Parent-Child Relationship Quality and Vocabulary Acquisition: Evidence from Dual Language Learners.

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Language acquisition in childhood is a social process which involves the provision of linguistic input from adults and the assimilation of that input by young children (Hoff 2003, 2006; Gass, 2013; Vygotsky, 1978). Previous research suggests that for both monolingual and bilingual populations, the quantity of linguistic input received from parents (Hoff 2003, 2006; Hoff-Ginsberg, 1991) as well as adult-child relationship quality (Duursma et al., 2007; Oades-Sese & Li, 2011) contribute to children’s language abilities. For dual language learners (DLLs), vocabulary skills in each language is associated with the quantity of linguistic input, diversity, and practice opportunities provided during social interactions with adults, especially parents (Duursma et al., 2007; Palermo et al., 2014). Although adult-child relationship and linguistic input have been traditionally studied separately when assessing child language outcomes, the social nature of the language acquisition process suggests that relationship qualities may moderate the association between linguistic input and children’s vocabulary skills. In this study, we examined the moderating role of maternal parenting behavior qualities in the association between parents’ linguistic input in Spanish and English and DLL children’s vocabulary skills in those languages.

Participants were 137 Spanish-speaking preschoolers (Mage = 52.60 months, SD = 4.42; 50% boys) and their parents from 10 bilingual Head Start classrooms in southwest. Data were collected in the fall and spring of preschool. In the fall, parents completed five items from the PAVEd for Success home literacy inventory (Hamilton et al., n.d.) to gauge the amount of English and Spanish that children heard from parents. The Parent Perception Inventory (PPI) (Hazzard et al., 1983) was used to gauge parents’ perceptions of their parenting behaviors as positive and negative (a =.76 for warm parenting, a= .74 for harsh parenting). During the spring, the picture vocabulary subscales of the third edition of the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement (WJ-3; Woodcock et al., 2000) and the Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz (WM, Woodcock et al., 2004) were used to assess children’s expressive vocabulary skills in both languages.

We tested a moderation model with positive and negative parenting as moderators of the association between linguistic input in Spanish and English received from parents and children’s expressive vocabulary skills in both languages. After controlling for children’s non-verbal cognitive abilities in the fall as measured by the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT, 2003), parents’ education, and children’s gender, we found that maternal positive parenting behaviors moderated the association between English input and children’s English vocabulary skills. Simple slopes tests at 1 SD above and below the mean revealed that the association was positive and significant for the children of mothers who engaged in high positive parenting (β = .219, S.E. = .104, p = .042) but it was non-significant for those with mothers who engaged in low positive parenting (β = .904, S.E. = .104, p = .390). No other moderating effects were found. The discussion will focus on the implications for Spanish-speaking preschoolers, including the main effects of Spanish and English input and mothers’ negative parenting behaviors.

Authors

• Vida Nana Ama Bonney, Other
  Presenting Author

• Francisco Palermo, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author