Poster #53 - The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status, Language Ability, and Externalizing Behavior

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Background: Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, characterized by low income, education, and occupational status, are at elevated risk for externalizing behaviors, such as defiance, impulsivity, disruptiveness, and aggression (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1978; Hinshaw, 1992). Children from low SES backgrounds show higher rates of externalizing behavior problems than their higher SES counterparts (Dearing, et al., 2006). One of the reasons that children from low SES backgrounds may be at risk for externalizing problems is because of their difficulties with expressive and receptive language. By 20 months of age, children from lower SES backgrounds have significantly smaller vocabularies than their higher SES peers (Hoff 2003; 2006) and score lower on measures of language comprehension (Huaqing Qi & Kaiser, 2003). Children who do not have the vocabularies to “use their words” when they are frustrated or who do not understand instructions to comply with directions may have difficulty regulating their behavior. Consistent with this hypothesis, expressive and receptive language abilities around 24 months may predict subsequent externalizing behavior (Caultied et al., 1989; Conway et al., 2017). The direction of effects, however, is not clear and there is evidence that early externalizing behaviors are predictive of subsequent verbal ability in kindergarten (Hinshaw, 1992). Method: Using longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we investigated the directionality of the relationship between SES, language ability and externalizing behavior at 24, 36, 54 and 60 months using a cross-lagged panel model (Figure 1). The current analyses were conducted on the sample of 1364 children (48.3% female), with the final sample being 80.4% White, 12.9% Black and 6.7% other. The average total family income from birth to 15 months was $44,083 and the mean number of years of education was 14.95. The Reynell Language Scale and the Preschool Language Scale measured receptive language, by examining the child’s verbal comprehension as well as understanding of morphology and language reasoning questions, and expressive language, by measuring the language produced by the child. Mothers, other caregivers, and teachers reported on children’s externalizing behavior, using the Achenbach family of instruments (Achenbach, 1991). Results: Whereas externalizing behavior was associated with subsequent receptive and expressive language scores, language ability was not associated with subsequent externalizing behavior. As shown in Figure 2, children from lower SES families had more externalizing problems at 24 and 36 months than children from higher SES families. Although children from lower SES families also had lower receptive and expressive language scores at 24 months, these were not related to subsequent externalizing problems. In contrast, children’s externalizing problems at 24 and 36 months partially accounted for the relationship between early SES and receptive and expressive language scores at 36 and 54 months. Conclusion: Results do not point to poor language ability as an explanatory factor in the relationship between low SES and children’s externalizing problems. Instead, children’s externalizing problems explained individual differences in language ability and partially explained why children from low SES backgrounds have poorer expressive and receptive language abilities.

Authors

• Anika Khan, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Sara Jaffee, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author