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. 2020 Jun 25;17(12):4570.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124570.

Are the Effects of Variation in Quantity of Daily Bilingual Exposure and Socioeconomic Status on Language and Cognitive Abilities Independent in Preschool Children?

Raffaele Dicataldo  1 , Maja Roch  1
Affiliations

Are the Effects of Variation in Quantity of Daily Bilingual Exposure and Socioeconomic Status on Language and Cognitive Abilities Independent in Preschool Children?

Raffaele Dicataldo et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Bilingual exposure (BE) and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with children's development, but their specific and unique effects are still unclear. This study analyzed the influence of these environmental factors on a set of cognitive and linguistic abilities in preschoolers to disentangle their effects. One hundred-eleven Italian-speaking preschool children (mean age = 61 months; SD = 6.8) growing in a monolingual or multilingual context completed an assessment of cognitive (theory of mind, inhibition, attention shifting and working memory) and linguistic abilities (vocabulary, grammar, narrative comprehension, lexical access). The results of hierarchical regressions with predictors variation in BE (both Length and Daily exposure) and SES on each ability, shown a specific contribution of variation in SES, after controlling for BE, in vocabulary, grammar, and working memory (WM), and a specific contribution of variation in BE, over and above effect of SES, in vocabulary, narrative comprehension and WM. In addition, we found an interaction between these factors in predicting the performance of the theory of mind task (ToM). To conclude, variations in BE and SES are related independently to individual differences in linguistic and cognitive skills of children in preschool.

Keywords: bilingual exposure; cognitive development; language development; preschool children; socioeconomic status.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The percentage of unique variance explained by variation in SES (Model 1) are reported: (a) specific effect on linguistic skills; (b) specific effect on cognitive skills.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The percentage of unique variance explained by variation in BE (Model 2) are reported: (a) specific effect on linguistic skills; (b) specific effect on cognitive skills.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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