Assessing executive functions in preschoolers in Germany and Hong Kong: testing for measurement invariance

Abstract

While an emerging body of research has documented cross-cultural differences in executive functions (EF) development in the early years, few studies have provided evidence that the tasks used to assess EF show measurement equivalence across cultures. The current study is one of the first to explicitly test for measurement invariance of EF tasks across different cultural contexts at preschool age. Three EF tasks, each designed to assess a specific domain of EF, namely working memory (Object Span task), inhibitory control (child-friendly Stroop task), and cognitive flexibility (Dimension Change Card Sort), were administered to N = 193 3- to 6-year-olds from Hong Kong and Germany. We compared the goodness-of-fit of three theory-driven EF factor structure models (one-factor-model, two-factor-model, and three-factor-model) individually for each of the two contexts as well as for the full sample. The three-factor model, comprising of separate but correlated latent factors, across the full sample yielded the best fit. We then tested for measurement invariance of this best-fitting model across the full sample. The results of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses show that the identified factor model reaches strong measurement invariance. These findings suggest that EF assessment at preschool age is likely equivalent across the subsamples from Hong Kong and Germany.