Effortful Control in “Hot” and “Cool” Tasks Differentially Predicts Children’s Behavior Problems and Academic Performance

Abstract

Effortful control (EC), the capacity to deliberately suppress a dominant response and perform a subdominant response, rapidly developing in toddler and preschool age, has been shown to be a robust predictor of children’s adjustment. Not settled, however, is whether a view of EC as a heterogeneous rather than unidimensional construct may offer advantages in the context of predicting diverse developmental outcomes. This study focused on the potential distinction between “hot” EC function (delay-of-gratification tasks that called for suppressing an emotionally charged response) and more abstract “cool” EC functions (motor inhibition tasks, suppressing-initiating response or Go-No Go tasks, and effortful attention or Stroop-like tasks). Children (N=100) were observed performing EC tasks at 38 and 52 months. Mothers, fathers, and teachers rated children’s behavior problems and academic performance at 67, 80, and 100 months, and children participated in a clinical interview at 100 months. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses with latent variables produced consistent findings across all informants: Children’s scores in “hot” EC tasks, presumably engaging emotion regulation skills, predicted behavior problems but not academic performance, whereas their scores in “cool” EC tasks, specifically those engaging effortful attention, predicted academic performance but not behavior problems. The models of EC as a heterogeneous construct offered some advantages over the unidimensional models. Methodological and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

Executive function in the first three years of life: Precursors, predictors and patterns

“…This relationship appears to strengthen over the preschool years with performance in cool EF tasks predicting academic performance but not behaviour problems and hot EF scores predicting behaviour problems but not academic performance (Di Norcia, Pecora, Bombi, Baumgartner, & Laghi, 2015;Kim et al, 2013;Willoughby et al, 2011). …”

“…Many researchers make a distinction between 'hot' and 'cool' EFs, where hot tasks are those for which a proximal extrinsic reward or punishment for performance is included, such as impulse control tasks which call for suppressing an emotionally-charged response to a desirable object; and cool tasks which involve more abstract problems such as the selective application of a rule, in which no extrinsic motivator for performance is included (Hongwanishkul, Happaney, Lee, & Zelazo, 2005;Kim, Nordling, Yoon, Boldt & Kochanska, 2013;Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999;Willoughby, Kupersmidt, Voegler-Lee & Bryant, 2011).…”

Teachers’ Emotional and Behavioral Support and Preschoolers’ Self-Regulation: Relations With Social and Emotional Skills During Play

“…In this relatively broad definition, self-regulation involves children's inherent ability to modulate emotions, behavior, as well as attention based on the social expectations of the situation (e.g., Kopp, 1982;Rothbart & Bates, 2006), such as calming down and talking quietly when in the ECE classroom after being allowed to run and scream outside on the playground, or waiting for a turn when participating in collaborative play situations or group conversations. Although self-regulation consists of cognitive (e.g., attentional), emotional (e.g., calming down) and behavioral (e.g., sitting still) components, the emotional and behavioral regulatory aspects of self-regulation have been related to children's social and emotional skills (e.g., Kim, Nordling, Yoon, Boldt, & Kochanska, 2013;Willoughby, Kupersmidt, Voegler-Lee, & Bryant, 2011). With respect to how children respond or adapt to their ECE environments, there is more research on child temperamental reactivity than on emotional and behavioral self-regulation.…”

Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain

“…Whereas poor hot EF in preschoolers is associated with inattentive-overactive problem behaviors, cool EF is associated with academic outcomes, including math and reading (e.g., Brock, Rimm-Kaufman, Nathanson, & Grimm, 2009;Kim, Nordling, Yoon, Boldt, & Kochanska, 2013;Willoughby, Kupersmidt, Voegler-Lee, & Bryant, 2011). Deficits in hot EF differentiate oppositional defiant disorder/ conduct disorder (ODD/CD) from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adolescence (Hobson, Scott, & Rubia, 2011), and they are differentially implicated in different forms of ADHD (e.g., Castellanos, Sonuga-Barke, Milham, & Tannock, 2006).…”