Affect and Executive Function Dynamics in Primary School Classrooms: an Intensive Longitudinal Study

This study investigates the temporal dynamics and affective associations related to executive function (EF) performance in primary school classrooms using an intensive longitudinal design. Data were collected from 35 students aged 8.9 to 11.4 years. Participants reported their affective experiences and completed EF measures three times daily following a fixed sampling schedule. The data collection spanned two consecutive school weeks across three primary school classrooms. Utilising Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM), we examined 505 measurements of EF tasks and self-reported affective states over two weeks. The findings reveal significant within-person variability in EF, accounting for 52% of the observed variance, with performance declining later in the day and week. At the within-person level, positive affect was associated with improved EF performance, while negative affect was associated with poorer EF. No significant between-person relationships were found. These results underscore the importance of considering within-person processes and affective experiences in educational settings and highlight the need for further research employing intensive longitudinal methods to better understand the nuanced dynamics of affect and EF in real-world classroom environments.