Executive function measurement in urban schools: Exploring links between performance-based metrics and teacher ratings.

When compared to research centered on the executive function development of white, middle-class children, relatively little is known about their non-white, low socioeconomic status peers. In an effort to harmonize how executive functions are measured within under-represented contexts, the present study addresses gaps in the evaluation of everyday executive functioning to better understand whether behavior rating scales completed by teachers (BASC2 - BASC executive function scale, 2nd edition; BASC3 - BASC executive function scale, 3rd edition) capture distinctions between performance-based measures. This study includes two large samples of older, ethnic minority children from high-poverty backgrounds (Sample 1.

The Zoo Task: A novel metacognitive problem-solving task developed with a sample of African American children from schools in high poverty communities.

Metacognition is important for monitoring and regulating cognitive processes, decision-making, problem-solving, and learning. Despite widespread interest in metacognition, measuring metacognition in children poses a significant challenge. Some qualitative and observational metrics exist but are restricted by scalability, range of metacognitive components measured, and use of different metrics compared with tasks for adults.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk to boys' conduct disturbance: an examination of the causal hypothesis.

Background: We undertook this study to determine whether the widely replicated link between maternal smoking and conduct disturbance (Cd) is better explained by a model of direct causation or of mother-offspring transmission of a latent Cd variable.

Methods: Family data collected on 538 adolescent twin boys from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development (VTSABD) was used to compare two alternative models: 1) a model composed of a latent transmissible factor that influences mother's juvenile conduct symptoms, smoking during pregnancy, and subsequent Cd and smoking in her adolescent boys; and 2) a model specifying a direct causal path from mother's smoking to child Cd.

Results: The maternal-offspring transmission model fit the data as well as a model specifying a direct causal path from maternal smoking to child Cd.