Attentional control and executive functioning in school-aged children: Linking self-regulation and parenting strategies

Abstract

Good parenting strategies can shape children's neurocognitive development, yet little is known about the nature of this relation in school-aged children and whether this association shifts with age. We aimed to investigate the relation between parenting strategies observed during a home visit and children's performance-based attentional control and executive functioning (N=98, aged 4-8years). Linear and curvilinear regression analyses showed that children of parents who were more supportive, were less intrusive, and asked more open-ended questions displayed better inhibitory control. In addition, children of parents who asked relatively more open-ended than closed-ended questions showed better performance on inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility tasks. Curvilinear relations indicated the presence of an optimal amount of closed-ended and elaborative questions by parents-that is, not too few and not too many-which is linked to increased performance on attentional and inhibitory control in children. Higher parental intrusiveness and more frequent elaborative questioning were associated with decreased inhibitory control in younger children, whereas no such negative associations were present in older children. These results suggest that susceptibility to certain parenting strategies may shift with age. Our findings underscore the importance of adaptive parenting strategies to both the age and needs of school-aged children, which may positively affect their self-regulation skills.

Emotional functioning and the development of internalizing and externalizing problems in young boys with and without autism spectrum disorder

“…Especially, children with ASD might need extra parental support and scaffolding to improve their emotion control and recognition. As a recent study showed in TD children, parents need to be able to adapt their levels of support depending on the child's needs (Spruijt, Dekker, Ziermans, & Swaab, 2018). Furthermore, emotional functioning requires not only early and sensitive interactions between caregivers and their children but also opportunities for incidental learning, that is, unintentional learning by overhearing and observing others.…”

Does maternal warmth moderate longitudinal associations between infant attention control and children's inhibitory control?

“…This is an important period, given that executive functions are rapidly developing (Garon et al, 2008). However, some research has suggested that parenting must be adapted to accommodate the needs of the developing child, especially for IC (Spruijt, Dekker, Ziermans, & Swaab, 2018). Therefore, multiple aspects of parenting across early development should be considered in future studies.…”

Which Factors Influence Attentional Functions? Attention Assessed by KiTAP in 105 6-to-10-Year-Old Children

“…The strong interindividual variability in attention performance depends on a number of factors, both constitutional and environmental, that determine the different developmental paths that attention could follow. Thus, as with all cognitive skills which are developed, in order to be understood and evaluated as fully as possible, consideration should be given to the child’s characteristics, taking into account the influence of many factors [16]: the biological characteristics of the child (i.e., temperamental characteristics favouring girls for effortful control and boys for surgency [17], maturation levels of the central nervous system (activation and visual spatial attention that show earlier development than other executive functions [8], general cognitive and emotional capacity of the child [2], and environmental variables, namely his/her personal experiences and the context in which he/she lives (for example, supporting parenting strategies) [18]. As far as environmental variables are concerned, we take into consideration the primary school experience because this period is characterized by rapid changes in attention functions according to the literature, and thus the role of attention in academic learning and achievement may be critical [19,20].…”