Funções executivas em crianças : relação com características cognitivas, parentais e ambientais e predição de desempenho acadêmico

• Autor(a) principal: Martins, Gabriela Lamarca Luxo
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações do Mackenzie
• Texto Completo: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/24557
• topic: função executiva; avaliação; relações familiares; CNPQ::CIENCIAS DA SAUDE; CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::GEOGRAFIA

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.