Development of executive functions in children from Hong Kong and Germany

The current dissertation discusses the opportunities and challenges of cross-cultural research on children’s executive functions (EF). A systematic review was conducted to gain a nuanced understanding of similarities and distinctions across countries in children’s EF development. Previous studies indicate that young children from East Asia outperform counterparts from Europe and North America on EF tasks. This dissertation focuses specifically on EF performance of children from Hong Kong and Germany across early and middle childhood and examines if the previously reported East Asian advantage is also manifest in comparisons between children from these two contexts. Measurement invariance of direct assessment EF tasks across preschoolers from Hong Kong and Germany was tested. The findings suggest that EF measurement at preschool age is likely equivalent across the two contexts. Further, EF performance levels of primary school children from Hong Kong and Germany were contrasted. Contrary to the hypothesis and previous research, the results show no significant differences in EF performance between the children from the two contexts, suggesting that features specific to Hong Kong and Germany underlie this finding. In sum, the results provide evidence supporting the relevance of taking the cultural context into account when assessing EF across early and middle childhood