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The Role of School Context in Children's Well-Being and Executive Function: Exploring Child- and Adult-Centered Approaches
Laura González, Marina Oliva Lozano, María Jesús Pardo‐Guijarro, Silvia Guerrero ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how different school contexts relate to children's executive function and well-being in 105 preschool and primary school children. The research compared child-centered environments with teacher-text-centered approaches, assessing executive function through tasks measuring inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Results showed no overall differences in executive function or well-being between school types, but the relationship between these two outcomes differed by context. In teacher-text-centered schools, higher executive function was associated with lower well-being, while this pattern did not appear in child-centered settings.
Key points
- No significant differences found in overall levels of executive function or well-being between child-centered and teacher-text-centered school contexts
- In teacher-text-centered contexts, children with higher executive function reported lower well-being; this inverse relationship did not occur in child-centered environments
- Across both school types, children with higher executive function reported higher perceptions of aggression
- Child-centered environments may protect against negative effects that higher executive function can have on well-being
- Qualitative analysis emphasizes the need to adapt school well-being measures from a child-centered perspective
Limitations
The study does not specify the country or geographic location of the schools, making it unclear how findings may generalize across different educational systems. The sample size is relatively small (105 children), and the study design does not clarify how schools were selected or whether results can be attributed to the school approaches or to selection bias.
Abstract
Children’s socioemotional and cognitive development is shaped by the contexts in which they grow. As a key developmental setting, school influences both well-being and the emergence of sociocognitive skills such as executive function (EF). This study explored whether school contexts aligned with Lillard’s (2023) Child-Environment Interplay (CEI) model and Teacher-Text-Centered (TTC) model show differential patterns in the relationship between EF and school well-being. A total of 105 children from preschool and primary school participated (NCEI = 84; NTTC = 41). EF was assessed through three tasks assesing inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. School well-being was evaluated using a child-report scale that included items on engagement, school environment, and aggression. Results revealed no significant differences between school types in overall levels of EF or WB. However, interaction effects indicated that the effect of well-being on EF differs between school contexts: in TTC contexts, but not in CEI, higher EF was associated with lower WB. Moreover, across both contexts, children with higher EF reported higher perceptions of aggression. A complementary qualitative analysis of the WB instrument highlights the importance of adapting school well-being measures from a child-centered perspective. These findings suggest that the interplay between children’s cognitive skills and their educational context matters, and that child-centered environments may buffer potentially negative effects of EF-related sensitivity.