A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Executive Function (EF) skills (also referred to as self-regulation, adult capabilities or executive skills) help us to achieve important and meaningful life goals and carry out and juggle day-to-day tasks at home and at work. They are the skills we use to organize and plan, control our actions and reactions and monitor how we're doing. EF skills begin to develop in early childhood and are usually fully developed by our mid-20's, but they can be improved throughout one's life. Poverty, oppression and excessive stress can negatively impact the development and use of EF skills.   

Goal achievement taxes EF skills. Because achieving goals is effortful work, it places significant demands on our executive function skills. We can reduce demands on these skills by modifying a person's environment, modifying tasks to make them easier, and/or establishing routines.

Reducing factors that tax EF skills and providing opportunities to strengthen EF skills through practice increase the chances for successful goal achievement. Human service programs often play a major role in reducing the incidence of and mitigating the impact of the negative influences on EF skills. By modifying service delivery approaches, programs can also provide opportunities for participants to build their EF skills.

Resources to Deepen Your Understanding

We have divided this introduction to executive function skills into two parts: (1) what EF skills are and why they matter and (2) the impact of poverty and stress on these skills.  These resources will provide you with a deeper understanding of EF skills in adults and the factors that influence their development.  All the resources we've selected are geared towards helping human service professionals understand the role of EF skills in adult success, the impacts of poverty and stress, and strategies to mitigate negative impacts and strengthen EF skills.

WHAT ARE EF SKILLS? WHY DO THEY MATTER?
BUILDING CORE CAPABILITIES FOR LIFE (5:34)
This video from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University provides a short explanation of executive function and self-regulation skills (also referred to here as core capabilities for life). The video focuses on the important role that EF skills play in helping us navigate tasks successfully and what can take us off course.  It also provides key plain-language information based on neuroscience about how executive function skills develop.  If you are interested in learning more about the topics covered here, we recommend reading the following resources: Building Core Capabilities for Life:  The Science behind the Skills Adults Need to Succeed in Parenting and in the Workplace (16 pages), Building the Skills Adults Need for Life:  A Guide for Practitioners (4 pages) and 3 Principles to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families (9 pages).
GPDRR GUIDE: AN EXECUTIVE SKILLS INFORMED GOAL ACHIEVEMENT FRAMEWORK
Much of the work we do in human service programs focuses on helping adults to set and achieve goals related to work, parenting or their personal or family circumstances.  Chapter 3 of this guide provides an overview of executive skills and explicitly links them to the four steps it takes to achieve a goal:  set a goal, develop a plan, do or execute the plan, and review / revise the plan and/or the goal.

This chapter introduces an approach to defining executive function skills developed by two practitioners, Drs. Richard Guare and Peg Dawson, the authors of several books (listed below) on “executive skills” – the term they use to define the skills that are needed to successfully achieve personal goals.  The work of Drs. Guare and Dawson is especially applicable to the work human service practitioners do because it explicitly names  the set of skills it takes to execute tasks successfully and provides a road map for understanding the critical role each of these skills play in helping program participants set and achieve their goals.  Read the other chapters of the guide and learn more about the model at GPDRR.org.
​THE EXECUTIVE SKILLS PROFILE
[ Zip file contains: Executive Skills Defined, Executive Skills Profile, and Guidelines for Administering the ES Profile ]
This Executive Skills Profile is a tool that will allow you to gain a better understanding of your (or your program participants') planning, self-control and monitoring skills.  The profile asks you to rate yourself on a 6-point scale for each of 12 executive skills to identify your executive skill strengths and weaknesses.  The tool provides a hands-on approach for gaining a better understanding of executive skills and an opportunity to better understand how they relate to our success at work and at home.  If you would like more detail on the Executive Skills Profile and how it can be used in your program, you can watch this webinar by Richard Guare, Ph.D.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

UNDERSTANDING + MITIGATING THE IMPACT OF POVERTY, OPPRESSION + STRESS ON EF SKILLS

Picture
Credit: Josh Neufeld for NPR.
THIS IS YOUR STRESSED-OUT BRAIN ON SCARCITY. NPR. (12:24)
In this NPR segment, the reporter shows how living without enough money to make ends meet (e.g., on scarcity)  impacts people’s day-to-day lives.  The segment focuses on a single mom who is supporting herself and her 4 year-old daughter on a paycheck from her waitressing job that barely provides enough income for her to scrape by.
Picture
Credit: Getty Images.
WHY SCARCITY CAN DAMAGE DECISION MAKING. BBC. The Why Factor. (23:00)
This podcast details the difficulty of planning for the future when facing resource scarcity – not having enough of something.  Individuals and families living in poverty face a scarcity of money:  they do not have enough resources to afford the basics.  Princeton psychology professor Eldar Shafir – an expert on the impact of poverty on decision-making – and President & CEO of EMPath Beth Babcock – a leader in using behavioral and neuroscience to rethink how we deliver human services – explain how scarcity overloads brain circuitry, leaving individuals with limited "mental bandwidth" to focus on anything other than immediate needs.  Alleviating scarcity can free up "mental bandwidth" to help individuals focus more on their future.  A short, non-technical summary of some of the research included in this podcast can be found in How Poverty Taxes the Brain, from CityLab magazine.     
POVERTY INTERRUPTED: APPLYING BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE TO THE CONTEXT OF CHRONIC SCARCITY
Ideas42 (49 pages with 3 page summary)

In this paper, the researchers at ideas42 use insights from behavioral science to shed new light on the many challenges facing families with low incomes and those who seek to support them. They put forth three design principles – cut the costs, create slack, re-frame and empower – that organizations seeking to reduce poverty can use to increase their success at improving the lives and circumstances of people living in poverty.
USING BRAIN SCIENCE TO CREATE NEW PATHWAYS OUT OF POVERTY (15:52)
In this TedxBeacon Street talk, Beth Babcock, President & CEO of EMPath, explores the impact of scarcity and factors such as social bias, persistent poverty, and trauma on human experience and development, including EF skills. She also talks about how EMPath is using this information to create a new way of delivering human services. Find more detail on EMPath's perspective and approach in this paper: Using Brain Science to Design New Pathways out of Poverty (main text 14 pgs, 32 incl. appendices). This paper includes a description of the "Bridge to Self-Sufficiency" which defines five key pillars – family stability, well-being, education and training, financial management, and employment and career management – that the author believes are critical for achieving economic independence.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
This site is the product of a collaboration between Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP)  and Global Learning Partners (GLP), made possible through support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.