Relations between inhibitory control and the development of academic skills in preschool and kindergarten: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

Although there is evidence that young children's inhibitory control (IC) is related to their academic skills, the nature of this relation and the role of potential moderators of it are not well understood. In this meta-analytic study, we summarized results from 75 peer-reviewed studies of preschool and kindergarten children (14,424 children; 32-80 months old [M = 54.71 months; SD = 9.70]) across a wide range of socioeconomic status. The mean effect size (r) across studies was .27 (95% confidence interval [.24, .29]), indicating a moderate and statistically significant association between self-regulation and academic skills. The association between IC and academic skills was moderated by type of IC behavior task (i.e., hot vs. cool behavior task), by method of assessing IC (i.e., behavior task vs. parent report), and by academic subject (i.e., literacy vs. math), but not by other methods of assessing IC (i.e., behavior task vs. teacher report, parent report vs. teacher report) or by grade (i.e., preschool vs. kindergarten). The results of this meta-analysis suggest that there are preferred methods for assessing IC (i.e., cool behavior tasks, teacher reports) that should be considered when examining the relations between IC and academic skills in young children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring dimensionality of effortful control using hot and cool tasks in a sample of preschool children

“…However, examination of zero-order correlations indicated that cool EC was associated with both fall and spring literacy abilities, whereas hot EC was associated with only spring literacy ability. Allan, Hume, Allan, Farrington, and Lonigan (2014) examined the differential relations of EC tasks classified as hot versus cool with academic abilities in preschool and kindergarten children in a meta-analysis of 30 studies. Although both hot and cool tasks were associated with concurrently administered academic measures, cool tasks were significantly more related to academic measures than were hot tasks.…”

Executive Function Skills and Their Effect on the Academic Life of Students

“…Executive function skills assist with the achievement of objectives, time management, working memory, creativity and beyond. Recognizing and enhancing them has an impact on the individual's academic and personal growth (Allan, Hume, Allan, Farrington, & Lonigan, 2014). Executive function skills are applicable in both school (Serpell & Esposito, 2016) and the workplace.…”

Introduction to the Special Section on Executive Functions and Externalizing Symptoms

“…Yet as research on EFs has matured, investigators have adopted a greater focus on specificity, splitting the larger constructs into subdomains. For example, meta-analytic studies suggest that inhibitory control is more strongly related to math than to reading performance (Allan et al 2014), whereas the relation between cognitive flexibility and these two academic subdomains does not appear to differ (Yeniad et al 2013). In this special section, Huang-Pollock et al (2017) and Lonigan et al (2017) both investigate questions about the degree to which EFs are associated with externalizing symptoms Bin general^as well as specific subtypes of externalizing symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, and oppositional behavior.…”