Longitudinal relationship between early academic achievement and executive function: Mediating role of approaches to learning

Abstract For effective promotion of children’s learning and academic achievement, it is important to understand the role of and relationship between children’s cognitive and affective characteristics in their learning and academic achievement. The current study applied latent growth curve modeling to examine trajectories of children’s reading and math achievement, executive function (EF), and approaches to learning (ATLs) from kindergarten year to first grade. We also examined whether and the extent to which the initial levels and growth rate of EF and ATLs independently predicted the initial level and growth rate of reading and math achievement and whether the initial level and the growth rate of ATLs mediate in the relationships between EF and academic achievement. Results from a nationally representative and longitudinal sample of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 2011 indicated that children’s levels of reading and math achievement, EF, and ATLs significantly differ in the fall of kindergarten. Significant variances in rates of change of main variables over time suggest that some children showed faster increases than others in some variables, while others may have even shown decreases over time. Children with a higher level and faster growth rate in EF and ATLs showed a faster rate of change in reading and math achievement. Last, EF trajectories influence academic achievement trajectories directly and indirectly through ATL trajectories. Given that this study found an important role of children’s ATLs in academic achievement, we need to promote effective teaching practices and curricula to support students’ ATLs at each grade level in classrooms and schools, with particular attention to at-risk children.