The Interactive Effect of Parental Education on Language Production

Abstract

This study examines the interactive effect of mother's and father's education on childhood language development. Parents of sixteen-and twentymonth-old children (N=48) completed measures on their children's language production (MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences) as well as basic demographic information. There were variations in language production according to maternal education for only the older children. There was also an interaction between maternal and paternal education; children of parents with heterogeneous levels of education (that is, only one parent with a 4-year degree) had higher levels of language production than parents with homogeneous levels of education (that is, either both parents with a degree or both parents without a degree). Surprisingly, children with homogeneous levels of parental education were the ones who scored the lowest on measures of language production. This may be due to less effective parenting at both the low and high parental education levels or because disparity in parental education positively affects the home learning environment.

Stern, gwiazda or star: Screening receptive vocabulary skills across languages in monolingual and bilingual German–Polish or German–Turkish children using a tablet application

“…They found that children spending 40 hours or more in daycare per week and had fathers with a high educational background, outperformed children with fathers with a lower educational level on expressive vocabulary scores (p. 592). In addition, the interaction between different levels of maternal and paternal education should be considered (Hupp et al, 2011). Hupp et al (2011) found that children with parents who had heterogeneous levels of parental education (e.g.…”

“…In addition, the interaction between different levels of maternal and paternal education should be considered (Hupp et al, 2011). Hupp et al (2011) found that children with parents who had heterogeneous levels of parental education (e.g. one parent without a degree, one with a degree), attained higher language production scores.…”

How statistical learning interacts with the socioeconomic environment to shape children’s language development

“…Low parental education, as an indicator of SES, is reported to predict language difficulties in children [ 40 ]. Hupp and colleagues [ 31 ] found that twenty-month-old children with well-educated mothers demonstrated better language production skills compared to those whose mothers were not as well-educated. Furthermore, variations in language exposure (e.g.…”