%0 Journal Article
%T Maternal emotional support but not cognitive support during problem
%A Esther M. Leerkes
%A Selin Zeytinoglu
%A Susan D. Calkins
%J International Journal of Behavioral Development
%@ 1464-0651
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0165025418757706
%X Cognitive flexibility is a sophisticated form of executive functions that predicts a range of adaptive outcomes; however, little is known about which caregiving behaviors predict the rapid improvements in childrenĄ¯s cognitive flexibility during early childhood. This study examined whether ordinary variations in mothersĄ¯ provision of emotional and cognitive support during problem-solving predict childrenĄ¯s cognitive flexibility and tested whether childrenĄ¯s cognitive flexibility predicts caregiving behaviors across time. Two hundred and seventy-eight children and their caregivers (96% mothers) participated in laboratory visits when children were in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. At each visit, cognitive flexibility was measured via a computerized version of the Dimensional Change Card Sort task and mothersĄ¯ behaviors were observed during a semi-structured problem-solving board game task. Results from autoregressive cross-lagged structural regression analyses indicated that mothersĄ¯ emotional support predicted greater child cognitive flexibility from preschool to kindergarten, and from kindergarten to first grade, after accounting for the stability in these constructs over time and controlling for the influence of maternal education, and child age and minority status. MothersĄ¯ cognitive support did not predict child cognitive flexibility over time. Child cognitive flexibility did not lead to changes in caregiving behaviors over time. Findings suggest that mothersĄ¯ provision of emotional support during problem-solving may be an important proximal mechanism that contributes to childrenĄ¯s cognitive flexibility across early childhood
%K Cognitive flexibility
%K executive functions
%K parenting
%K parenting behaviors
%K early childhood
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0165025418757706