Associations between urbanization and the home language environment: Evidence from a LENA study in rural and peri‐urban China

Abstract

In low‐ and middle‐income countries, urbanization has spurred the expansion of peri‐urban communities, or urban communities of formerly rural residents with low socioeconomic status. The growth of these communities offers researchers an opportunity to measure the associations between the level of urbanization and the home language environment (HLE) among otherwise similar populations. Data were collected in 2019 using Language Environment Analysis observational assessment technology from 158 peri‐urban and rural households with Han Chinese children (92 males, 66 females) aged 18–24 months in China. Peri‐urban children scored lower than rural children in measures of the HLE and language development. In both samples, child age, gender, maternal employment, and sibling number were positively correlated with the HLE, which was in turn correlated with language development.