The Measurement of Executive Function at Age 3 Years: Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity of a New Battery of Tasks

被引:225
作者
Willoughby, Michael T. [1 ]
Wirth, R. J. [1 ]
Blair, Clancy B. [2 ]
Greenberg, Mark [3 ]
机构
[1] Univ N Carolina Chapel Hill, FPG Child Dev Inst, Carrboro, NC 27510 USA
[2] NYU, Dept Appl Psychol, New York, NY 10003 USA
[3] Penn State Univ, Prevent Res Ctr, University Pk, PA 16802 USA
关键词
executive function; early childhood; psychometrics; ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER; WORKING-MEMORY CAPACITY; DIFFICULTIES QUESTIONNAIRE; CHILDREN; STRENGTHS; MIND; INTELLIGENCE; INHIBITION; SYMPTOMS; RATINGS;
D O I
10.1037/a0018708
中图分类号
B849 [应用心理学];
学科分类号
040203 ;
摘要
In this study, the authors examined the psychometric properties and criterion validity of a newly developed battery of tasks that were designed to assess executive function (EF) abilities in early childhood. The battery was included in the 36-month assessment of the Family Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of 1,292 children oversampled from low-income and African American families. Ninety-one percent of children were able to complete 1 or more of the tasks. Psychometric analyses were used to test the dimensionality of each task, evaluate the item and task properties, test the dimensionality of the task battery, and evaluate the criterion validity of the battery with multi-informant measures of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology and child performance on two subtests of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Results indicated that the tasks were successful in measuring interindividual differences in child EF ability, that task scores were most informative about ability level for children in the low to moderate range of ability, that children's performance across the entire battery was adequately summarized by a single factor, and that individual differences on the EF battery were related to ADHD symptomatology and intelligence in expected ways. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of developing psychometrically sound, scalable instruments that facilitate the measurement of interindividual differences in intraindividual change of EF across the early childhood period.
引用
收藏
页码:306 / 317
页数:12
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