Parenting practices and children’s executive functions (EFs) are correlated in early childhood, however, evidence is mixed for middle childhood to adolescence. While EFs may be best represented as a unidimensional factor in early childhood, EFs develop into three related, yet separable components in adulthood. The differentiating factor structure over development is unclear and may obscure associations between parenting factors and EFs. Elucidating the factor structure across development may facilitate understanding how parenting impacts children’s EFs. Thus, the current study: 1) utilized structural equation modeling to determine the best-fitting measurement model of EFs for middle childhood, preadolescent, and adolescent groups, 2) assessed whether models of EFs demonstrate invariance across age groups, and 3) evaluated the degree of influence of parenting-related factors on the components of children’s EFs through path estimates. Participants were drawn from the Healthy Brain Network (HBN), comprising approximately 5,500 5 to 19-year-old participants. EFs were assessed through the National Institute of Health (NIH) Toolbox Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), NIH Toolbox Flanker, NIH Toolbox List Sorting, Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children: 5th Edition (WISC-V) Digit Span, and WISC-V Picture Span. Parenting practices were assessed through the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ), interparental conflict through the Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC), and parenting stress through the Parenting Stress Index - Short Form (PSI-SF-4).

Results supported a bifactor EF model consisting of a common EF factor and an updating factor, with support for the same factor structure and factor loadings across developmental periods. Associations between parenting-related factors and EF were generally small/trivial and inconsistent across development. Harsh parenting practices, including corporal punishment and dysfunctional parent-child interactions, demonstrated small negative associations with EF, whereas other parenting variables showed sporadic or nonsignificant relations. Interparental conflict variables also exhibited small associations with EF, suggesting that greater perceived conflict, threat, and self-blame were modestly related to lower EF. Overall, findings indicate that EF demonstrates at least partial multidimensionality by middle childhood and remains structurally stable across later adolescence. Parenting and family factors appear to exert modest but potentially developmentally sensitive influences on children’s EFs within a broader system of developmental influences.