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Maternal Executive Functions, Maternal Discipline, and Children’s School Readiness: A Process Oriented Approach

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Abstract

Emerging conceptual frameworks identify executive functions as a potential explanatory variable in determinants of parenting, and a growing body of research has demonstrated associations between executive functions and parenting behaviors. Toward this end, the current study employs a process model investigating how maternal executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control, and set shifting) influence caregiving approaches to discipline, and how parental discipline is associated with children’s school adjustment over time. Additionally, this research represents one of the first attempts to understand the specific processes underlying a parents’ ability to take on a scaffolding approach within discipline scenarios. This sample consisted of 243 socioeconomically and ethnically diverse mothers and their 5–6 year old children. Multi-informant methods were used to assess constructs. Results showed that maternal inhibitory control was associated with greater use of scaffolding discipline, which was in turn related to higher levels of children’s school engagement and more positive teacher–child relationships one year later. Results are interpreted within an ecological framework regarding the role that parental neurocognitive functioning has on children’s adjustment outcomes. This research has implications for better understanding which aspects of parenting would be ideal targets when developing interventions to aide children in their adjustment to formal schooling.

Highlights

  • We examined how mothers’ executive functions impact their use of scaffolding discipline, and how this in turn influences children’s school adjustment.

  • Multi-informant and methods were used, including behavioral coding, cognitive tasks, and surveys. Maternal inhibitory control was associated with greater use of scaffolding discipline, which was in turn related to more positive child school adjustment outcomes one year later.

  • Mother’s use of scaffolding discipline has important implications for children’s school adjustment as they transition from kindergarten into first grade.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the children, parents, teachers, and community agencies who participated in this project. We would also like to thank the Mt. Hope Family Center Staff and the graduate and under-graduate students at the University of Rochester who assisted on this project.

Funding

This research was supported by the Eunice Shriver Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD065425) awarded to Patrick T. Davies and Melissa L. Sturge-Apple

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Correspondence to Hannah R. Jones-Gordils.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of a full board review with the University of Rochester Institutional Review Board (RSRB 00030261) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Jones-Gordils, H.R., Sturge-Apple, M.L. & Davies, P.T. Maternal Executive Functions, Maternal Discipline, and Children’s School Readiness: A Process Oriented Approach. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1393–1405 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01949-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01949-9

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