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Internal state language factor structure and development in toddlerhood: Insights from WordBank

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2024

Tyler C. McFayden Open the ORCID record for Tyler C. McFayden [Opens in a new window]  and
Madeleine Bruce Open the ORCID record for Madeleine Bruce [Opens in a new window]
Tyler C. McFayden*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Madeleine Bruce
Affiliation:
University of Utah, Department of Psychology, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
*
Corresponding author: Tyler C. McFayden; Email: tyler_mcfayden@med.unc.edu
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Abstract

Internal state language (ISL) research contains knowledge gaps, including dimensionality and predictors of growth, addressed here in a two-aim study. Parent-reported expressive language from N = 6,373 monolingual, English-speaking toddlers (Mage = 23.5mos, 46% male, 57% white) was collected using cross-sectional and longitudinal data in WordBank. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a best-fitting one-factor model of ISL. The single-factor model of ISL was then submitted to hierarchical linear modeling to evaluate predictors of ISL development. Age 2 ISL production was predicted by child sex, wherein females outperform males, and maternal education, wherein higher education contributes to higher ISL. Only maternal education emerged as a significant predictor of ISL growth. These results provide support to theory suggesting a unitary construct of ISL, as opposed to considering ISL as categorical, and further illustrate linear growth through the second postnatal year that varies as a function of child sex and maternal education.

Keywords

internal state languagefactor structurelanguage developmenttoddlerhood
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , First View , pp. 1 - 20
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© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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