Executive functions and mathematical ability in early elementary school children: The moderating role of family socioeconomic status.

作者：Xiao-Liang Zhu, Yixin Tang, Zhuoyue Pang, Xin Zhao · 发表于：Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106252 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Medicine

Children's executive functions (EFs) and family socioeconomic status (SES) play critical roles in the development of mathematical ability in early elementary education. However, the potential interplay between EFs and SES remains underexplored. This study addressed this gap by comprehensively investigating the moderating role of SES in the relationship between EF subcomponents (i.e., interference inhibition, response inhibition, and working memory) and children's concurrent and future mathematical abilities (i.e., arithmetic operations and logical-visuospatial skills). A total of 172 participants (Mage = 6.78 years; 107 boys) took part in the study at the beginning of first grade in elementary school (T1) and 20 months later (T2). We measured EFs, SES, and mathematical ability at T1 and mathematical ability at T2. Results from hierarchical linear regression models indicated that working memory was positively associated with T1 arithmetic operations and logical-visuospatial skills as well as with T2 arithmetic operations. Furthermore, family SES was positively associated with arithmetic operations at both T1 and T2. Notably, we found a significant interaction effect between interference inhibition and SES on T1 arithmetic operations and logical-visuospatial skills. Specifically, interference inhibition was positively related to T1 arithmetic operations and logical-visuospatial skills for children from low- and middle-SES families, but not for children from high-SES families. O...