Children become more active participants in parent-child interaction by the time they reach primary school age, during the transition from dependence to greater autonomy. Parent-child interaction... Show moreChildren become more active participants in parent-child interaction by the time they reach primary school age, during the transition from dependence to greater autonomy. Parent-child interaction can shape children’s neurocognitive development, yet little is known about the nature of this relation in school-aged children. In this dissertation the associations between parent-child interaction and four- to eight-year-old children’s attentional control, executive functioning , social cognition and reasoning skills were investigated. Furthermore, it was investigated whether parents can be educated to improve interactions with their child through a compact psycho-educational program. It can be concluded that parental supportive presence, intrusiveness and questioning style adaptive to both the age and needs of school-aged children were associated with children’s neurocognitive functioning. Educating parents to adaptively modify their parent-child interactions can positively influence their supportive presence, intrusiveness and questioning style, which in turn may benefit their child’s neurocognitive functioning. These findings suggest that educating parents can benefit children’s neurocognitive development and the aspects of parenting strategies investigated in this dissertation could be useful objectives. A compact school-based group program for parents may already have a meaningful impact in promoting aspects of parent-child interaction that have been shown to be associated with children’s neurocognitive development. Show less
