ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1573107
Longitudinal Relations of Executive Functions to Academic Achievement and Well-being in Adolescence
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, United States
- 2Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- 3Human Early Learning Partnership, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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Executive functions (EFs) are essential for cognitive, social, and emotional competence and have important implications for developmental outcomes across the lifespan. Limited research has explored how EFs relate to academic achievement and well-being specifically in adolescence over time. This study investigated the longitudinal relations of EFs to grade point average (GPA) and well-being (life satisfaction, depressive symptoms) from early to late adolescence. Data were collected using multiple methods from 65 students in 4 th and 5 th grades and then again in 11 th and 12 th grades. Results revealed that EFs and depressive symptoms in early adolescence predicted GPA eight years later. EFs and life satisfaction were also correlated in late adolescence. Given the malleability of EFs, these findings suggest early interventions to enhance EFs may improve academic achievement in high school.
Keywords: executive functions, Academic Achievement, Well-being, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, social and emotional learning EF's Font: Not Bold, Complex Script Font: Not Bold due to strong EFs In juxtaposition to life satisfaction, d Font: Not Bold
Received: 08 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kitil, Diamond, Guhn and Schonert-Reichl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: M. Jennifer Kitil, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, United States
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