,040) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten, 2010-2011 (ECLS-K:2011) cohort, we estimated a series of latent growth curve models with structured residuals to test the between and within-person associations between 2 dimensions of EF (working memory, cognitive flexibility) and 2 domains of academic achievement (math, reading). Whereas between-person associations between EF and achievement were large (φ = .55-.91), the within-person associations were small (βs = −.10-.25). Within-person effects of earlier reading achievement on later EF skills was the most consistent finding. Results were unchanged when analyses were repeated using the subset of children who were eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, a proxy for low socioeconomic households. Results are discussed with respect to interest in improving EF skills as a means for facilitating school outcomes.
Despite widespread interest in the construct of executive functioning (EF), we currently lack definitive evidence regarding the best measurement model for representing the construct in substantive ...analyses. The most common practice is to represent EF ability as a reflective latent variable, with child performance on individual EF tasks as observed indicators. The current article critically evaluates the dominant use of reflective latent variable models in the child EF literature and compares them to composite models, a reasonable alternative. We review the literature suggesting that reflective latent variable models may not be the most appropriate representation of the construct of EF. Using preschool (Mage = 48.3 months) and first grade (Mage = 83.5 months) data from the Family Life Project (N = 920), we also investigate the implications of measurement model specification for the interpretation of study findings. Children in this sample varied in terms of sex (49% male), race (43% black) and socioeconomic status (76% low-income). Our findings show that the conclusions we draw from 2 substantive analyses differ depending on whether EF is modeled as a reflective latent variable versus a composite variable. We describe the implications of these findings for research on child EF and offer practical recommendations for producers and consumers of developmental research.
Little research has considered whether prenatal experience contributes to executive function (EF) development above and beyond postnatal experience. This study tests direct, mediated, and moderated ...associations between prenatal risk factors and preschool EF and IQ in a longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from the Family Life Project. A composite of prenatal risk factors (i.e., low birth weight, prematurity, maternal emotional problems, maternal prepregnancy obesity, and obstetric complications) significantly predicted EF and IQ at age 3, above quality of the postnatal environment. This relationship was indirect, mediated through infant general cognitive abilities. Quality of the postnatal home and child‐care environments did not moderate the cascade model. These findings highlight the role of prenatal experience as a contributor to individual differences in cognitive development.
As a culturally universal set of cognitive skills that promote goal‐directed behaviors, executive functions (EFs) support milestones of early childhood development, such as learning and forming ...social relationships. A growing base of evidence shows commonality around the world in EFs’ validity, biological basis, and family predictors. But we need more research to understand more fully how to promote the development of EF skills in young children from low‐ and middle‐income countries. In this article, we highlight recent studies on EFs in those countries and propose directions for research on measurement, contextual influences, and interventions. The global health community needs an index of how early life experiences affect child development beyond measures of physical growth, and the global education community needs an instrument to screen children for school readiness beyond measures of preacademic skills. Assessments of EF can address these needs. Research on emergent EFs in low‐ and middle‐income countries can also support the design and evaluation of multisector programs and policies.
The current study tests whether accuracy and reaction time (RT) on the Hearts and Flowers (HF) task, a common assessment tool used across wide age ranges, can be leveraged as joint indicators of ...child executive function (EF) ability. Although previous studies have tended to use accuracy or RT, either alone or as separate indicators, one open question is whether these 2 metrics can be yoked together to enhance our measurement of EF ability. We test this question using HF data collected from first-grade children who participated in the Family Life Project. Specifically, we model the independent and interactive effects of HF accuracy and RT on several criterion outcomes representing child academic and behavioral competence. Our findings indicate that among early-elementary-aged children, accuracy and RT interact in the prediction of child outcomes, with RT being a more informative index of EF ability for children who perform at high levels of accuracy. The main effect of accuracy remained significant in the presence of these interactive effects. This pattern of findings was similar for different task blocks (i.e., mixed, flower-only) and for different child outcome domains (i.e., academic, behavioral). Our finding of an interaction between accuracy and RT contributes to a growing literature that attempts to jointly consider accuracy and RT as indicators of underlying ability, which has important implications for how EF task scores are constructed and interpreted.
Public Significance Statement
This study finds that accuracy and reaction time (RT) on executive function (EF) tasks may both provide useful information about a child's EF ability. In addition, RT may be a more informative indicator of EF ability for children who perform at high levels of accuracy.
This study tested whether individual executive function (EF) tasks were better characterized as formative or reflective indicators of the latent construct of EF. EF data that were collected as part ...of the Family Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of families who were recruited at the birth of a new child (N = 1,292), when children were 3, 4, and 5 years old. Vanishing tetrad tests were used to test the relative fit of models in which EF tasks were used as either formative or reflective indicators of the latent construct of EF in the prediction of intellectual ability (at Age 3), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms (at Ages 3 to 5 years), and academic achievement (at kindergarten). Results consistently indicated that EF tasks were better represented as formative indicators of the latent construct of EF. Next, individual tasks were combined to form an overall measure of EF ability in ways generally consistent with formative (i.e., creating a composite mean score) and reflective (i.e., creating an EF factor score) measurement. The test-retest reliability and developmental trajectories of EF differed substantially, depending on which overall measure of EF ability was used. In general, the across-time stability of EF was markedly higher when represented as a factor score versus composite score. Results are discussed with respect to the ways in which the statistical representation of EF tasks can exert a large impact on inferences regarding the developmental causes, course, and consequences of EF.
This study examined the psychometric properties and criterion validity of a newly developed battery of executive function (EF) tasks for use in early childhood. The battery was included in the Family ...Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of families who were oversampled from low-income and African American families at the birth of a new child (N = 1,292). Ninety-nine percent (N = 1,036) of children who participated in the age 5 home visit completed 1 or more (M = 5.8, Mdn = 6) of the 6 EF tasks. Results indicated that tasks worked equally well for children residing in low-income and not low-income homes, that task scores were most informative about the ability level of children in the low-average range, that performance on EF tasks was best characterized by a single factor, and that individual differences on the EF battery were strongly related to a latent variable measuring overall academic achievement, as well as to individual standardized tests that measured phonological awareness, letter-word identification, and early math skills.
Previous studies have documented that individual differences in fine and gross motor skills are associated with executive function (EF) skills. This study used an experimental design to test whether ...participating in cognitively challenging motor skills activities was causally related to improvements in motor skills and two key indicators of school readiness: executive function and early numeracy skills. The motor skill program involved fine and gross motor game‐like activities that were delivered in a small group format. Activities were socially engaging and progressively challenged children based on their motor competencies. Fifty‐three preschool‐aged children participated in 16 motor skill sessions across 8 weeks. There were significant treatment effects for all outcomes, such that children in the treatment condition exhibited significant improvements in motor, EF, and early numeracy skills, compared to their peers in the waitlist control condition. Treatment effects on EF skills were stronger for inhibitory control than working memory. Improvements in numeracy were most pronounced for children with initially lower levels of ability. Motor skill‐based interventions are an ecologically valid and developmentally appropriate approach for fostering school readiness skills in early childhood.
As can be seen in the top panel, compared to their peers in the waitlist control condition, children who participated in the motor skills intervention demonstrated small to moderate increases in motor competence (BOT‐2), overall EF (EF Comp), and numeracy (WJ‐Applied Problems) skills. Conditional treatment effects were examined at low, medium, and high levels of pretest performance (defined as 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile scores for this sample). As shown in the middle panel, children who had initially lower levels of performance on numeracy skills at pretest benefitted more than children who had initially higher levels of performance. Although not statistically significant, the bottom panel displays a similar pattern of results for working memory skills.
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