Using confirmatory factor analysis to understand executive control in preschool children: I. Latent structure.
Abstract
Although many tasks have been developed recently to study executive control in the preschool years, the constructs that underlie performance on these tasks are poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear whether executive control is composed of multiple, separable cognitive abilities (e.g., inhibition and working memory) or whether it is unitary in nature. A sample of 243 normally developing children between 2.3 and 6 years of age completed a battery of age-appropriate executive control tasks. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare multiple models of executive control empirically. A single-factor, general model was sufficient to account for the data. Furthermore, the fit of the unitary model was invariant across subgroups of children divided by socioeconomic status or sex. Girls displayed a higher level of latent executive control than boys, and children of higher and lower socioeconomic status did not differ in level. In typically developing preschool children, tasks conceptualized as indexes of working memory and inhibitory control in fact measured a single cognitive ability, despite surface differences between task characteristics.
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Some preschool factor analytic studies have revealed a single latent variable.
“certain preschool executive function factor analytic studies have revealed a single latent variable”
From Assessing Executive Function in Preschoolers (2012) · cites this paper as Wiebe, Espy & Charak, 2008
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- Authors
- Wiebe, S. A., Espy, K. A., & Charak, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- Southern Illinois University Carbondale (US)
- Venue
- Developmental Psychology
- Published
- 2008-03
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 575-587
- ISSN
- 0012-1649 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-0599
- OpenAlex
- W2109462020
- Semantic Scholar
- ac76b2a74bba89b91729d59a47a336a003d9859c
- Cited by
- 829
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 55 · 2020: 56 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 55 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 52 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 59 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 27.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Developmental Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lincoln (University of Nebraska) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R01 MH065668; R01 DA014661; R01 HD050309; 5P01 HD038051)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- executive function, preschool children, latent structure, inhibition, working memory, socioeconomic status, sex differences, typically developing children, cognitive ability
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Neuropsychological Tests, Problem Solving, Reference Values, Socioeconomic Factors, Models, Statistical, Personal Construct Theory
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