Childhood SES and EF in childhood and beyond

Socioeconomic status (SES) predicts health, wellbeing, and cognitive ability, including executive function (EF). A body of recent work has shown that childhood SES is positively related to EF, but it is not known whether this disparity grows, diminishes or holds steady over development, from childhood through adulthood. We examined the association between childhood SES and EF in a sample ranging from 9-25 years of age, with six canonical EF tasks. Analyzing the tasks together and in functionally defined groups, we found positive relations between SES and EF, and the relations did not vary by age. Analyzing the tasks separately, SES was positively associated with performance in some but not all EF measures, depending on the covariates used, again without varying by age. These results add to a growing body of evidence that childhood SES is associated with EF abilities, and contribute novel evidence concerning the persistence of this association into early adulthood.

社会经济地位（Socioeconomic Status, SES）可预测个体的健康状况、主观福祉以及包括执行功能（Executive Function, EF）在内的认知能力。近年来诸多研究表明，儿童期社会经济地位与执行功能呈正相关，但目前尚不清楚这种差距在从童年到成年的整个发展进程中，是会逐渐扩大、缩小还是保持稳定。本研究针对年龄跨度为9至25岁的样本，采用六项经典执行功能任务，探究了儿童期社会经济地位与执行功能之间的关联。研究中，我们既对所有任务进行联合分析，也按功能维度划分的组别开展分组分析，结果发现社会经济地位与执行功能之间存在正相关关系，且该关联并未随年龄发生变化。在单独分析各项任务时，根据所纳入的协变量不同，社会经济地位仅与部分（而非全部）执行功能测量指标的表现呈正相关，同样未随年龄产生变化。本研究结果进一步充实了"儿童期社会经济地位与执行功能存在关联"的相关实证研究，并为该关联可持续至成年早期提供了全新的证据支持。