ABSTRACT

In contrast to research that examines the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and bilingualism on development by comparing clearly disparate groups, the present study investigated the role of subtle differences in these experiences for their joint impact on performance on a verbal fluency task and an executive function (EF) task. The study involved 234 6-year-old children who were assessed for nonverbal intelligence and English vocabulary; parents completed a questionnaire providing demographic information and details about children’s language experiences. Children were assigned continuous scores for SES based on parents’ education and for bilingualism based on experience with non-English languages. Both continuous scores were normally distributed, so median split calculations created binary groups indicating relative levels of SES (high vs. middle) and bilingualism (more monolingual vs. more bilingual). For verbal fluency, there were no group differences in semantic fluency but phonological fluency was performed better by children from higher SES backgrounds, both in between-group and continuous analyses. For EF, the between-group analysis revealed an interaction in which bilingual children in the higher SES group outperformed all other children; nonetheless, a positive relation between degree of bilingualism and EF was significant across the whole sample. Thus, both SES and bilingualism affected language and cognitive development with limiting conditions for each experience. The discussion considers the effect of these subtle differences in SES and bilingual experience on development of essential cognitive abilities, the relation between these results and previous research, and the importance of how groups are defined in research addressing individual differences.

摘要

与通过比较明显不同的群体来检查社会经济地位 (SES) 和双语对发展的影响的研究相比，本研究调查了这些经历中细微差异的作用，因为它们对语言流畅性任务和执行力的表现的共同影响功能 (EF) 任务。该研究涉及 234 名 6 岁儿童，他们接受了非语言智力和英语词汇评估；父母完成了一份问卷，提供人口统计信息和有关儿童语言体验的详细信息。根据父母的教育和双语能力，根据非英语语言的经验为儿童分配连续的 SES 分数。两个连续分数均呈正态分布，因此中值拆分计算创建了指示 SES 相对水平的二元组（高与低）。中）和双语（更多单语与更多双语）。对于语言流畅度，语义流畅度没有组间差异，但在组间和连续分析中，来自较高 SES 背景的儿童在语音流畅度方面表现更好。对于 EF，组间分析揭示了一种相互作用，即较高 SES 组的双语儿童优于所有其他儿童；尽管如此，双语程度与 EF 之间的正相关关系在整个样本中是显着的。因此，社会经济地位和双语都会影响语言和认知发展，每种体验都有限制条件。讨论考虑了社会经济地位和双语经验的这些细微差异对基本认知能力发展的影响，这些结果与先前研究之间的关系，