Poster #114 - The Role of Parenting Behaviors and the Age of Acquisition for Words Learned in Childhood

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

Language acquisition in childhood is influenced by parent relationships (Tamis-LeMonda & Bornstein 2002). More “positive” parenting styles have been found to be related to more infant-directed communication styles that promote language acquisition (Martin et al., 2015). Previous research typically has focused on the role of the mother, but few studies have examined the role of the father in the age of acquisition in language (Golinkoff et al. 2015). While many age of language acquisition studies of children have relied on self-report measures, there is an increasing breadth of research which has found that self-reported age of acquisitions can be used as valid measures of age of acquisition (Luniewska et al. 2016). In the current study, we examined how both maternal and paternal parenting behaviors were related to self-reported first word utterances, age-of-acquisition of words, and talking enjoyment of college students.
In our study involving 395 (198 females; 197 males) undergraduates, we assessed parenting behaviors using a modified, 25-item version of the Skinner et al. (2005) questionnaire that distinguishes positive and negative behaviors for mother and father. Positive parenting styles included parental warmth, structure, and autonomy-support. Negative parenting styles included parental rejection, chaos, and coercion. Participants were also asked to report the age in which they said their first words. Age of acquisition was assessed by providing participants with a list of common words taken from Luniewska et al. (2016). Words were separated into three categories based on the average age in which each word is acquired: a) earliest learned words (e.g., AOA1, e.g., toy; learned at 1-4 years); b) early childhood words (e.g., AOA2, dolphin learned at 5-7 years); and 3) later childhood words (AOA3, e.g., arithmetic; learned at 8-11 years). We also asked participants to estimate when they began talking (i.e., produced their first words as a child) and how much they enjoyed talking [as assessed by Kennison et al.’s (2017) talking enjoyment questionnaire].
The results found that relationships among parenting behaviors and age of acquisition estimates can be observed in self-reports by adult participants. For both men and women, estimated age of first words occurred later when they also reported greater negative mother and father parenting behaviors and occurred earlier when they reported greater positive mother and father parenting behaviors. In addition, we found that the earliest learned words were learned later when there were greater negative parenting behaviors (see Table 1). For men, both positive and negative father relationships were significantly related to AOA2 word acquisition. Positive mothers were found to be related to higher levels of talking enjoyment for both males and females, but were related to negative AOA3 word acquisition in females.
The results are consistent with prior longitudinal research that have demonstrated that parenting can influence child language development. The current study provides novel evidence that fathers may play an important role in child language acquisition.

Authors

• Erin Elizabeth Wood, Oklahoma State University
  Presenting Author

• Shelia M. Kennison, Oklahoma State University
  Non-Presenting Author