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

Cognitive Distancing Language in Parent-Child Book Sharing Among Low-Income Mexican American and Chinese American Families: Cultural Group Comparisons and Links to Children's Executive Functions

Research Findings

In the context of parent-child book sharing, cultural influences on cognitive distancing language and its associations with child executive function (EF) have been understudied. This study examined cultural group similarities/differences in parent and child book-sharing distancing language among preschool-aged dual language learners from low-income Mexican American (MA) and Chinese American (CA) families. We further tested concurrent relations between parent/child distancing language and children's EF. The sample consisted of 88 children (45 MAs, 43 CAs, age = 38-68 months) enrolled in Head Start preschools and their parents. To assess distancing language, utterances were coded for cognitive demand and classified as referential (low demand), behavioral (moderate demand), or inferential (high demand). Cognitive tasks tapping inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility were used to assess child EF. Results showed parents and children from both cultural groups produced comparable numbers of story-related utterances. MA dyads used higher proportions of parent/child inferential statements and a lower proportion of parent referential questions. The proportions of parent behavioral questions and child behavioral statements were positively related to child cognitive flexibility.

Practice or Policy

Findings highlight heterogeneity in parent-child verbal interactions among low-income multilingual families and have implications for promoting preschoolers' cognitive/language development in diverse populations.

Parent Emotion Talk with Preschoolers from Low-Income Mexican American and Chinese American Families: Links to Sociocultural Factors

Emotion talk (ET), an emotion socialization practice theorized to promote children's emotion understanding and emotion regulation, has been linked to better socioemotional adjustment in diverse samples. Immigrant children face developmentally unique challenges and opportunities related to their multi-lingual and multi-cultural experiences. The present study aimed to identify sociocultural correlates of parent ET in two groups of low-income immigrant families with preschool-age children: Mexican American (MA) and Chinese American (CA) families. In 90 parent-child dyads (child age = 38 to 70 months, 59% girls; 46 Mexican American and 44 Chinese American) recruited from Head Start programs, parents' (mostly mothers') ET quality and quantity (i.e., use of emotion words, emotion questions and explanations, and overall elaborateness of ET) were coded from verbal transcripts of a shared picture book reading task. First, we found similarities and differences in ET across the two groups. Both MA and CA parents used emotion words, emotion questions, and emotion reasoning, whereas linking the story to personal emotion experience was infrequent. MA parents used more negative emotion words, emotion reasoning, and engaged in more elaborate ET than CA parents. Second, we examined the unique relations of multiple socio-cultural factors (SES, cultural orientations, parent and child demographics) to parent ET. Parent education and child age were associated positively with emotion questions, income was associated positively with emotion reasoning, and parents' heritage culture orientation was associated positively with the elaborateness of ET. The findings highlight the need to consider socio-cultural variations in emotion socialization practices when adapting and disseminating socioemotional learning interventions.

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

Dual language learners (DLLs), especially those from immigrant families in the United States, risk losing their home language as they gradually shift to speaking English as they grow up. Given the potential benefits of bilingualism on children's cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional development, it is crucial to maintain children's home language to foster bilingual development. The current literature suggests that parental beliefs toward bilingualism and the language and literacy environment are linked to children's language development. With the growing number of DLLs living in the United States, little is known about what parental beliefs about bilingualism of their children are integrated into these bilingual households and parents' role in home language maintenance. The present study addresses the gap in the literature by investigating low-income immigrant families, specifically Chinese American and Mexican American families, and exploring the parental perceptions of children's bilingual language learning. Further, the present study examines the relations among parental perceptions of bilingualism, home language and literacy practices, and home language oral proficiency. Data were collected from a total of 41 Mexican American and 91 Chinese American low-income immigrant families with DLLs ages 50-88 months who had been recruited from Head Start programs and state-funded preschools in Northern California when the children were 3-4 years old. Information about shared reading frequency, home language exposure and usage, and parental perceptions of bilingualism was collected through parental interviews, and DLLs' home language oral proficiency was individually assessed. No significant difference in home language oral proficiency was observed between the two groups. Principal Components Analysis on the parental perceptions of bilingualism measure revealed two components, "Importance of Being Bilingual" and "English over Bilingualism." Stepwise regression analysis results show that "Importance of Being Bilingual" was associated with children's home language oral proficiency after controlling for culture, child age, the frequency of home language shared book reading, and child home language exposure and use. The results show that parents' positive beliefs toward bilingualism are related to the children's use of that language and their children's language outcomes. Implications and suggestions for home language and literacy support for DLLs are discussed.

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

The intergenerational transmission of executive function may be enhanced or interrupted by culturally salient environmental stressors that shape the practice of executive function in the family. Building upon past research, the current study tests whether culturally relevant stressors such as economic stress and foreigner stress have a direct effect on adolescent executive function, as well as whether they modify the intergenerational transmission of mother-child executive function (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, and shifting) in low-income Mexican immigrant families. The sample consists of 179 Mexican American adolescents (Mage = 17.03 years; SDage = 0.83; 58% females) and their Mexico-born mothers (Mage = 43.25 years; SDage = 5.90). Results show that mothers' perceived economic stress is associated with poor inhibitory control in adolescents. Low levels of mothers' perceived foreigner stress related to a stronger association between mothers' and adolescents' working memory, while high levels of mothers' perceived foreigner stress related to enhanced intergenerational transmission of poor shifting ability. Study findings demonstrate the prominence of perceived foreigner stress as a contextually relevant factor moderating the intergenerational transmission of mother-child executive function in low-income Mexican immigrant families.

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

A central theme of acculturative specificity is the heterogeneity of the immigrant experience. This study integrated this application of the Specificity Principle with intergenerational transmission models of self-regulation and identified both common and specific pathways in the self-regulatory development of Chinese American children in immigrant families (N = 169, M_age  = 9.2 years). Consistent with intergenerational transmission models, results indicated associations between parents' and children's effortful control, with the mediation of these associations via authoritarian parenting. Parental education, family income, and children's bilingual proficiency were also uniquely associated with children's executive function and effortful control. Together, findings provide new directions for research with ethnic minority immigrant families, and underscore the utility of within-group approaches in advancing research on ethnic minority children's development.

Home Language Environment and Executive Functions in Mexican American and Chinese American Preschoolers in Head Start

Research Findings

Using two groups of dual language learners (DLLs), the current study examined links between two developmental constructs closely linked to school readiness: the home language environment (HLE) and executive function (EF). In a sample of 90 children (age range = 38-70 months, 59% girls) from either Mexican American (MA, N = 46) or Chinese American (CA, N = 44) low-income families enrolled in Head Start preschool programs, parents reported on their HLE (home language balance, home English/heritage language activities) and children's EF (inhibitory control and attention shifting) was measured by cognitive tasks. Findings showed preschool-aged DLLs in low-income immigrant families received more heritage language exposure relative to English language exposure at home. Several demographic variables (parental education, per capita income, DLL group, child age of English acquisition, child generation, child English receptive vocabulary) were related to various aspects of HLE. Controlling for covariates, the amount of heritage language activities at home was uniquely and positively related to children's attention shifting.

Practice or Policy

The findings underscore the importance of incorporating language background considerations when designing intervention programs that target HLE and EF in low-income DLLs.

A Longitudinal Study on Bidirectional Relations between Executive Functions and English Word-Level Reading in Chinese American Children in Immigrant Families

This two-wave (1.5 years apart) longitudinal study examined the bidirectional relations between measures of executive function (EF; working memory, attention focusing, inhibitory control, and a comprehensive EF measure) and two types of English word-level reading (pseudoword reading and word reading) among 258 school-aged children (52.6% boys, age = 5.8-9.1 years, in 1st to 3rd grades at Wave 1) from Chinese American immigrant families. Cross-lagged panel analyses were conducted to test whether the four EF measures and English word-level reading proficiency predicted one another controlling for prior levels of EF or word reading, as well as demographic characteristics and children's English and Chinese language proficiency. We found a positive bidirectional association between the comprehensive EF measure and pseudoword reading. By contrast, although the comprehensive EF measure positively predicted word reading over time, word reading did not predict comprehensive EF. Additionally, both word reading and pseudoword reading positively predicted working memory over time. The results provided partial evidence that English word-level reading is bidirectionally related to EF among early elementary school-age dual language learners.