Bilingual children are often reported to demonstrate stronger executive function than monolinguals, but less is known about how bilingual experience shapes its development during early childhood. This study analyzed a nationally representative sample of 18,174 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, kindergarten class of 2010-2011, modeling executive function growth from kindergarten through fifth grade across four groups with varying bilingual experiences. Multilevel and multiple regression analyses showed that being bilingual was associated with enhanced working memory but not cognitive flexibility or inhibitory control. The working memory advantage was not moderated by the age of second language acquisition or the degree of cross-linguistic similarities. These findings shed light on the specificity and generalizability of the effects of bilingual experience on executive function in early childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Youchuan Ma (Mon,) studied this question.