Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Aug;220:105421. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105421. Epub 2022 Mar 28.
Executive functioning, composed of higher-order cognitive skills, rapidly develops in early childhood and is foundational for school readiness and school-age academic achievement. Identifying constellations of factors that are related to the development of executive functioning may inform interventions that prepare children for academic success. This study examined sleep disturbances as a moderator of the association between effortful control, defined as temperament-based self-regulation, and executive functioning among young children. Multiple regressions controlling for child gender and age and caregiver education tested the study research question. Participants were 54 children (M = 4.25 years, SD = 0.98; 56% male, 85% White) and their primary caregivers. Caregivers reported on children's effortful control and sleep disturbances via questionnaire, and executive functioning was objectively measured using two well-validated assessment tools. Results showed that high effortful control was associated with better performance on both executive functioning tasks for children with few sleep disturbances. Effortful control was not related to executive functioning in the context of high levels of sleep disturbances. Thus, children whose caregivers observed them to have a temperamental predisposition for higher self-regulation as well as fewer sleep disturbances had the highest executive functioning, suggesting that better-quality sleep may enhance the association between high effortful control and children's executive functioning. Self-regulation and sleep both are responsive to intervention and may be useful targets to improve executive functioning and in turn academic preparedness and success.
执行功能由高阶认知技能组成，在幼儿期迅速发展，是入学准备和学龄期学业成就的基础。确定与执行功能发展相关的因素组合可能为准备儿童取得学业成功的干预措施提供信息。本研究考察了睡眠障碍作为努力控制（定义为基于气质的自我调节）与幼儿执行功能之间关联的调节因素。多项回归控制了儿童性别、年龄和照顾者教育，并检验了研究问题。参与者是 54 名儿童（M=4.25 岁，SD=0.98；56%为男性，85%为白人）及其主要照顾者。照顾者通过问卷报告儿童的努力控制和睡眠障碍，使用两种经过充分验证的评估工具客观测量执行功能。结果表明，对于睡眠障碍较少的儿童，高努力控制与执行功能的两个任务表现更好相关。在睡眠障碍水平较高的情况下，努力控制与执行功能无关。因此，那些照顾者观察到他们具有更高自我调节气质倾向且睡眠障碍较少的儿童具有最高的执行功能，这表明更好的睡眠质量可能会增强高努力控制与儿童执行功能之间的关联。自我调节和睡眠都可以通过干预来改善，并且可能是改善执行功能进而提高入学准备和成功的有用目标。
