Partial agreement between task and BRIEF‐P‐based EF measures depends on school socioeconomic status

• Published in: Developmental science Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. e13241 - n/a
• Main Authors: Nin, Verónica, Delgado, Hernán, Muniz‐Terrera, Graciela, Carboni, Alejandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley 01.09.2022; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Behavior Rating Scales; child development; Cognition; Cognitive Ability; cognitive assessment; Cognitive Measurement; Correlation; Executive Function; executive functions; Inhibition; Memory; multilevel analysis; Predictor Variables; Preschool Children; Questionnaires; Schools; Self Control; self‐regulation; SES; Short Term Memory; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; SES; multilevel analysis; child development; self-regulation; cognitive assessment; executive functions
• ISSN: 1363-755X; 1467-7687
• DOI: 10.1111/desc.13241

Executive functions (EF), either conceptualized as skills involved in regulation of cognition and emotion in service of goal‐oriented behavior, or reductively as working memory, flexibility and inhibitory control, are commonly invoked constructs in developmental science. Two main traditions on EFs measurement prevail, one consisting of ratings obtained through questionnaires that inquire on behavior in common situations, the other based on performance in laboratory tasks. Whether both types of assessment actually refer to the same constructs is not consensual. Further, the role of school context in the degree of correspondence between both types of measures remains largely unexplored. Here, we show in a sample of over 220 children (age M = 5.6, SD = 0.4 years), by means of multilevel models, that whether EF tasks can predict BRIEF‐P ratings and vice‐versa, depends on the process considered and on the school SES. Inhibitory control, planning, and global executive functioning are associated with BRIEF‐P ratings in all schools. In contrast, we found no association among measures of flexibility independently of school SES. For working memory, we found that questionnaire rating predicts span only in high SES schools, but span predicts behaviors across schools. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature that proposes constructs assessed by questionnaires and tasks only partially overlap and suggests that school SES may be a relevant factor to consider when questionnaires are answered by teachers.