Cognitive flexibility and academic performance of children in care and children from a community sample: the contrasting mediator effect of task persistence

Objective This study investigated the role of cognitive flexibility and temperament as predictors academic performance, in children care from a community sample, longitudinally. Also, it examined mediating child’s relationship between well between-group differences.Method Participants were 46 48 aged 6 to 10 years. Cognitive flexibility, temperament, performance assessed with Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices set B (RCPM-B), Portuguese version School-Age Temperament Inventory (SATI), competence scale (CAS) Social Skills Rating System – Teacher Form (SSRS-T), respectively.Results was significant predictor only for care. In both groups, negative reactivity task persistence predicted children’s mediated performance. However, group difference observed this mediation: addition mediation effect direct also found in-care group.Conclusions These findings highlight importance promoting competencies normative at-risk populations.