Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T23:39:36.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Preschoolers’ vocabulary acquisition in Chile: the roles of socioeconomic status and quality of home environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2017

Regina T. LOHNDORF ,
Harriet. J. VERMEER ,
Rodrigo A. CÁRCAMO  and
Judi MESMAN
Regina T. LOHNDORF
Affiliation:
Leiden University, the Netherlands, and University of Magallanes, Chile
Harriet. J. VERMEER*
Affiliation:
Leiden University, the Netherlands, and University of Magallanes, Chile
Rodrigo A. CÁRCAMO
Affiliation:
Leiden University, the Netherlands, and University of Magallanes, Chile
Judi MESMAN
Affiliation:
Leiden University, the Netherlands, and University of Magallanes, Chile
*
Address for correspondence: H. Vermeer, Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Wassernaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands. e-mail: vermeer@FSW.leidenuniv.nl
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Preschoolers’ vocabulary acquisition sets the stage for later reading ability and school achievement. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES) and the quality of the home environment of seventy-seven Chilean majority and Mapuche minority families from low and lower-middle-class backgrounds in explaining individual differences in vocabulary acquisition of their three-and-a-half-year-old children. Additionally, we investigated whether the relation between SES and receptive and expressive vocabulary was mediated by the quality of the home environment as the Family Investment Model suggests. The quality of the home environment significantly predicted receptive and expressive vocabulary above and beyond ethnicity, SES, parental caregiver status, and quantity of daycare. Furthermore, the quality of the home environment mediated the relation between SES and expressive and receptive vocabulary acquisition.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 559 - 580
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This study was made possible by a grant awarded to the first author by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research of Chile (CONICYT, Becas Chile). We would like to thank JUNJI (Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles - National Council of Daycare Centers) and INTEGRA (National Network of Nursery Schools and Kindergartens) of the Araucanía region for tirelessly supporting our study. We furthermore thank the School of Psychology of the Universidad Autónoma Temuco for their collaboration.

References

REFERENCES

ACYF (Administration for Children, Youth & Families) (2003). Head Start FACES (2000): a whole child perspective on program performance fourth progress report. Washington, DC: ACYF. Online: <http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED478791.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Anger, S. & Heineck, G. (2010). Do smart parents raise smart children? The intergenerational transmission of cognitive abilities. Journal of Population Economics 23(3), 1105–32.Google Scholar
Bartels, M., Rietveld, M. J., Van Baal, G. C. M. & Boomsma, D. I. (2002). Genetic and environmental influences on the development of intelligence. Behavior Genetics 32(4), 237–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornstein, M. H. (1995). Form and function: implications for studies of culture and human development. Culture & Psychology 1, 123–37.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., Lansford, J. E., Deater-Deckard, K. & Bradley, R. H. (2015). A developmental analysis of caregiving modalities across infancy in 38 low-and middle-income countries. Child Development 86, 1571–87.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. H. & Corwyn, R. F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology 53, 371–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, R. H. & Corwyn, R. F. (2005). Caring for children around the world: a view from HOME. International Journal of Behavioral Development 29, 468–78.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. H., Corwyn, R. F., McAdoo, H. P. & Garcia Coll, C. (2001). The home environments of children in the United States part I: variations by age, ethnicity, and poverty status. Child Development 72, 1844–67.Google Scholar
Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G. J. & Maritato, N. (1997). Poor families, poor outcomes: the well-being of children and youth. In Duncan, G. J. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (eds), Consequences of growing up poor, 1–17. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Bucarey, A., Ugarte, G. & Urzúa, S. (2014). El efecto de la educación preescolar en chile. [The effect of preschool education in Chile]. Technical report. Online: <http://clientes.hugoo.com/temp/99/banco/Impacto_Educ_Parvularia_SIMCE_marzo2014.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Bus, A. G., van IJzendoorn, M. H. & Pellegrini, A. D. (1995). Joint book reading makes for success in learning to read: a meta-analysis on intergenerational transmission of literacy. Review of Educational Research 65, 1–21.Google Scholar
Bustos Correa, C., Herrera, M. O. & Mathiesen, M. E. (2001). Calidad del ambiente del hogar: Inventario HOME como un instrumento de medición [Quality of the home environment: the HOME inventory as a measurement instrument]. Estudios Pedagógicos 27, 7–22.Google Scholar
Cairney, J., Boyle, M., Offord, D. R. & Racine, Y. (2003). Stress, social support and depression in single and married mothers. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 38, 442–9.Google Scholar
Caldwell, B. M. & Bradley, R. H. (2003). Home observation for measurement of the environment: administration manual. Little Rock, AR: University of Arkansas.Google Scholar
Caniguan, N. (2012). Infancia mapuche y migración en el Budi [Mapuche infancy and migration in the Budi]. Revista Iberoamericana sobre Niñez y Juventud en Lucha por sus Derechos 4, 135–41.Google Scholar
Cárcamo, R. A., Vermeer, H. J., van der Veer, R. & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2015). Childcare in Mapuche and non-Mapuche families in Chile: the importance of socioeconomic inequality. Journal of Child and Family Studies 24, 2668–79.Google Scholar
CASEN (2011). Ministry of Social Development: Survey of national socioeconomic characterization. Online: <http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/casen/basededatos_historico.php>..>Google Scholar
CASEN (2013). Ministry of Social Development: The situation of poverty in Chile. Online: <http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/documentos/Casen2013_Situacion_Pobreza_Chile.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Cerda, R. (2009). Situación socioeconómica reciente de los mapuches en la región de La Araucanía [Recent socioeconomic situation of the Mapuche in the Araucania region]. Estudios Públicos 113, 27–108.Google Scholar
Coddington, C. H., Mistry, R. S. & Bailey, A. L. (2014). Socioeconomic status and receptive vocabulary development: replication of the parental investment model with Chilean preschoolers and their families. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 29, 538–49.Google Scholar
Coley, R. J. (2002). An uneven start: indicators of inequality in school readiness. Policy information report. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Online: <http://www.ets.org/research/policy_research_reports/publications/report/2002/cikm>.Google Scholar
Conger, R. D. & Donnellan, M. B. (2007). An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development. Annual Review of Psychology 58, 175–99.Google Scholar
Contreras, D. & González, S. (2015). Determinants of early child development in Chile: health, cognitive development and demographic factors. International Journal of Educational Development 40, 217–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cortázar, A. (2012). Long-term effects of early childhood education on academic achievement in Chile. Doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3492908).Google Scholar
Desai, S., Chase-Lansdale, P. L. & Michael, R. T. (1989). Mother or market? Effects of maternal employment on the intellectual ability of 4-year-old children. Demography 26, 545–61.Google Scholar
Dickens, W. T. (2005). Genetic differences and school readiness. Future of Children 15(1), 55–69.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. M., Padilla, E. R., Lugo, D. E. & Dunn, L. M. (1986). Manual del examinador para el Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes Peabody [The experimenter's manual for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test]. Minneapolis, MN: Pearson Assessment.Google Scholar
Eyheramendy, S., Martinez, F. I., Manevy, F., Vial, C. & Repetto, G. M. (2015). Genetic structure characterization of Chileans reflects historical immigration patterns. Nature Communications 6, 1–10.Google Scholar
Forget-Dubois, N., Dionne, G., Lemelin, J. P., Pérusse, D., Tremblay, R. E. & Boivin, M. (2009). Early child language mediates the relation between home environment and school readiness. Child Development 80(3), 736–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gundermann, H., Canihuan, J., Clavería, A. & Faúndez, C. (2009). Permanencia y desplazamiento, hipótesis acerca de la vitalidad del mapuzugun [Permanence and displacement hypothesis about the vitality of Mapuzungun]. RLA. Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada 47, 37–60.Google Scholar
Harlaar, N., Hayiou-Thomas, M. E., Dale, P. S. & Plomin, R. (2008). Why do preschool language abilities correlate with later reading? A twin study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 51, 688–705.Google Scholar
Hayes, A. F. (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs 76, 408–20.Google Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1990). The children of Trackton's children: spoken and written language in social change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J. & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33, 61–135.Google Scholar
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review 26, 55–88.Google Scholar
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1991). Mother–child conversation in different social classes and communicative settings. Child Development 62, 782–96.Google Scholar
Hudson, J. & Kühner, S. (2016). Fairness for children: a league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries (Unicef Innocenti Report Card 13). Florence: Unicef Innocenti Research Centre. Online: <https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/RC13_eng.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Huston, A. C., Duncan, G. J., McLoyd, V. C., Crosby, D. A., Ripke, M. N., Weisner, T. S. & Eldred, C. A. (2005). Impacts on children of a policy to promote employment and reduce poverty for low-income parents: New Hope after 5 years. Developmental Psychology 41, 902–18Google Scholar
INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas) (2012). Resultados XVIII Censo de Población [Results XVIII of the population census]. Santiago de Chile. Government of Chile. Online: <https://www.cooperativa.cl/noticias/site/artic/20130425/asocfile/20130425190105/resultados_censo_2012_poblacion_vivienda_tomosiyii.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Isenberg, J. P. & Quisenberry, N. (2002). PLAY: essential for all children (A position paper of the Association for Childhood Education International). Childhood Education 79, 33–9.Google Scholar
JUNJI National Council of Daycare Centers (2009). Balance de gestión integral, año 2009 [Annual balance of integral management]. Online: <http://www.dipres.cl/574/articles-60662_doc_pdf.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Loeb, S., Bridges, M., Bassok, D., Fuller, B. & Rumberger, R. W. (2007). How much is too much? The influence of preschool centers on children's social and cognitive development. Economics of Education Review 26, 52–66.Google Scholar
Love, J. M., Harrison, L., Sagi-Schwartz, A., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Ross, C., Ungerer, J. A., … & Chazan-Cohen, R. (2003). Child care quality matters: how conclusions may vary with context. Child Development 74, 1021–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luijk, M. P. C. M., Linting, M., Henrichs, J., Herba, C. M., Verhage, M. L., Schenk, J. J., … & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2015). Hours in non-parental childcare are related to language development in a longitudinal cohort study. Child: Care, Health and Development 41, 1188–98.Google Scholar
MIDESO (Ministerio de Desarrollo Social [Ministry of Social Development, Chile]) (n.d.). Nivel socioeconómico [socioeconomic level]. Online: <http://www.contablesytributarias.com/2014/05/ingresos-por-quintiles-ano-2014.html>..>Google Scholar
Nancy, M. (2013). Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test – four – Spanish Bilingual Edition (EOWPVT-4-SBE). Novato, CA: Academic Therapy Publications.Google Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2000). The relation of childcare to cognitive and language development. Child Development 71, 960–80.Google Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2002). Early childcare and children's development prior to school entry: results from the NICHD study of early childcare. American Educational Research Journal 39, 133–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2005). Pathways to reading: the role of oral language in the transition to reading. Developmental Psychology 41(2), 428–42.Google Scholar
Noboa-Hidalgo, G. E. & Urzúa, S. S. (2012). The effects of participation in public child care centers: evidence from Chile. Journal of Human Capital 6, 1–34.Google Scholar
Norenzayan, A. & Heine, S. J. (2005). Psychological universals: What are they and how can we know? Psychological Bulletin 131(5), 763–84.Google Scholar
Piñeiro, A., Manzano, M., Inguanzo, G., Reigosa, V.Morales, A. & Fernández, C. (2000). Adaptación y normación de la prueba de vocabulario Peabody en una muestra de sujetos cubanos [Adaptation and standardization of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test in a sample of Cuban subject]. Revista Cubana de Psicología 17, 147–53.Google Scholar
Preacher, K. J. & Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers 36(4), 717–31.Google Scholar
Preacher, K. J. & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods 40, 879–91.Google Scholar
Prevoo, M J. L., Malda, M., Mesman, J.Emmen, R. A. G., Yeniad, N., Van IJzendoorn, M. H. & Linting, M. (2014). Predicting ethnic minority children's vocabulary from socioeconomic status, maternal language and home reading input: different pathways for host and ethnic language. Journal of Child Language 41(5), 963–84.Google Scholar
Richman, A. L., Miller, P. M. & LeVine, R. A. (1992). Cultural and educational variations in maternal responsiveness. Developmental Psychology 28, 614–21.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, E. T. & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2011). Trajectories of the home learning environment across the first 5 years: associations with children's vocabulary and literacy skills at prekindergarten. Child Development 82, 1058–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Segall, M. H., Lonner, W. J. & Berry, J. W. (1998). Cross-cultural psychology as a scholarly discipline: on the flowering of culture in behavioral research. American Psychologist 53(10), 1101–110.Google Scholar
Song, L., Spier, E. T. & Tamis-Lemonda, C. S. (2013). Reciprocal influences between maternal language and children's language and cognitive development in low-income families. Journal of Child Language 40, 1–22.Google Scholar
Soto, E. (2009). La escolarización de los mapuche de Chile y la nueva mirada del estado [Schooling of the Mapuche in Chile and the new perspective of the state]. XXVII Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología. Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología, Buenos Aires. Online: <http://cdsa.aacademica.org/000-062/2277>.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, B. G. & Fidell, L. S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics, 3rd ed. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Walker, S. P., Wachs, T. D., Gardner, J. M., Lozoff, B., Wasserman, G. A., Pollitt, E., … & International Child Development Steering Group (2007). Child development: risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries. The Lancet 369, 145–57.Google Scholar
World Bank (2012). Monitoring basic opportunities throughout the lifecycle with the human opportunity index in Chile. Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, Latin American and Caribbean Region (Report No.: 67654-CL). Online: <https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/11919>..>Google Scholar
Yeung, W. J., Linver, M. R. & Brooks–Gunn, J. (2002). How money matters for young children's development: parental investment and family processes. Child Development 73(6), 1861–79.Google Scholar