Funções executivas em crianças : relação com características cognitivas, parentais e ambientais e predição de desempenho acadêmico
Tipo
Tese
Data de publicação
2017-12-12
Periódico
Citações (Scopus)
Autores
Martins, Gabriela Lamarca Luxo
Orientador
Seabra, Alessandra Gotuzo
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Membros da banca
Osório, Ana Alexandra Caldas
Macedo, Elizeu Coutinho de
Fonseca, Rochele Paz
Abreu, José Neander Silva
Macedo, Elizeu Coutinho de
Fonseca, Rochele Paz
Abreu, José Neander Silva
Programa
Distúrbios do Desenvolvimento
Resumo
The key competencies to plan, initiate, perform and monitor intentional behaviors related
to a goal or environmental demands are called executive functions. These are related to
various personal characteristics, including academic performance and other cognitive
abilities of the individual, as well as the characteristics of the parents and the family
environment. Thus, parents can contribute to the children achieving a level of executive
function beyond what they could achieve alone, due to both their own abilities and the
characteristics of the family environment. Some previous studies also suggest that
children with better performance in executive functions tend to perform better in other
areas, including more optimistic perspectives about the future and a greater possibility of
attributing mental states to their interlocutor and to themselves. Aiming to better
understand the relationship between executive functions and these characteristics, this
research was divided into two studies: a) Study 1: aimed to map characteristics of children
and parents, identifying possible relationships between them (including: executive
functions, academic performance, family environment, optimism, educational practices
and mind theory) and b) Study 2: verified which of these variables would predict the
academic characteristics of the children assessed at a later time. In Study 1, participants
were 205 children from the 1st and 2nd years of Elementary Education I, with a mean age
of 6.54 years, enrolled in a public school in the city of São Paulo. Some of their parents
(biological mother or father) also participated, totaling 108 people. In the first stage, the
children were evaluated in tests of executive functions, reading, arithmetic, intelligence,
optimism and mind theory; and the parents in executive functions, optimism, family
environment and parenting style. In Study 2, conducted a year and a half after Study 1,
138 children were still enrolled in the same school and participated in the reevaluation of
reading and mathematics, their Portuguese Language and Mathematics grades were also
analyzed. In Study 1, descriptive statistical analyses of the performances in all
instruments and Pearson’s partial correlation analyzes were performed between the
measures evaluated, controlling for age. There were few significant correlations between
the executive functions of the children and the executive functions of their parents, varying
from very low to moderate magnitude, suggesting that the level of executive functions of the
parents was slightly related to that of the child. Regarding the correlations between the
executive functions of the children and their abilities, significant correlations were found
between cognitive flexibility and working memory with at least one measure of all abilities,
except for optimism. Inhibitory control presented correlations with matrix reasoning,
reading and arithmetic skills. However, stronger correlations were expected with the
construct of mind theory, which were not observed. Considering the few correlations, it can
be suggested that other variables may have greater relevance on the level of executive
functions of the children, for example, it is possible that the behavior of parents may be more
relevant than their own cognitive abilities; or that the influence of the school environment has
a greater impact on the abilities of the children when compared to the family, which would
explain the lack of significant correlations with parental characteristics and the family
environment. In Study 2 the predictive power of the measures in the first evaluation on
the Portuguese Language and Mathematics performances in the second evaluation were
verified. Regression analyses indicated some significant predictions, however, the values
were low, suggesting that other skills, not evaluated in this study, may also be relevant
predictors. The cognitive flexibility of the parents was the main predictor for the
mathematical performance of the children, as well as the resources of the family
environment. The working memory of the children was the most relevant ability to predict
the Portuguese Language and Mathematics grades. Thus, the present study revealed, in
general, that parental variables, family environment and other abilities of the children
(such as optimism and mind theory) presented little relation to their executive functions.
Although unexpected, these results were discussed as being due to other influences, such
as the language skills of the children and the school environment, which were not
evaluated in this research. It is necessary to conduct new studies to test these hypotheses,
which, if corroborated, may highlight the importance of evaluations and interventions in
the school aimed at promoting child development.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
função executiva , avaliação , relações familiares
Assuntos Scopus
Citação
MARTINS, Gabriela Lamarca Luxo. Funções executivas em crianças : relação com características cognitivas, parentais e ambientais e predição de desempenho acadêmico. 2017. 163 f. Tese (Distúrbios do Desenvolvimento) - Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo .