RETRACTED ARTICLE: The Relation between Home Environment and Each Domain of Executive Function Skills of Children

Abstract

Executive function (EF) skills are considered to be important factors for the development of children’s school readiness and academic achievement. These skills may be developed in the home environment. The relation between home environment and the development of children’s EF has been widely discussed in the literature on early childhood education. It is also important to investigate the relation between EF-specific activities at home and the development of children’s EF skills. The Home EF Environment (HEFE) scale was recently developed and it was found that the parents’ EF-specific activities were positively correlated to the children’s EF. However, the items of the scale didn’t reflect all EF-specific activities at home and the scale cannot be administrated to Korean children without modification since the home environment varies in different cultures. For this reason, in the present study, we detailed the items of HEFE scale and analyzed the association between the parent-reported HEFE scale and EF skills of children with a sample of 146 preschool children and one of their parents in Pyongyang, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. For the sample, the mean age of children ranged from 34 to 57 months (M = 46.66, SD = 6.99), and 50.7% were male. On the basis of a correlational matrix, we found that the HEFE scale was positively correlated to the inhibitory control and working memory of children, but not to cognitive flexibility. We also found that the Home Learning Environment (HLE) was significantly and positively related to all three domains of children’s EF. In addition, some of the EF-specific activities (block play, memory game, concentration game and jogging) were significantly correlated to the HLE. The potential importance of the HLE and EF-specific activities at home are addressed in the discussion.