Socioeconomic status and executive function: developmental trajectories and mediation

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) predicts executive function (EF), but fundamental aspects of this relation remain unknown: the developmental course of the SES disparity, its continued sensitivity to SES changes during that course, and the features of childhood experience responsible for the SES-EF relation. Regarding course, early disparities would be expected to grow during development if caused by accumulating stressors at a given constant level of SES. Alternatively, they would narrow if schooling partly compensates for the effects of earlier deprivation, allowing lower-SES children to 'catch up'. The potential for later childhood SES change to affect EF is also unknown. Regarding mediating factors,…

• NI
  National Institutes of Health
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  National Institute of Mental Health

  Award: MH018269
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  National Institute on Drug Abuse

  Award: DA14129
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  National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

  Award: HD055689