This study investigated links of executive functioning to gains in school readiness skills and explored the mediating role of children's behavioral engagement in the PreK classroom. We collected direct assessments of executive functioning (EF) and observations of behavioral engagement for 767 children (mean age 52.63 months) from racially/ethnically diverse, low-income backgrounds three times over the PreK year. We also measured school readiness in the domains of language, literacy, and math using direct assessments and collected teacher-report measures of socialemotional-behavioral skills and approaches to learning. Our analyses addressed the following three research questions: 1) To what extent does children's EF predict school readiness skill gains during PreK? 2) To what extent does children's behavioral engagement in PreK classrooms predict school readiness skill gains? 3) To what extent does behavioral engagement mediate the relation of EF with school readiness skill gains? We observed that EF was positively related to gains in language, math, and approaches to learning. Regarding behavioral engagement, Negative Classroom Engagement was negatively related to gains in literacy, math, social-emotionalbehavioral skills, and approaches to learning while Positive Task Engagement was positively related to gains in approaches to learning. Negative Classroom Engagement significantly mediated the effects of EF on gains in the domains of literacy, socialemotional-behavioral skills, and approaches to learning. We describe implications of these findings for promoting children's ability to learn and thrive in PreK contexts with a focus on their engagement with teachers, peers, and learning activities.

中文翻译：

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阐明执行功能与入学准备技能增益的联系：学前班课堂中行为参与的中介作用


这项研究调查了执行功能与入学准备技能的联系，并探讨了学前班课堂中儿童行为参与的中介作用。我们在学前班一年内收集了 3 次对来自不同种族/民族、低收入背景的 767 名儿童（平均年龄 52.63 个月）的执行功能 (EF) 直接评估和行为参与观察。我们还使用直接评估来衡量语言、读写和数学领域的入学准备情况，并收集了教师报告的社会情感行为技能和学习方法的衡量标准。我们的分析解决了以下三个研究问题：1）儿童的 EF 在多大程度上预测学前班期间入学准备技能的提高？ 2) 儿童在学前班课堂上的行为参与在多大程度上可以预测入学准备技能的提高？ 3) 行为参与在多大程度上调节 EF 与入学准备技能增益的关系？我们观察到 EF 与语言、数学和学习方法的进步呈正相关。关于行为参与度，消极的课堂参与度与读写能力、数学、社交情感行为技能和学习方法的进步呈负相关，而积极的任务参与度与学习方法的进步呈正相关。消极课堂参与显着介导了 EF 对读写能力、社会情感行为技能和学习方法等领域收益的影响。我们描述了这些发现对于促进儿童在学前班环境中学习和成长的能力的影响，重点是他们与老师、同伴和学习活动的互动。