Bilingualism
Does being better at two languages help kids control themselves?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Among Chinese American children, being strong in both Chinese and English was linked to better mental flexibility on a lab task, but most self-control benefits were tied to skill in one language or the other.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — One wave of a longitudinal study; regressions of six lab, parent and teacher self-regulation measures on Chinese and English proficiency and their interaction, controlling for age, gender and family SES.
- N
- N=223 · 223 Chinese American children after excluding non-bilingual children from 239 assessed; teacher reports available for most of them.
- Population
- First- and second-generation Chinese American immigrant children aged 7-10 in the Western United States
- Outcome
- Behavioural persistence, Go/No-Go errors, cognitive flexibility, and parent- and teacher-rated effortful control
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Key findings
Only one result supported a true bilingual advantage: Chinese literacy predicted better rule-switching accuracy, but only for children with high English literacy. Otherwise single languages mattered separately; Chinese vocabulary predicted more persistence on the puzzle and Chinese literacy predicted fewer impulsive Go/No-Go errors, while English literacy predicted fewer missed responses and higher parent- and teacher-rated effortful control. Language measures explained only a small share of variance, with unique R-squared values from 0.03 to 0.15 depending on the outcome.
Methodology
The researchers tested 223 Chinese American immigrant children aged 7 to 10 on Chinese vocabulary, Chinese character reading and English reading. Self-regulation was measured with a puzzle task that tempted children to peek, a Go/No-Go inhibition task, a rule-switching flexibility task, and parent and teacher ratings of effortful control. Regression models asked whether each language, and their combination, predicted each self-regulation measure after controlling for age, gender and family socioeconomic status.
Limitations
Because the data come from a single time point, the study cannot tell whether language skill improves self-regulation or better self-regulated children learn languages more easily. The Chinese and English measures were not equivalent (vocabulary was measured only in Chinese), and there was no monolingual comparison group. Effects were small, the sample was one ethnic group in one region, and general verbal ability or cultural values linked to Chinese proficiency could explain some associations.
How this study connects
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