Longitudinal relations between self-regulatory skills and mathematics achievement in early elementary school children from Chinese American immigrant families

•Tested bidirectional relations between self-regulatory skills and math achievement.•Sample composed of school-aged Chinese American children from immigrant families.•Behavioral persistence and parent-reported effortful control positively predicted math; both associations became nonsignificant after a false discovery rate correction.•Math achievement positively predicted comprehensive executive function; this relation remained significant after a false discovery rate correction.•Cultural factors are discussed and considered.