Do Spanish-English Bilingual Children Outperform Monolingual English-Speaking Children on Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood? A Propensity Score Analysis

Autor/inn/en	Goodrich, J. Marc; Koziol, Natalie A.; Yoon, HyeonJin; Leiva, Sergio
Titel	Do Spanish-English Bilingual Children Outperform Monolingual English-Speaking Children on Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood? A Propensity Score Analysis
Quelle	In: Journal of Educational Psychology, 114 (2022) 4, S.870-892 (23 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Goodrich, J. Marc)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0663
DOI	10.1037/edu0000692
Schlagwörter	Bilingualism; Executive Function; Surveys; Children; Longitudinal Studies; Kindergarten; Spanish; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Performance Based Assessment; Comparative Analysis; Monolingualism; Matched Groups; Short Term Memory; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Teacher Attitudes; Cognitive Tests; Achievement Tests; Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey; Woodcock Johnson Psycho Educational Battery; Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bilingualismus; Survey; Umfrage; Befragung; Child; Kind; Kinder; Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; Spanisch; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Leistungsermittlung; Kurzzeitgedächtnis; Denkfähigkeit; Kognitive Entwicklung; Lehrerverhalten; Kognitiver Fähigkeitstest; Achievement test; Achievement; Testing; Test; Tests; Leistungsbeurteilung; Leistungsüberprüfung; Leistung; Testdurchführung; Testen
Abstract	Despite much research examining whether bilingual individuals demonstrate superior executive function (EF) skills compared to monolinguals, the purported bilingual advantage remains controversial. One potential reason for discrepant findings across studies examining the bilingual advantage is the difficulty in matching monolingual and bilingual groups on important confounding variables that are related to EF. To address this limitation of prior research, we used a propensity score matching approach to evaluate the presence of the bilingual advantage in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011. Consistent with recent theories of EF development; we hypothesized that before matching, we would observe bilingual advantages on report- but not performance-based measures of EF. However, we expected that after matching bilingual and monolingual children on a comprehensive set of covariates there would be no group differences in EF. We matched bilingual Spanish-English and monolingual English kindergarteners on a comprehensive set of child- and school-level covariates and conducted a sensitivity analysis to evaluate whether results were sensitive to unobserved confounds. After matching groups (n = 252 matched pairs of monolingual and bilingual children), bilinguals had greater teacher-rated inhibitory control and attentional focus than did monolinguals; however, only the effect for inhibitory control was robust to unobserved confounds. In contrast, no effects of bilingualism were observed for performance-based measures of working memory or cognitive flexibility. Results are discussed in the context of recent theoretical models of EF development in early childhood. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01