Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning.
Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning.
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593
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发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Munakata Y
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barker JE;Semenov AD;Michaelson L;Provan LS;Snyder HR;Munakata Y
童年时期的执行功能（EF）可预测重要的人生结果。因此，人们对在生命早期改善 EF 的尝试非常感兴趣。许多干预措施是由经过培训的成年人领导的，包括实验室中的结构化培训活动和学校中实施的结构化活动。此类计划在儿童的外部驱动执行功能方面取得了成果，他们被指示执行什么目标导向的行动以及何时执行。然而，目前尚不清楚儿童的经历与他们的自我导向执行功能的发展有何关系，他们必须自己决定执行哪些目标导向的行动以及何时执行。我们假设，花在结构性较低的活动上的时间会给孩子们机会来练习自我指导的执行功能，并带来好处。为了调查这种可能性，我们从父母那里收集了有关他们 6-7 岁孩子的日常、年度和典型时间表的信息。我们根据先前关于儿童休闲时间利用的研究的分类方案，将儿童活动分为“结构化”或“非结构化”。我们使用一项完善的语言流畅性任务来评估儿童的自我导向执行功能，在该任务中，儿童产生一个类别的成员，并可以自行决定何时从一个子类别切换到另一个子类别。孩子们花在松散活动上的时间越多，他们的自我导向执行功能就越好。结构化活动的情况恰恰相反，它预示着自我指导的执行功能较差。这些关系是稳健的（对结构化时间和非结构化时间的日益严格的分类）和具体的（时间使用并不能预测外部驱动的执行功能）。我们讨论了影响、警告以及在未来的工作中区分潜在解释的方式，以增进对成长这一基本方面的理解。
Executive functions (EFs) in childhood predict important life outcomes. Thus, there is great interest in attempts to improve EFs early in life. Many interventions are led by trained adults, including structured training activities in the lab, and less-structured activities implemented in schools. Such programs have yielded gains in children's externally-driven executive functioning, where they are instructed on what goal-directed actions to carry out and when. However, it is less clear how children's experiences relate to their development of self-directed executive functioning, where they must determine on their own what goal-directed actions to carry out and when. We hypothesized that time spent in less-structured activities would give children opportunities to practice self-directed executive functioning, and lead to benefits. To investigate this possibility, we collected information from parents about their 6–7 year-old children's daily, annual, and typical schedules. We categorized children's activities as “structured” or “less-structured” based on categorization schemes from prior studies on child leisure time use. We assessed children's self-directed executive functioning using a well-established verbal fluency task, in which children generate members of a category and can decide on their own when to switch from one subcategory to another. The more time that children spent in less-structured activities, the better their self-directed executive functioning. The opposite was true of structured activities, which predicted poorer self-directed executive functioning. These relationships were robust (holding across increasingly strict classifications of structured and less-structured time) and specific (time use did not predict externally-driven executive functioning). We discuss implications, caveats, and ways in which potential interpretations can be distinguished in future work, to advance an understanding of this fundamental aspect of growing up.
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