PREDICTORS OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTION DEVELOPMENT IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

          Executive function development is important in that it has an effect on successful life from infancy through adulthood. This predictive correlational research aimed to examine predicting factors of executive function development in preschool children. A multi-stage random sampling was used to recruit a sample of 84 mothers and their preschool children who receiving service at child care centers in the municipality of Buriram province. Data were collected during July to August, 2019. Research instruments included a demographic questionnaire, the child temperament questionnaire, the parenting stress index, the parent-child attachment questionnaire, and the child rearing style questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of these questionnaires were 0.72, 0.85, 0.91 and 0.91, respectively. Interrater reliability of the executive function development in preschool children’s scale was 0.87-1.00. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression.
          Results showed that parent-child attachment was the best predictor (β = 0.674, p-value < 0.001), the second was parenting stress (β = -0.203, p-value = 0.005), the third was democratic parenting style (β = 0.160, p-value = 0.024) and the fourth was temperament friendly child (β = 0.159, p-value = 0.031). All these 4 predictors accounted for 62.2 % of the variance in the prediction of executive function development in preschool children (R2 = 0.622, F(4,79) = 32.437, p-value < 0.001). These findings suggest that nurses and health care providers should promote parent-child attachment, provide appropriate care for parenting style, develop activities to decrease parenting stress and provide appropriate care for child temperament.
Consequently, preschool children would have more appropriate executive function development.