Abstract
Although previous work has linked parent autonomy support to the development of children’s executive function (EF) skills, the role of specific autonomy-supportive behaviors has not been thoroughly investigated. We compiled data from four preschool-age samples in the Midwestern United States (N = 366; M age = 44.26 months; 72% non-Hispanic White, 19% Black/African American, 5% Multiracial) to examine three relevant autonomy-supportive behaviors (supporting competence, positive verbalizations, and offering choice) and their associations with child EF. We coded parent autonomy-supportive behaviors from a 10-min interaction between parent and child dyads working on challenging jigsaw puzzles together. Children completed a battery of EF. Overall, child EF was most consistently correlated with the offering choice subscale. Additionally, only the offering choice subscale predicted child EF while controlling for the other autonomy support subscales and child age. These results suggest that parent provision of choice is an especially relevant aspect of autonomy-supportive parenting and may be important to the development of EF in early childhood. Future research should directly measure children’s experience with choice and how it relates to emerging EF.
Highlights
There is a wealth of evidence for the predictive importance of early executive function (EF) skills for social and moral competence, emotion regulation, and academic achievement (e.g., Kochanska et al, 2000; Carlson and Wang, 2007; McClelland et al, 2013; Allan et al, 2014; Jacob and Parkinson, 2015; Willoughby et al, 2017)
Early and repeated experiences with choice could increase children’s perceived control and strengthen their EF skills through autonomous action. In line with this theoretical framework, we propose that parent behaviors that consistently provide children with opportunities to make choices are especially important to the development of child EF skills, above and beyond some other autonomy-supportive behaviors
In line with our hypothesis, we found that child EF was most strongly correlated with the Offering Choice subscale
Summary
There is a wealth of evidence for the predictive importance of early executive function (EF) skills for social and moral competence, emotion regulation, and academic achievement (e.g., Kochanska et al, 2000; Carlson and Wang, 2007; McClelland et al, 2013; Allan et al, 2014; Jacob and Parkinson, 2015; Willoughby et al, 2017). Considering that caregivers make up most of children’s early social interactions, an emerging area of research has concentrated on how parenting behaviors might serve as potential facilitators for EF skill development in children. Carlson (2003) proposed three dimensions of parenting that might promote EF development in children: sensitivity, autonomy support, and mind-mindedness. We conceptualize autonomy support based on four dimensions: the extent to which the parent adapts the task according to the child’s needs, encourages and provides the child with suggestions using a positive tone of voice, shows flexibility in their attempts to keep the child on task, and provides choices to ensure that the child plays an active role in the task while following the child’s pace (Whipple et al, 2011)
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