Claire Hughes

Recent years have seen a remarkable growth of research interest in young children’s ‘executive function’ (EF), the cognitive processes that underpin flexible goal directed behaviour (e.g., inhibitory control, working memory and attentional set-shifting).  In particular, striking associations have been reported between variation in EF and preschool children’s social understanding, academic success and behavioral adjustment (for meta-analytic reviews, see Devine & Hughes; Jacob & Parkinson, 2015; Schoemaker, Mulder, Deković & Matthys, 2013). Coupled with growing recognition that the first 1000 days of life provide a ‘golden window’ for intervention, these findings highlight the potential importance of investigating EF in infancy and early toddlerhood. With this goal in mind, we are currently completing an international longitudinal study of just over 400 expectant parents from Cambridge in the UK, New York, USA and the Netherlands. These families were all seen at home before the birth of their first child and again at 4, 14 and 24 months. Emerging findings related to infants’ performance on a battery of EF tasks completed at 14 and 24 months, coupled with parallel dyadic observations of infants’ interactions with mothers and fathers and parental EF performance enable us to examine: (i) the measurement, nature and precursors of EF in toddlerhood; (ii) intergenerational associations in EF performance; (iii) maternal and paternal social influences on individual differences in EF (e.g., exposure to parental depression, variability in parental autonomy support); and (iv) similarities and contrasts in the results from the three countries.

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