Accounting for the SES-Math Achievement Gap at School Entry: Unique Mediation Paths via Executive Functioning and Behavioral Self-Regulation

Abstract

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly predictive of math achievement in early childhood and beyond. In this study, we aimed to further our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the SES-achievement gap by examining whether two aspects of self-regulation—executive functions (EF) and behavioral self-regulation (BSR)—mediate between SES and math achievement. Using data from a longitudinal study in Singapore (n = 1,257, 49% males), we examined the predictive link from SES to math achievement at entry to formal education (age 7), and the role of EF (child-assessed) and BSR (child-assessed and teacher-rated) as mediators of the SES-math achievement relationship. After accounting for children’s non-verbal reasoning and prior math achievement, EF and BSR (both child-assessed) emerged as significant partial mediators between SES and math. A key contribution of our study is in demonstrating that both components of self-regulation play a small role in explaining SES disparities in math achievement. Our findings further suggest that a balanced focus on enhancing EF and BSR skills of children from low-SES families may help to attenuate the SES-math achievement gap. More generally, our research contributes new insights to the ongoing debate about the theoretical distinctions between EF and BSR.

Socioeconomic gaps in specific mathematical skills at different ages in primary school.

“…We evaluated the student's executive function using the Hearts and Flowers Dimensional Stroop Task (H&F; Wright & Diamond, 2014), administered during the third wave of data collection. We included this variable as a control in line with prior research (Ng et al, 2021). The test involved the student observing a screen displaying images of a heart or a flower alternately, one at a time, on the right or left side of the screen without a pattern.…”