Maternal and paternal mental-state talk and executive function in preschool children

The present study examined the relationship between parents’ mental-state talk and
preschoolers’ executive function. Seventy-two children participated in the present
study, as well as their mothers and fathers. When children were enrolled in the second
preschool year, mothers’ and fathers’ use of mental-state references were
assessed during a shared picture-book reading task with the child. Later, four
months before admission to the first grade, preschoolers’ executive function was
measured. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that maternal, but not paternal,
mental-state talk was a significant predictor of children’s executive function
composite, even after accounting for child gender, age, verbal ability, and parental
education. When looking at each of the EF components, maternal mental-state talk
proved to be a predictor of set-shifting whereas no significant relations emerged
with inhibitory control or working memory. These findings add to prior research on
parenting quality and executive function in preschoolers.
This research was supported by Grant COMPETE: FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-015504 from
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, and the European Regional Development Fund
(FEDER) through the European program COMPETE (Operational Programme for Competitiveness
Factors) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) attributed to the research project titled ‘Children’s socio-emotional-cognitive school readiness: A longitudinal approach to its developmental course during preschool years’ (PTDC/PSI-EDD/114527/2009; also grant SFRH/BPD/100994/2014 assigned to the first author). The authors are very grateful to the students who helped with data collection. Special thanks go to the children and families who participated in the study.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion