An East-West contrast in executive function: Measurement invariance of computerized tasks in school-aged children and adolescents

Chengyi Xu; Michelle R Ellefson; Florrie Fei-Yin Ng; Qian Wang; Claire Hughes

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104929

An East-West contrast in executive function: Measurement invariance of computerized tasks in school-aged children and adolescents

J Exp Child Psychol. 2020 Nov:199:104929. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104929. Epub 2020 Jul 22.

Authors

Chengyi Xu¹, Michelle R Ellefson², Florrie Fei-Yin Ng³, Qian Wang⁴, Claire Hughes⁵

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Family Research, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, UK. Electronic address: cx229@cam.ac.uk.
² Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 8PQ, UK.
³ Department of Educational Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong.
⁵ Centre for Family Research, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, UK.

PMID: 32711217
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104929

Abstract

Existing cross-cultural findings related to school-aged children's executive function (EF) from studies using computerized tasks highlight both an East-West contrast (East > West) and potential methodological confounds (e.g., contrasting levels of computer fluency). Capitalizing on two recent data sets, this multisite study of 1,311 children living in mainland China (n = 453; M_age = 11.89 years, SD = 0.87), Hong Kong (n = 371; M_age = 12.21 years, SD = 0.99), and the United Kingdom (n = 487; M_age = 11.91 years, SD = 0.93) tested measurement invariance of a computerized EF-task battery prior to investigating cultural contrasts in mean levels of EF efficiency scores. Our models established partial scalar invariance across sites. Latent factor means were substantially lower for British children than for their counterparts from either mainland China or Hong Kong, with a significant but smaller contrast between the latter two groups. Within the Chinese sample, self-reported computer use was unrelated to variation in children's performance on online tests of EF, indicating that peripheral effects of task modality are unlikely to explain the between-culture differences in EF task performance.

Keywords: Adolescence; Cross-cultural differences; Executive function; Measurement invariance; Middle childhood.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Age Factors
Attitude to Computers*
Child
Child Development
China
Computers*
Cross-Cultural Comparison*
Executive Function / physiology*
Female
Hong Kong
Humans
Male
Self Report
Task Performance and Analysis*
United Kingdom