Executive Functions Among Kindergarteners in the Capital of Laos: Relations with Socialization Practices and Later Mathematics Skills

ABSTRACT Executive functions (EFs), conceptualized as conscious, goal‐directed control processes of thought, action, and emotion, develop rapidly during early childhood and predict various developmental outcomes. Previous research has linked socialization practices to early EFs and EFs to mathematics achievement, yet has largely focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) contexts. This study examined EFs’ associations with socialization practices and later mathematics skills in the capital of Laos, a rapidly shifting sociodemographic context within a United Nations‐designated least‐developed, agricultural, and traditionally collectivistic country. In Study 1, 66 kindergarteners ( M age = 54.8 months) performed EF and language tasks, and their caregivers reported on socialization practices (autonomy support and intrusive control). In Study 2, 35 children were followed up one year later to assess their mathematics performance. The results showed that kindergarteners’ EFs predicted later mathematics skills, providing additional evidence consistent with the possibility that this association extends across diverse sociodemographic contexts, while offering essential baseline data to support local mathematics education. In contrast, moderate evidence for a null association of intrusive control and anecdotal evidence for a negative association of autonomy support with children's EFs were found, consistent with the possibility that socialization‐EF relations may vary across sociocultural contexts rather than following universal patterns. Together, these findings suggest that EFs represent an important cognitive capacity for later mathematics achievement, tentatively highlighting the value of considering sociocultural contexts when modeling early socialization‐EF relations.