Relations Between Executive Functions, Child Characteristics, Parental Education, and Academic Skills: A Cross-Cultural Study of Young Children in Iran and the United States

Research Findings: Executive Function (EF) skills undergo rapid development in early childhood and play a crucial role in academic success. This research investigated levels of children’s EF across two samples of children from Iran (Mage = 5.80 years; N = 291, 39% girls) and the United States (Mage = 6.15 years; N = 304, 49% girls). It also examined the concurrent associations between EF skills and children’s age, gender, and parental education and explored the relation between EF skills and early academic performance in both samples. Results indicated that Iranian children exhibited significantly lower EF levels than their U.S. counterparts. Older children demonstrated higher EF skills than younger children in the Iranian sample, but there was no significant association between age and EF in the U.S. sample. There were no gender differences in EF performance in either sample. Maternal education, but not paternal education, was significantly correlated with children’s EF in both Iran and the U.S. Furthermore, children with higher EF showed better academic skills, with a stronger association between EF and math across both samples. Practice or Policy: The results provide valuable insights into universal and culturally specific aspects of EF development and its links to individual factors and academic performance.