Developmental Profile of Executive Functioning in School-Age Children From Northeast Brazil
The development of executive functions (EF) is recognizably correlated to culture, contextual and social factors. However, studies considering all the basic EF are still scarce in Brazil, most notably in the Northeast region, which is known for its social inequality and economic gap. This study aime...
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Published in | Frontiers in psychology Vol. 11; p. 596075 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media
14.01.2021
Frontiers Media S.A |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The development of executive functions (EF) is recognizably correlated to culture, contextual and social factors. However, studies considering all the basic EF are still scarce in Brazil, most notably in the Northeast region, which is known for its social inequality and economic gap. This study aimed to analyze the developmental trajectories and structure of four EF, namely inhibition, flexibility, working memory and planning. In addition, the potential effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and gender were examined. The sample included 230 Brazilian children between 7-12 years old, homogeneously distributed by age, gender and type of school. The EF were assessed through the Brazilian version of the Child Executive Functions Battery (CEF-B). A global effect of age was found for most of the EF measures evaluated. Gender effect was mostly non-significant, except for 4 of the 12 tasks. There was a significant SES effect on 8 tasks, all in favor of private school children. Exploratory factorial and correlation analysis showed a 4-factor EF structure, corroborating the theoretical distribution considered in the CEF-B. A developmental progression is evident in the results for all of the EF measures evaluated. While gender had little influence on EF, SES seems to significantly impact the development of EF. As normative data are still lacking in Northeast Brazil, this study may help to understand EF development trajectories and provide tools for neuropsychological evaluation. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Gian Marco Marzocchi, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy This article was submitted to Developmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Reviewed by: Sergio Morra, University of Genoa, Italy; Debora Nice Ferrari Barbosa, Feevale University, Brazil |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 1664-1078 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.596075 |