LAUSR

Abstract Preschool children are often faced with situations that could tax their cognitive resources and consequently affect their abilities to navigate subsequent social problems. Following taxing situations, children may be more likely to enact impulsive, aggressive responses instead of competent responses during peer conflict episodes. We exposed 114 5-year-old children to either a brief taxing procedure or one of two control procedures, followed by a social problem solving task. Children in the Taxing condition were more likely to endorse physically aggressive responses and less likely to endorse prosocial responses to peer social situations compared to the control conditions. The results suggest that taxing situations can negatively impact children’s social problem solving skills. We discuss the possibility that the observed taxing effect provides preliminary evidence for a causal link between executive function and social competence.