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Does Mother’s and Father’s Time in the U.S Influence Second-Generation
Children’s Vocabulary in Spanish and English? Johanel Caceres1, Ashley Simpson2, Amanda Kibler2 & Natalia Palacios2
Skidmore College1, University of Virginia2
Introduction
Research Question
Results
Conclusion/Discussion
Method
Results Continued
Does mother’s and father’s time in the U.S influence second-generation Latino
children’s vocabulary scores in English and Spanish?
Sample
Variables of Interest Outcome measures
•Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) Child Raw Score
•Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP) Child Raw Score
•Woodcock-Muñoz English Picture Vocabulary W-Score
•Woodcock- Muñoz English Letter Word Identification W-score
•Woodcock- Muñoz Spanish Picture Vocabulary W-Score
•Woodcock- Muñoz Spanish Letter Word Identification W-score
Control variables
•Maternal and paternal education above HS
•Maternal and paternal comfort in English (0-very uncomfortable, 12- very
comfortable)
•FC age in years
•FC gender
Data Collection •Families were recruited through local schools and social services agencies
•Mothers completed a demographic questionnaire one-on –one in their homes in
the language of their choice with a bilingual research assistant.
•Children took all exams once in their homes administered by a bilingual research
assistant.
Conclusion •Parents’ time in the U.S was shown to significantly predict children’s picture vocabulary
scores in English as measured by the Woodcock-Muñoz though this relationship did not hold
with the addition of statistical controls.
Discussion
•Sample comes from a new immigrant community that is more recently established than
other traditional immigrant communities in the U.S.
•It is plausible that this “new immigrant” community may lack the resources facilitating
acculturation that are available to “traditional gateway” immigrant communities, which
include: language access, social services, and educational opportunities.
Limitations •Language Assessments used are based on monolingual populations, which fails to capture
the unique skills of bilingual children.
•Length of time in the U.S was the only factor used to measure acculturation.
Future Research •Future research should focus on other factors that could have an impact on Latino student’s
vocabulary development. For example, access and enrollment in early childhood education,
impact of siblings, self-regulation, and home education prior to schooling.
•Replicate study in other new immigrant communities to see if similar patters arise.
•Consideration of other measures of acculturation beyond time in the U.S.
Analytic Approach •6 OLS regression models measuring associations between mother’s and father’s time in the
U.S and children’s vocabulary scores in English and Spanish.
•Factors associated with Latino children academic outcomes, including vocabulary
scores, prior to school entry include:
•Family’s SES (Martinez & Lesaux, 2011),
•Maternal education and literacy skills (Pan & Rowe, 2005),
•Family psychological stress, parental involvement, and acculturation status
(Moreno & Lopez, 1999).
•Researchers supporting these trends often depict “traditional gateway” immigrant
communities such as Mexicans in California (Pyle, Bates, Greif, & Furlong, 2005)
and Puerto Ricans in New York (Colon-Papazoglou, 1999), but this is not
representative of all immigrant communities.
•Factors associated with fathers are often not included in understanding children’s
language outcomes.
•This study builds off of existing research to further investigate the associations
between both maternal and paternal time in the U.S and Latino children’s
vocabulary scores in a “new immigrant” community.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The research reported here was supported by the Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305B090002 to the
University of Virginia. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent
views of the U.S. Department of Education.
Johanel Caceres
