Abstract  摘要

Executive function (EF), the set of mental processes and skills involved in goal-oriented planning, organizing, and controlling behavior, is believed to support child development across many domains of life. However, although ample evidence suggests a relation between childhood EF and academic skills, it is less clear what its role is in domains beyond academics. We report a meta-analysis of relations between early childhood EF (assessed at 36-60 months of age) and social, health, and behavioral outcomes assessed concurrently and longitudinally (1,459 effect sizes, 158 studies, $n=144,642$$n=144,642$n=144,642n=144,642 ). No significant relations were found between EF and health outcomes. EF was concurrently associated with emotion understanding and regulation, prosocial skills, peer acceptance, and skill at lying. Both concurrently and longitudinally, EF was positively associated with peer acceptance, adaptive classroom behavior, and social competence, and negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, and inattention and hyperactivity. For adolescent outcomes, only the relation between EF and internalizing could be meta-analyzed, and no significant relation was found between these variables. The magnitude of effect sizes varied, with absolute values ranging from $r=.02$$r=.02$r=.02r=.02 to .30 . Moderator analyses indicated the relation between EF and behavioral outcomes varied by outcome, but there was no such finding for EF and social or health outcomes. EF was more strongly associated with teacher- versus parent-reported behavioral problems. There was little evidence that quality indicators affected effect sizes. There was also little evidence of publication bias. Overall, our results are consistent with the possibility of broad relevance of EF for child development; yet future research should provide stronger causal tests of hypothesized relations between EF and
执行功能（EF），涉及目标导向的计划、组织和控制行为的一组心理过程和技能，被认为支持儿童在生活许多领域的发育。然而，尽管有大量证据表明儿童 EF 与学业技能之间存在关系，但在学术领域之外的作用尚不明确。我们报告了一项关于早期儿童 EF（在 36-60 个月大时评估）与社会、健康和行为结果之间关系（1,459 个效应量，158 项研究， $n=144,642$$n=144,642$n=144,642n=144,642 ）的元分析。没有发现 EF 与健康结果之间存在显著关系。EF 与情绪理解和调节、亲社会技能、同伴接受度和撒谎技巧同时相关。同时和纵向来看，EF 与同伴接受度、适应性课堂行为和社会能力呈正相关，与内向和外向问题以及注意力不集中和多动呈负相关。对于青少年结果，只有 EF 与内向之间的关系可以进行元分析，并且这些变量之间没有发现显著关系。 效应量的大小不一，绝对值范围从 $r=.02$$r=.02$r=.02r=.02 到.30。调节分析表明，执行功能与行为结果之间的关系因结果而异，但对于执行功能与社会或健康结果之间没有发现此类现象。执行功能与教师报告的行为问题比家长报告的行为问题更相关。几乎没有证据表明质量指标影响了效应量。也没有发现发表偏倚的证据。总的来说，我们的结果与执行功能对儿童发展具有广泛相关性的可能性一致；然而，未来的研究应提供更强的因果检验来测试执行功能与假设关系之间的假设。