Language Abilities and Peer Rejection in Kindergarten: A Mediation Analysis

Abstract

Rejection by peers has devastating effects on children's social-cognitive development. As language difficulties have been found to be one of the underlying causes of peer rejection, the present study focused on the relation between these two variables. Specifically, this study was the first to test a hypothesized model connecting children's level of receptive vocabulary knowledge to the extent to which they are rejected by their peers, through their ability to communicate effectively. A sample of N = 135 children (aged four to six) participated in the study. Their receptive vocabulary knowledge was assessed with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the level of oral communicative competence was measured using the Nijmegen Test for Pragmatics, and peer rejection was indicated by means of a nomination procedure. Research Findings: Outcomes of mediation analyses revealed that children's receptive vocabulary knowledge was indirectly related to peer rejection, through oral communicative competence: Poor receptive vocabulary knowledge was associated with poor oral communicative competence, which was in turn related to a higher level of peer rejection. Gender was not a significant moderator in this model. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest the need to focus both on oral communicative competence and on receptive vocabulary knowledge when addressing peer rejection in kindergarten.

Parental Reports of Preschoolers' Lexical and Syntactic Development: Validation of the CDI-III for European Portuguese

“…Evidence of validity based on test-criterion relationships was collected by analyzing the effects of the child's gender, maternal education, and birth order on the CDI-III-PT scores. No gender differences were found in any of the two subscales, supporting the findings of other studies that suggest that boys catch up to girls' language abilities in preschool years (Altinkaynak, 2019;Fung et al, 2019;Jin et al, 2020;van der Wilt et al, 2020). Significant effects were found for maternal education in both subscales, a result which is also congruent with the findings of previous research in early development (Umek et al, 2006;Weigel et al, 2006;Fenson et al, 2007;Richels et al, 2013;Andonova, 2015;Gonzalez et al, 2017;Cadime et al, 2018;Farley and Piasta, 2020).…”

“…No gender differences were found in any of the two subscales, supporting the findings of other studies that suggest that boys catch up to girls' language abilities in preschool years (Altinkaynak, 2019;Fung et al, 2019;Jin et al, 2020;van der Wilt et al, 2020). Significant effects were found for maternal education in both subscales, a result which is also congruent with the findings of previous research in early development (Umek et al, 2006;Weigel et al, 2006;Fenson et al, 2007;Richels et al, 2013;Andonova, 2015;Gonzalez et al, 2017;Cadime et al, 2018;Farley and Piasta, 2020). Regarding birth order, a significant effect was found in vocabulary, indicating that the advantage in lexical abilities of first born children which has been found in toddlers (Fenson et al, 1994;Hoff-Ginsberg, 1998;Berglund et al, 2005;Zambrana et al, 2012) is maintained at least until the fourth year of age.…”

“…However, some studies with toddlers suggest that, as they approach 3;0, there is a tendency for boys to catch up in terms of expressive language (Simonsen et al, 2014). The results of other studies with preschool children, with ages ranging approximately between 3;0 and 6;0, seem to confirm that this gender gap decreases as children grow older: some studies with preschoolers show only small differences favoring girls (Jin et al, 2020;van der Wilt et al, 2020), and others do not show any differences (Altinkaynak, 2019;Fung et al, 2019).…”

“…Another factor that has been consistently related to children's linguistic skills is maternal education. Several studies have found evidence that a higher level of maternal education is associated with more developed linguistic skills in children, both in toddlers and in preschool children (Umek et al, 2006;Weigel et al, 2006;Fenson et al, 2007;Richels et al, 2013;Andonova, 2015;Gonzalez et al, 2017;Cadime et al, 2018;Farley and Piasta, 2020). Research has also consistently shown that mothers with higher educational levels provide more linguistic input, use a more varied vocabulary and more complex syntax, and more frequently perform activities such as reading for their children, than mothers with lower educational levels (Hoff, 2006;Gonzalez et al, 2017;Sultana et al, 2020), which may explain the consistent relationship that has been found between maternal education and children's language abilities.…”

Associations Between Language Difficulties, Peer Victimization, and Bully Perpetration From 3 Through 8 Years of Age: Results From a Population-Based Study

“…This raises the question of whether the association between language and social problems is dependent on developmental age or type of language difficulty. When investigating how different aspects of language were linked to peer rejection, van der Wilt et al (2020) found that children's vocabulary knowledge (receptive skills) was indirectly associated with peer rejection through oral communicative competence (expressive skills). Furthermore, Rennecke et al (2019) found that both receptive and expressive language disorders were associated with peer victimization and bully perpetration.…”