Executive Functions and SelfEsteem in Academic Performance: A Mediational Analysis

Once the paradigm of intelligence as the only predictor of academic performance has been overcome, the influence of other variables, such as reasoning, verbal fluency, executive functions, motivation and self-esteem, was studied.

For this purpose, an exploratory and incidental research design was used in a sample of 132 subjects aged 6-9 years. Different instruments were administered: RAVEN, Effective Reading, Brief II, MAPE II, and Coopersmith Scale, respectively.

The results indicate that the predictive model formed by reasoning, verbal fluency, executive functions, and self-esteem explains 55.4% of the academic results. As mediating variables, self-esteem emerges as a predictor of both cognitive and motivational variables, and executive functions, as a predictor of emotional and motivational variables.

This implies theoretical and practical implications of an educational nature with practical implications in primary school classrooms, in order to implement plans to develop self-esteem and executive functions.