Effects of Parental Stress on the Home Language Environment and Children's Language and Reading Skills

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Developing Literacy in English Language Learning Settings

Abstract

Higher levels of parental stress are associated with poorer cognitive and academic outcomes in children, including language skills. This study investigates the relationship between parental stress, the home language environment, and language and reading skills in 5- to 9-year-old children. We found a strong link between physiological stress (parental hair cortisol concentration) and children’s performance on a variety of reading and language measures. There was also a significant link between negative live events and the home language environment, but no other stress measures. A simple and inexpensive measure of parents’ physiological stress was associated with children’s reading and language development, whereas parents’ reports of perceived stress and negative events were not, suggesting a possible screen for targeting at-risk populations.

Authors

• Elaine Augustin Maskus, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Emily C. Merz, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

• Samantha Melvin, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Luciane Piccolo

• Jerrold Meyer, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Kimberly Noble, Columbia