Poster #52 - The Influence of Language and Sociocultural Components of Acculturation on Bilingual Input From Caregivers

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Introduction. For bilingual families, it has been suggested that caregivers’ acculturation level (i.e., the extent to which they adapt to a culture after prolonged contact; Page, 2006; Schwartz et al., 2010) may influence their children’s bilingual language development through caregivers’ own language use patterns (e.g., amount of input in each language; Cote & Bornstein, 2014; Tsai et al., 2012). Though language tends to explain most of the measured variance in acculturation scores (Coronado et al., 2005; Thomson & Hoffman-Goetz, 2009), it is only one of the many components that make up the multidimensional concept of acculturation. Other components are sociocultural (e.g., social affiliation preferences, cultural values and behaviors; Schwartz et al., 2010). As acculturation may influence family language use decisions (García Coll et al., 1996), the current study aims to 1) describe the language and sociocultural components of acculturation and 2) investigate which components of acculturation influence the bilingual language input that children receive from their caregivers.
Participants. Bilingual (Spanish-English) mothers (n = 52), fathers (n = 23), and other caregivers (n = 7) of 47 18-month-old, Latino children were included in this study. Most caregivers identified as Mexican or Mexican-American (74.39%). Children received Spanish and English input from these caregivers at home.
Method. Caregivers completed a language and demographics questionnaire when children were 18 months old. On the survey, caregivers reported on the language they use with their children (i.e., input; 5 = “Spanish Only”, 3 = “Spanish and English Equally”, and 1 = “English Only”). They also reported on their proficiency in Spanish and English (i.e., how well they speak, read, and write in each language; 5 = “very well”, 3 = “average”, and 1 = “very poorly”). Caregivers then completed an acculturation measure (ARSMA-II; Cuéllar et al., 1995), from which an overall acculturation score was calculated. A principal components analysis (PCA; Lee et al., 2006) indicated that the US and Mexican/heritage culture dimensions of the ARSMA-II could be separated into language and sociocultural factors (i.e., Language and Sociocultural subscales). Overall acculturation, language subscale, and sociocultural subscale scores > 0 indicate more English or US-orientation and scores < 0 indicate more Spanish or Mexican/heritage culture-orientation.
Results. Table 1 shows that caregivers were, on average, bicultural and bilingual (M overall acculturation score = -0.554). On the acculturation subscales, caregivers showed a slight preference towards English (M = 0.223) and strong orientation to the sociocultural aspects of their Mexican/heritage culture (M = -1.963). They also reported being slightly more proficient in English than Spanish, t(81) = -1.98, p = 0.026. Further, a regression analysis showed that scores on the language subscale of acculturation are related to input (B = -0.317; p < 0.001), when controlling for scores on the sociocultural subscale (Table 2). Yet, on average, caregivers reported using more Spanish than English with their children (M = 3.671). Thus, it may be that bilingual caregivers’ underlying sociocultural motivations and Mexican/heritage culture-orientation may lead them to use more Spanish with their children, despite their own preference toward English.

Authors

• Jordan Sierra Perry, Loyola University Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Perla Blanca Gamez, Loyola University Chicago

• Denise A Davidson

• Maily Galindo, Loyola University Chicago