Browsing by Author "Whitehead, Hannah"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Modeling the associations between socioeconomic risk factors, executive function components, and reading among children in rural Côte d’Ivoire
    (2023-07-06) Khan, Faryal; Wortsman, Brooke; Whitehead, Hannah; Hannon, Joelle; Sulik, Michael; Tanoh, Fabrice; Akpe, Hermann; Ogan, Amy; Obradović, Jelena; Jasińska, Kaja
    Executive Functions (EF; inhibitory control [IC], cognitive flexibility [CF] and working memory [WM]) mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status and reading. However, little is known of the roles of individual EF components in mediating the socioeconomic-reading achievement gap, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In Côte d’Ivoire, children experience many socioeconomic disadvantages (i.e., fewer household resources, maternal illiteracy), and kinship fostering (child in care of extended family while parents pursue economic opportunities elsewhere) is prevalent. This study examines the relation between EF components, socioeconomic risks, and reading among 5th grade children in rural Côte d’Ivoire (N=369). Poorer WM mediated the relationship between higher cumulative socioeconomic risk (poverty, maternal illiteracy, fostering) and lower reading scores. Further, WM fully mediated the negative effects of fostering risk on reading scores. Results suggest that EF components are differentially impacted by environmental socioeconomic risks and play different roles in supporting reading development.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Variability in the age of schooling contributes to the link between literacy and numeracy in Côte d’Ivoire (Draft)
    (2022-09-19) Whitehead, Hannah; Ball, Mary-Claire; Brice, Henry; Wolf, Sharon; Kembou, Samuel; Ogan, Amy; Jasińska, Kaja
    Literacy and numeracy are correlated throughout development, however our understanding of this relation is limited. We explored the predictors of literacy and numeracy covariance (i.e., shared fluency between literacy and numeracy) in children (N=1167, girls=563) in rural Côte d’Ivoire, with specific focus on how developmental timing of instruction may relate to covariance. Many Ivorian children experience late enrollment and grade repetition, leading to variation in age-for-grade; participants were between grades 1 to 6 but their ages ranged from 5 to 15 (M=9.19, SD=2.07). Phonological awareness, numerical magnitude, ordinality, working memory, and inhibitory control were cognitive predictors of covariance. Age-for-grade was negatively related to covariance suggesting that covariance is related to timing of instruction.