Does Early Child Language Predict Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence? An Investigation in Two Birth Cohorts Born 30 Years Apart

Emma Thornton, Praveetha Patalay, Colin Bannard

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Language is vital for social interaction, leading some to suggest early linguistic ability paves the way for good adolescent mental health. The relation between age-5 vocabulary and adolescent internalizing symptoms was examined in two U.K. birth cohorts that are nationally representative in terms of sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status: the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS; N = 11,640) and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS born ~2001; N = 14,754). In the BCS, no relation between receptive vocabulary and age-16 self-reported symptoms was observed (β = 0.00 [−0.03; 0.03]). In the MCS, better expressive vocabulary was associated with more age-14 self-reported symptoms (β = 0.05 [0.02; 0.07]). The direction of this effect was reversed for parent-reported symptoms. All effect sizes were small. The relation between childhood vocabulary and internalizing symptoms varies by generation and reporter.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2106-2127
Number of pages22
JournalChild Development
Volume92
Issue number5
Early online date2 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2021

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