Effects of a cognitive-poetics-based narrative intervention using British and American coming-of-age novels on children's executive function and psychological adjustment: a randomized controlled study

Introduction Children aged 10–12 years are moving through late childhood toward early adolescence, when executive control, emotion regulation, and social understanding are still developing. Literature-based activities offer one setting in which children can consider other perspectives and reinterpret difficult events, yet cognitive-poetics-informed interventions have rarely been tested with rigorous longitudinal designs. We examined whether a structured cognitive-poetics-based narrative intervention using British and American coming-of-age fiction was associated with changes in executive function and psychological adjustment. Narrative transportation and cognitive reappraisal were examined as candidate mechanisms. Methods In a 12-week parallel-group randomized study, 180 children aged 10–12 years were allocated 1:1 to a cognitive-poetics-based narrative intervention ( n = 90) or an active literary-reading control ( n = 90). Both conditions involved three 40-min sessions per week. Assessments were conducted at baseline (T0), week 6 (T1), week 12 (T2), and a 4-week post-intervention follow-up (T3). Executive function was represented by inhibitory-control, working-memory, and task-switching performance; psychological adjustment was assessed using the RCADS, SDQ, and cognitive-reappraisal measures. Longitudinal effects were tested with REML linear mixed-effects models using participant random intercepts and an AR(1) residual structure. A temporally ordered indirect-effect model tested intervention assignment → T1 narrative transportation → T2 cognitive reappraisal → T3 outcomes, controlling baseline reappraisal and the corresponding baseline outcome. Results Significant group × time interactions were observed for the executive-function composite (F = 18.64, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.095), RCADS total score (F = 15.72, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.086), and SDQ difficulties score (F = 12.48, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.074). At T2, the displayed summary statistics correspond to unadjusted between-group standardized mean differences of d = 0.38 (95% CI [0.07, 0.68]) for executive function, d = −0.82 (95% CI [−1.14, −0.51]) for RCADS, d = −0.65 (95% CI [−0.96, −0.34]) for SDQ difficulties, and d = 0.81 (95% CI [0.50, 1.12]) for cognitive reappraisal. In the temporally ordered path model, the standardized serial-specific indirect association was 0.04 for executive function and −0.05 for psychological difficulties; when parallel indirect routes through transportation and reappraisal were included, the corresponding total indirect effects were 0.14 (95% CI [0.06, 0.25]) and −0.18 (95% CI [−0.31, −0.09]), respectively. A structured cognitive-poetics-based narrative intervention was associated with better executive-function performance and several non-clinical psychological-adjustment indicators than an active reading control. Some group differences remained visible 4 weeks later, although the follow-up was too short to support claims of long-term maintenance. The pattern warrants further study of how guided literary processing may contribute to children's cognitive and emotional development.