Ecological validity in measuring parents’ executive function

Abstract

Parents' executive functions (EFs), or cognitive skills facilitating thought and behavior management, are meaningful correlates of parenting behavior. EFs are theorized to support parents in inhibiting reactive responses, managing information during parent-child interactions, and adapting to novel developmental demands.Less effective EFs associate with risk for harsh parenting and physical abuse, underscoring the importance of research on parental EFs in promoting healthy child development. Yet, despite the strong theory, findings are mixed and reveal only modest effect sizes in relations between EFs and parenting. One explanation may be a lack of ecological validity in measuring parental EFs. Traditional measures of adult EFs have been used, but these are decontextualized and do not reflect the cognitively and emotionally demanding nature of parenting. In this article, we argue that new and adapted measures are needed. We discuss the role

Parental self-regulation and engagement in emotion socialization: A systematic review.

“…Moreover, there is extensive evidence that parental executive function is related to other parenting behaviors (see Bridgett et al, 2017; Deater-Deckard et al, 2010; Sturge-Apple et al, 2020, for a few select examples), and the four studies identified in this review that examined effortful control and ERSBs (Cumberland-Li et al, 2003; Davenport et al, 2011; Valiente et al, 2007; Zeytinoglu et al, 2017) all identified significant associations. Further understanding the extent to which parental executive function and effortful control—assessed in ecologically valid ways (Diercks et al, 2022)—predict ERSBs will further the field’s theoretical understanding of emotion socialization.…”

Household chaos as a moderator of the link between parents’ inhibitory control and parenting quality.

“…In advancing this line of research, there are a variety of tools researchers could use to assess EF. Diercks et al (2022) briefly outlined current measures of EF. However, they also encouraged researchers to develop new measures that more closely represent the types of EF skills required in parenting.…”

A process model of parental executive functioning as a spillover mechanism linking interparental conflict and parenting difficulties across parenting domains.

“…We relied on EF tasks that were decontextualized and primarily tapped affectively and motivationally neutral (i.e., "cool") EF processes. It is possible that affectively salient ("hot") tasks may be differentially related to parenting behaviors and future studies should incorporate both tasks into process models (Diercks et al, 2022). Additionally, working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility were each measured with single respective tasks.…”

“…Scientific inquiry into parental EF is a relatively recent development (Crandall et al, 2015) but emerging evidence from various fields suggests that EFs are critical to the development and maintenance of optimal parenting behavior (Crandall et al, 2015; Deater-Deckard & Sturge-Apple, 2017; Diercks et al, 2022). This is because parental self-regulation is supported by a suite of executive processes (i.e., working memory capacity, inhibitory control, and flexible task shifting) that serve to modulate and control reflexive reactions and efficiently integrate and process environmental stimuli in service of reflective, contextually sensitive parenting.…”