Relations of English and Heritage Language Proficiency to Response Inhibition and Attention Shifting in Dual Language Learners in Head Start

Abstract

This study examined the concurrent relations of English (EL) and heritage language (HL) proficiency to executive functions (EF) among low-income dual language learners (DLLs) from immigrant families. In a sample of 90 children (age = 38 to 70 months) from Chinese-speaking Chinese American and Spanish-speaking Mexican American families recruited from Head Start preschools, children’s EL and HL proficiency was assessed using receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and EF was assessed using behavioral tasks measuring response inhibition and attention shifting. Multiple regressions were conducted to test the unique and interactive relations of EL and HL vocabulary to EF, controlling for family socioeconomic status and other demographic characteristics. Higher EL and higher HL vocabulary were uniquely associated with higher attention shifting. By contrast, neither EL nor HL vocabulary was uniquely associated with response inhibition. Interaction effects of EL × HL in relation to EF were also found. The results provided some evidence for the dual benefits of EL and HL proficiency on EF (especially attention shifting) among DLLs from low-income, immigrant families.

Self‐Regulatory Development in Children from Chinese Immigrant Families: Evidence for Commonality and Specificity

“…More broadly, and critical to questions of sociocultural specificity, incorporating children's bilingual proficiency and aspects of family SES into the full path model indicated that within-group variations in these sociocultural factors are uniquely associated with variations in their self-regulatory development. The unique associations between children's bilingual proficiency and aspects of their self-regulation are consistent with two previous studies of Chinese American children of immigrant parents (Chen, Hua, et al, 2015;Williams et al, 2019). Together, each of these studies contribute to the growing arguments for examining how withingroup differences in levels of bilingual proficiency e1132 Chen, Deng, Zhang, Wang, and Liu relate to self-regulation (Bialystok, 2017;Sorge, Toplak, & Bialystok, 2017), and underscore the importance of including both bilingualism and family SES as independent predictors of executive function (Krizman, Skoe, & Kraus, 2016).…”

“…While both family SES and multilingualism have been associated with children's self-regulatory development, there is limited evidence for the generalizability of these associations among Asian American youth. For example, while the associations between higher family SES and better executive function in children have been consistently demonstrated across sociocultural groups Obradovi c & Willoughby, 2019), investigations of family SES and selfregulation among immigrant families from any Asian American ethnic group are limited and indicate mixed or nonsignificant associations between family SES, EF, and other indicators of children's self-regulation, such as effortful control and behavioral regulation (Chen, Zhou, Main, & Lee, 2015 ;Chen et al, 2015;Liew, Kwok, Chang, Chang, & Yeh, 2014;Williams, Uchikoshi, Bunge, & Zhou, 2019). Furthermore, while family SES is commonly operationalized as a composite variable of household income and education, previous studies with Chinese immigrant families indicate that income and education level are dissociable aspects of social status that have distinct associations with socioemotional processes (Chen, Zhang, Liu, & Wang, 2020;Chen & Zhou, 2019).…”

“…By contrast, only a few studies have demonstrated how variations in the bilingual advantage can also be observed among children as a function of their degree of bilingual proficiency (Bialystok & Barac, 2012;Riggs, Shin, Unger, Spruijt-Metz, & Pentz, 2014;Thomas-Sunesson, Hakuta, & Bialystok, 2018). These limited studies include two independent investigations of Chinese American children (Chen, Zhou, et al, 2014;Williams et al, 2019) and found positive associations between children's degree of bilingual proficiency and their self-regulation. Thus, we expected that children's bilingual proficiency would be positively associated with children's executive function and their effortful control.…”

Parental perceptions of bilingualism and home language vocabulary: Young bilingual children from low-income immigrant Mexican American and Chinese American families

“…Immigrant parents may be unable to support the new language due to their own language barriers ( Leyendecker et al, 2018 ). It was found that low-income families use their home language more than the English language with their children ( Williams et al, 2019 ; Haft et al, 2021 ). Therefore, home language input may vary across families for these DLL children.…”

Culturally relevant stressors as moderators of intergenerational transmission of mother-adolescent executive function in Mexican immigrant families

“…For example, executive control undergoes a maturation process during the course of adolescence, and demonstrates different kinds of gender differences depending on the specific task (e.g., Malagoli & Usai, 2018 ). Adolescents of later immigrant generations have demonstrated better shifting ability (e.g., Williams et al, 2019 ), and bilingualism can undermine as well as benefit an individual’s executive control (Bialystok, 2011 ; Hilchey & Klein, 2011 ). Therefore, we included adolescents’ self-reported age, gender, nativity (i.e., foreign-born or U.S.-born), and Spanish and English proficiency as covariates in our study.…”