Parenting and Children's Executive Function Stability Across the Transition to School

When children transition to school between the ages of 4 and 6 years, they must learn to control their attention and behaviour to be successful. Concurrently, executive function (EF) is an important skill undergoing significant development in childhood. To understand changes occurring during this period, we examined the role of parenting in the development of children's EF from 4 to 6 years old. Participants were mother and child dyads ( N = 151). Children completed cognitive tasks to assess overall EF at age 4 and age 6. At both time points, mothers and children completed interaction tasks which were videotaped and coded to assess various parenting dimensions. Results indicated that children with high EF at age 4 were more likely to have high EF at age 6. In addition, results suggested that higher levels of positive parenting across the transition to school promote stability of individual differences in EF. Highlights This study investigated the association between parenting and the development of children's executive function (EF) skills across the transition to school. Children's EF and mothers' parenting were assessed at age 4 and age 6. The stability of individual differences in EF was linked to positive parenting. Parenting practises may be related to the stability of individual difference in EF across the transition to school.