Background

 

How well you speak and understand a language has a tremendous impact on all areas of life, and that it is critical that children start developing language skills early. Previous research has shown that the quality of parenting has an effect on child language development concurrently, and also as the child matures (Hart & Risley, 1992; Landry et al., 2010). Authoritative parenting style is when parents make and enforce rules while still allowing the child to make his/her own decisions, whereas Authoritarian parenting style is parents are strict and give their children extremely limited freedom (Baumrind, 1971). Although the dominance of these parenting styles differs by culture, there does not seem to be much research studying whether or not the effect of parenting style on language differs by culture. However, there is a significant effect of socioeconomic status (SES; Hart & Risley, 1992). This study aims to understand how parenting styles affect early language development, and if the effects are uniform across the U.S. and Chilean cultures, controlling for SES.

Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology, 4(1p2), 1.Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1992) American parenting of language-learning children: Persisting differences in family-child interactions

observed in natural home environments. Developmental Psychology, 28(6), 1096.Landry, S. H., Miller-Loncar, C.L., Smith, K.E., & Swank, P.R. (2002). The role of early parenting in children's development of executive

processes. Developmental neuropsychology, 21(1), 15-41.Julian, T.W., McKenry, P.C., & McKelvey, M.W. (1994). Cultural variations in parenting: perceptions of Caucasian, African-American,

Hispanic, and Asian-American parents. Family Relations, 30-37.Pungello, E.P., Iruka, I. U., Dotterer, A. M., Mills-Koonce, R., & Reznick, J.S. (2009). The effects of socioeconomic status, race, and parenting

on language development in early childhood. Developmental psychology, 45(2), 544.

Does Culture Influence Child Language Development Through Parenting Styles: Comparing the U.S. and Chile

Rachel Nelson and Simone AlhagriUnder the direction of Claire Vallotton, Department of Human Development and Family Studies

Analyses. We used linear regression models to test our hypotheses, for both receptive and expressive language. We controlled for the effects of children’s language scores at 12 months, culture, and SES, and tested whether parenting style predicted language skills at 30 months. Results. Our hypothesis was that parenting style would influence early language development for both expressive and receptive language in the U.S. and Chile. The children whose parents use the Authoritative parenting style will develop higher skills than children of parents who use the Authoritarian parenting style. Our hypothesis was partially correct. Parenting style does have an effect on early language development, but socioeconomic status (SES) was the best predictor. However, when this was controlled for, parenting style was still significant at 30 months. Overall, children with Authoritative parents have better receptive and expressive language development regardless of culture. Parenting style had an effect size of 0.35 on receptive language, and 0.43 on expressive language, which shows that both forms of language are heavily influenced by the parenting style that is used, in both the Chilean and U.S. cultures. There was an effect of culture (country) on both receptive and expressive language (U.S. scoring higher), but when SES was controlled, this effect remained only for expressive language.

Does parenting style influence early language development and are the results similar across the U.S and Chile?

Analysis and Results

Authoritarian vs. Authoritative Parenting Styles: Sensitivity Items (Table 1)

During the interaction, prioritizes the child rather than their own interest

Parent gives the child time to take initiative

Promotes and allows for communication

Allows for turn-taking with the child

Verbalizes the desires of the child in an appropriate way

Proposes activities that attempt a shared type of play

Play behaviors are interesting and change in an appropriate way

Verbal language is always positive and encouraging for the child during play, never teases or criticizes the child’s behavior

Responds in an appropriate way to the child’s signals

DiscussionMethods

Sample: 120 parent-infant dyads from the U.S. and Chile; infants were ~12 months at Wave 1, and ~30 m at Wave 2.Procedure: When infants were 12 months, we recorded the parents interacting with their child for five minutes during free play and we rated them on items from the Sensitivity Scale (Santelices et al., 2012). Then we tracked the receptive and expressive language development of children from 12 months and 30 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 2006). Measurements: We chose specific items from the Sensitivity Scale (Table 1), rating them from 1 (more Authoritarian) to 3 (Authoritative). We averaged the items together to create a score representing more Authoritarian (lower score) to Authoritative style (higher score). For our analyses, we use a standardized z-score where the average parenting style is 0, more Authoritarian is -1, and Authoritative is +1.

References

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Effects of Parenting Style on Receptive Language Development in Toddlerhood in Two Cultures (Fig-

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Effects of Parenting Style on Expressive Language Development in Toddlerhood in Two Cultures

(Figure 2)

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SES explains the cultural difference for receptive language, although this is not the case with expressive language where Americans scored higher regardless of the controls. It was also discovered that parenting styles is only significant for both forms of language at 30 months. The limitations of the study was the amount of variance in our study due to using data from a sample, and our regression only included culture, SES, and parenting. Being a parent is one of the most important jobs one can have. This study shows that your disciplinary style with your child will have an affect on their language development over time.

Question

Figures 1 and 2 show the average receptive and expressive language scores of toddlers (30 months) whose parents had more Authoritarian (-1) vs. Authoritative (+1) parenting styles when they were infants (12 months).

*This research was supported by grant Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, FONDECYT N° 1160110