Relations Between Language Proficiency, Executive Function, and Adjustment Outcomes in Head Start Dual Language Learners

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

The U.S. population of dual language learners (DLLs), or children who are exposed to and learning through two languages, has grown rapidly in the last decade (Castro et al., 2013). Some studies have suggested that DLLs’ experience of navigating between both English (EL) and a heritage language (HL) can enhance executive functions (EFs), a set of cognitive regulatory processes including inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory (Barac et al., 2014). However, to date this research has largely consisted of group comparisons, which overlooks the heterogeneous EL and HL proficiency observed in DLLs. Separately, research in monolingual samples has suggested that children’s expressive language can facilitate social interactions and reduce emotional and behavioral problems (Salmon et al., 2016). Links between language and psychosocial outcomes may be more complex in DLLs, whose EL may relate to social integration outside the family, while their HL may relate to adjustment within the family context. Overall, it is unclear how DLLs’ EL and HL proficiency uniquely and interactively relate to both their EFs and their psychosocial adjustment, and these outcomes have rarely been examined simultaneously. Understanding these links in a sample of preschool DLLs has implications for understanding their readiness for kindergarten, which can ultimately inform the development of culturally competent interventions to close achievement gaps.
The present study examines the unique and interactive links between a sample of DLLs’ EL and HL proficiency, and their EFs and psychosocial adjustment. Participants include 186 children enrolled in Head Start preschools from Mexican American (N=65) and Chinese American (N=121) immigrant families. EL and HL proficiencies were measured through direct assessment of children’s expressive vocabulary using standardized measures. EFs were assessed by the NIH Toolbox Flanker Task (inhibitory control), the NIH Toolbox Dimensional Change Card Sort (cognitive flexibility), and the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS; behavioral self-regulation). Psychosocial adjustment was indicated by parent report of children’s externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and social competence.
Results showed that children’s HL expressive vocabulary predicted their concurrent behavioral regulation above and beyond child age, child generation, parent education, and EL expressive vocabulary. EL expressive vocabulary uniquely predicted children’s parent-reported social competence. There was a significant interaction between HL and EL expressive vocabulary in predicting children’s parent-reported internalizing problems, such that greater HL expressive vocabulary was associated with fewer internalizing problems only in the context of low or average EL expressive vocabulary. These findings replicate previous studies on connections between language and EF, as well as between language and psychosocial adjustment in a low-income, immigrant sample of DLLs. These results also extend prior research in showing specificity in links between HL and EL expressive vocabulary and child outcomes. As the population of DLLs from immigrant families continues to grow, a better understanding of how the dual language experience shapes cognitive, social, and psychological outcomes is becoming increasingly critical.

Authors

• Stephanie Haft, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author

• Qing Zhou, University of California - Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author