Early childhood executive function predicts concurrent and later social and behavioral outcomes: A review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

Executive function (EF), the set of mental processes and skills involved in goal-oriented planning, organizing, and controlling behavior, is believed to support child development across many domains of life. However, although ample evidence suggests a relation between childhood EF and academic skills, it is less clear what its role is in domains beyond academics. We report a meta-analysis of relations between early childhood EF (assessed at 36-60 months of age) and social, health, and behavioral outcomes assessed concurrently and longitudinally (1,459 effect sizes, 158 studies, n = 144,642). No significant relations were found between EF and health outcomes. EF was concurrently associated with emotion understanding and regulation, prosocial skills, peer acceptance, and skill at lying. Both concurrently and longitudinally, EF was positively associated with peer acceptance, adaptive classroom behavior, and social competence, and negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, and inattention and hyperactivity. For adolescent outcomes, only the relation between EF and internalizing could be meta-analyzed, and no significant relation was found between these variables. The magnitude of effect sizes varied, with absolute values ranging from r = .02 to .30. Moderator analyses indicated the relation between EF and behavioral outcomes varied by outcome, but there was no such finding for EF and social or health outcomes. EF was more strongly associated with teacher- versus parent-reported behavioral problems. There was little evidence that quality indicators affected effect sizes. There was also little evidence of publication bias. Overall, our results are consistent with the possibility of broad relevance of EF for child development; yet, future research should provide stronger causal tests of hypothesized relations between EF and outcomes to better understand the nature of EF and whether fostering it can promote healthy development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).