0165–2516/11/0208–0005 Int’l. J. Soc. Lang. 208 (2011), pp. 5–23©WalterdeGruyter DOI10.1515/IJSL.2011.010

Cross-sectional associations of Spanish and English competence and well-being in Latino

children of immigrants in kindergarten

Brian a. Collins, Claudio o. ToppelBerg, Carola suárez-orozCo, erin o’Connor, and alfonso nieTo-CasTañon

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine within an ecological model the associations of dual language (Spanish/English) competences with the emotional and be-havioral well-being of young children of immigrants in kindergarten. Latino children of immigrants (n = 228) from a public school-based community sam-ple were assessed using standardized, comprehensive measures of Spanish and English oral language competence and normed teacher reports on five dimen-sions of emotional and behavioral well-being and school functioning (inter-personal, intrapersonal, and affective strengths, connection to family, and school functioning). Relevant contextual factors at home (maternal education, poverty, family structure) and school (teacher experience and practices, class-room composition), as well as child factors (non-verbal IQ, gender) were con-sidered. Spanish and English competences accounted for moderate to large portions of variance in all dimensions of well-being. The contributions of child, home, and school variables to well-being were much smaller than lan-guage competence, and in most cases, not significant. Our findings suggest that dual language competence is critically associated with the emotional and behavioral well-being and school functioning of Latino children of i mmigrants.

Keywords: childhood bilingualism and well being; Latino immigrant children; dual language competence; affect and childhood bilingualism.

1. Introduction

ChildrenofimmigrantscompriseclosetoonequarteroftheUnitedStates’childpopulation,andareexpectedtoreachclosetoonethirdby2020,constitutingthe fastest growing segment of theUnitedStates’ child population (Mather2009;Suárez-OrozcoandSuárez-Orozco2001).Themajorityofchildrenof

6 B. A. Collins et al.

immigrantsspeakalanguageotherthanEnglishinthehome,whichinmostcases(70percent) isSpanish(U.S.Census2000).The increaseofdual lan-guagechildren(uniquehomeandschoollanguages)overthepastfewdecadeshas had an enormous impact on United States schools. However, the waychildren’scompetenceineachlanguagerelatestotheiremotionalandbehav-ioralwell-beingispoorlyunderstoodandindireneedofconcertedresearchefforts.Latinochildrenofimmigrantsarefacedwithmultipleriskfactorsforemo-

tional,behavioral,andacademicproblems—evenmoresothanotherminorityandwhiteyouthofsimilarsocioeconomicstatus(Arciaetal.1994;Gándaraetal.1998;Steinbergetal.1992).SomeoftheriskfactorsandchallengesLatinochildrenofimmigrantsfaceincludepoverty,lowlevelsofparentaleducation,limitedaccesstohealthcare,anddiscrimination(Hernandezetal.2007).Latinosalsohaveanumberofstrengths,suchasastrongsenseofcommunity,religion,optimism,familysupports,andhighvalueofeducation(Pumariega2009).Muchofthecurrentresearchonthedevelopmentofchildrenofimmigrants

has focused primarily on the risk for emotional, behavioral, and academicproblems.Thereisaneedforstrength-basedmodels,whichintegratepotentialprotectiveattributesofLatinochildrenof immigrants thatmay impact theiremotional, behavioral, and academic well-being. Many Latino children ofimmigrants have shown to be extremely resilient despite risk and adversity(Masten1994). Inaddition to themultiplepersonal, family,andcommunitycharacteristics supportingLatino children, language competence in SpanishandEnglishmaybepositivelyassociatedwiththeiremotionalandbehavioralwell-beingandschoolfunctioning.Ithasbeenwelldocumentedthatlanguagecompetenceisacriticalcontribu-

tortotheemotionalandbehavioraldevelopmentofmonolingualchildren(Be-itchmanetal.1996;ToppelbergandShapiro2000).However,thisassociationhasnotyetbeenfullyinvestigatedamongduallanguagechildren,whooftenhavewidelyvaryingcompetences ineach language.Whilemaintaininganddevelopinglinguisticcompetencesinbothafirstlanguage(L1)andasecondlanguage(L2)cansupporthealthyadaptation,rapidshiftsfromhometoschoollanguage, loss of home language, and inadequate English proficiency mayhavenegativepsychosocialandeducationalconsequences(Snow1991;WongFillmore1991).Thepresentstudyinvestigatestheassociationofduallanguagecompetences

with dimensions of emotional and behavioralwell-being during the criticaldevelopmentalstageofschoolentry—kindergarten.Forchildrenof immi-grants,enteringschooltypicallyrepresentsthefirstmassivecontactwiththeEnglishlanguage,aswellasAmericancultureandsocietyatlarge.Children’scompetencesintheirL1(Spanish)andL2(English)areconsideredinrelationtotheirwell-being(emotionalandbehavioralstrengthsandschoolfunction-

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 7

ing)withinanecologicalmodelofhomeandschoolfactorsaswellasotherchildcharacteristics.

2. Literaturereview

2.1. Association of language competence and emotional and behavioral well-being

Thesuccessfuldevelopmentoflanguageskillsisacornerstoneofchildhoodmentalhealth(U.S.SurgeonGeneral1999),throughitsdirectrelationshiptothechild’sself-expression,senseofidentity,andabilitytonegotiateandcon-nectwithpeersandfamilymembers.Languageencodesandlabelsemotionsand participates in the regulations of mental states (Aragno and Schlachet1996; Foster 1996). Language competence often underlies positive interac-tionswithpeersandadults,andtheadaptiveexpressionofemotionandappro-priateresponsetostimuli(Farmer1997).Additionally,languagecompetenceiscriticaltotheabilitytocommunicateneedsanddesires(Crittenden1996).So-cial,emotional,andbehavioralcompetencesandstrengths—suchassharing,regulating anger and other emotions, understanding directions and expecta-tions,identifyingfeelings,anddiscussingproblems—areallintricatelycon-nectedtochildren’slanguagecompetence(Ruehlmanetal.1999).Languagecompetenceisparticularlyimportantintheschoolsettinginorderforoptimallearningtooccurandforchildrentofeelemotionallysecure.Socialskills,suchasmakingfriends,displayingasenseofhumor,andrespondingtoandexpress-ingaffectiontoothers,alsorelyheavilyonlanguagecompetence(CoppleandBredekamp2009).The link betweenlanguagecompetenceandemotionalandbehavioralde-

velopment has been evidenced in monolingual children (Beitchman et al.1996),butempiricalresearchfocusingondual languagechildrenis limited.Forexample,childhoodlanguagedisordersarehighlyoverlappedwithchildmentalhealthproblemsinmonolinguals(CantwellandBaker1991;Toppel-bergetal.2002).Yetthisrelationshipinduallanguagechildrenhasbeendocu-mented,toourknowledge,inonlyonestudy(Toppelbergetal.2002).Dual language children are often moving between language contexts

throughouttheday,astheirlifeoftendemandsexclusiveuseofthefirstlan-guageathomeandthesecondlanguageinotherenvironments,suchasschool.Formanychildren,thereisaremarkablecontrastbetweenthesetwosettings.Languageathometendstobecontext-embeddedandcommunicativelybased,withface-to-faceandnon-verbalsupportstoaidinunderstanding.Incontrast,language at school is typically academic and cognitively demanding, oftencontext-reduced and abstract, requiring higher order thinking skills and a

8 B. A. Collins et al.

relianceonlinguisticdeviceswithoutconnectiontosupportivecontext(Cum-mins1979).Thedevelopmentofchildren’shomelanguagemaybeassociatedwithstrengtheningoffamilycohesionandintimacy,establishingparentalau-thority,andtransmittingculturalnorms,allofwhichcanleadtohealthyadjust-mentandastrongidentificationandinternalizationofthesocialvaluesofthefamily (Fishman 1991; Tseng and Fuligni 2000). The development of theschoolandcommunitylanguageiscrucialforacademicsuccessandlong-termsocialandeconomicwell-being(Bianchi1984;Carhilletal.2008).Children’sabilitytofunctionwithintheschoolcontextinfluencesschoolretention,gradu-ationrates,andcontinuationintohighereducation.Schoolsarealsoanimportantsocialcontextwherethedevelopmentofcrit-

icalemotionalandbehavioralstrengthstakeplace(Bakeretal.2008).Schooliswherechildrenformfriendshipswithsameagepeersaswellasrelationshipswith teachers, which contribute to emotional and behavioral development(O’Connoretal.2011).Withinschoolrelationships,childrenlearntouseinter-personal and intrapersonal strategies (Silver et al. 2005) and form adaptiveemotionalandbehavioralskills(Bakeretal.2008).Atschool,childrenreceiveconstantfeedbackontheirbehavior,onwhatconstitutesageappropriatebe-haviorandcompetences,andonhowtheymeasureuptoothers.Havingade-quatelanguagecompetencetoprocessfeedbackandmeetexpectationsiscrit-icaltopositiveadaptationsanddevelopment.Theabilityofthechildtoadaptto varyingdemandsof the early school years affects both their current andlong-termemotionalandbehavioralwell-beingandacademicsuccess(Bianchi1984).This isparticularly thecase forLatinochildren, forwhomacademicdisparitiesarewelldocumented(Gándaraetal.1998;Steinbergetal.1993).

2.2. Emotional and behavioral well-being of Latinos

The importanceofpositive emotional andbehavioral adjustment forLatinochildrenofimmigrantsiswellunderstoodbyresearchersandeducators.Latinoparentsfrequentlysharethegoalofhavingtheirchildrendevelopinstrumentalcompetencesandofpreservingvaluesrelatedtotheintrapersonal(  personal-ismo),theinterpersonal(respeto),connectionstothefamily(   familismo),theexpression of affection (cariños) and the worth of education (educación)(Suárez-Orozco2002).ThesetypesofstrengthsareanimportantpartofLatinotraditionsandvalues(ChapmanandPerreira2005;Suárez-OrozcoandSuárez-Orozco2001).Amultidimensionalperspectivethatfocusesoninterpersonal,intrapersonal,andaffectivestrengthsaswellasconnectionstothefamilyandschool functioningseemsfundamental ingainingadeeperunderstandingofthewell-beingofLatinochildrenofimmigrants.

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 9

InterpersonalstrengthsarevaluedinLatinocultureandchildrenareencour-agedtocommunicatewithrespect,defertoauthority,andcooperateandactinapleasantmanner(Flanagan1996).Intrapersonalstrengthsareevidentinchil-dren’sself-reflection,identifyingfeelingsandtheirself-confidence(Ruehlmanetal.1999).Affectivestrengthsmanifestinchildren’sabilitytoregulateemo-tionsandbehaviors.FamilycohesionisapredominantLatinoculturalvalueinvolvingastrongsenseofattachmentandloyaltytofamilyandtheviewofthefamilyasanextensionoftheself(Riveraetal.2008).

2.3. Emotional and behavioral well-being within an ecological model

Understandingchilddevelopmentandwell-beingrequiresconsiderationofthecharacteristicsofthechild,home,andschool,whichareparticularlyimportantwhenconsideringchildrenof immigrants (GarciaColletal.1996;KaoandTienda1998;Ogbu1987;PortesandRumbaut2001).Ecologicalmodelspositthatchildrendevelopwithininterrelatedsystemsthatexistatlevelsproximalanddistaltothechildandactinconcerttoinfluencedevelopment(Bronfen-brenner1979).Ecological factors theoretically linked to both language competence and

well-beingincludecharacteristicsofthechild(genderandcognitivecompe-tence),thehome(maternaleducation,poverty,andthechild-per-adultratio),andtheschool(teacherexperience,transitionpractices,andtheproportionofSpanishspeakers)areconsideredinthepresentstudy.Inregardstochildfactors,PortesandSchauffler(1994)foundthatgirlsare

morelikelytoretaintheirparents’ languageandoftentakeonmorefamily-oriented responsibilities. Cognitive competences act as protective factorsamong high-risk children. High cognitive functioning predicts academicachievement and positive emotional and behavioral outcomes (White et al.1989)andisassociatedwithbilingualproficiencyindual languagechildren(Cummins1977).Athomematernaleducation,familyincome,andstructureplayacriticalroleinchilddevelopment.Childrenwhosefamilieshavelowerincomesand/orwhosemothershavefeweryearsofeducationtendtoevidencehigherlevelsofemotionalandbehavioralproblems,whilechildrenwithbettereducatedmotherstendtobemoremotivatedandcompetent(McLoyd1998).Thenumberofsiblingshasshowntobeinverselyrelatedtoabilityandwell-being(SteelmanandMercy1980).Factorsattheschool,suchastheteacher’slevelofexperienceandthenum-

berofyearsintheprofession,arecloselyrelatedtotheperformanceandwell-beingofchildren.Unfortunately,therehasabeenatrendoftheleastexperi-encedteachersworkinginschoolswiththehighestneed(Darling-Hammond1994).Supportingthetransitionfromhometoschooliscriticalinestablishing

10 B. A. Collins et al.

competencesandsocialandacademicskills(Piantaetal.1999).Studentsde-velopstrongerinterpersonalrelationshipsinschoolswithproportionatelymorestudentsoftheirownethnicity(Johnsonetal.2001).However,highlysegre-gatedschools tendtobe lessresourcedandlowerperforming(Orfieldetal.2004).

3. Presentstudy

TheoverarchinggoalofthisstudyistoinvestigatetherelationshipbetweentheL1andL2competencesofLatinochildrenofimmigrantsinkindergartenandtheirconcurrentemotionalandbehavioralwell-being.Thepresentconceptual-izationofemotionalandbehavioralwell-beingisconsideredwithrespecttofive core areas: interpersonal, intrapersonal, affective, connection to family,andschoolfunctioning.Theseemotionalandbehavioraldimensionsmarkkeyareasofchildhooddevelopment(CoppleandBredekamp2009).Theassocia-tion of language competences and emotional and behavioralwell-being areanalyzedwithinanecologicalmodelconsideringchild,home,andschoolfac-torswithanestablishedortheoreticallinkinthecurrentliteraturetobothchil-drenofimmigrants’languagecompetenceandtheirwell-being.

3.1. Research questions

a) HowareLatinochildrenofimmigrants’L1andL2competencesrelatedtotheiremotionalandbehavioralwell-beingconcurrentlyinkindergarten?

b) Whatarethecontributionsofchild,home,andschoolfactorstoemotionalandbehavioralwell-beingafterconsideringL1andL2competences?

4. Methods

4.1. Participants

Latino dual language children of immigrants ( N=228) with demographiccharacteristicssimilar tothoseofNortheasternurbanimmigrantpopulations(U.S.Census 2000)were recruited from public schools in theBoston,MAarea.AllchildreninthestudywerebornintheUnitedStatesorarrivedpriortoagethreeandwerefirstlanguagespeakersofSpanish.Mothers,families,and/or caregivers communicated solely ormainly in Spanish. Participantsweresequentialbilinguals,withlittleornoexposuretoEnglishpriortoagethree.AtleastoneparentwasbornoutsideofthecontinentalUnitedStates,withmany

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 11

parentsfromtheDominicanRepublic(52percent)andPuertoRico(21per-cent).Most of the families were living below poverty levels (86 percent).Mothershadmoderatetolowlevelsofeducationwithslightlymorethanhalf(63percent)havinggraduatedfromhighschool.Approximatelyhalf(46per-cent)ofthechildrenwereinsingle-parenthouseholds.Childreninthesampleagedbetween5.2and7.0(meanage6.1)andconsistedofequalnumbersofboysandgirls.

4.2. Procedures

SchoolswithhighpopulationsofLatinostudentswererecruitedtoparticipateinthestudy.Afterdeterminingeligibilityandobtainingwrittenparentalcon-sent, children were assessed in three 45-minute sessions, conducted at theschoolonseparatedaysforeachlanguage,andinmostcaseswithinaweek.Athirdsessionwasdesigned tomeasure thechildren’scognitivecompetencesand includednon-verbal IQtasks.Parent interviewswereconductedmainlyin Spanish at the children’s homes by trained bilingual research assistants.Teachers reportedon theirbackground,experience,andclassroompracticesandchildren’swell-beingatschool.

4.3. Measures

4.3.1. Oral language competences. Specificlinguisticdomainsweremea-suredusing theWoodcock language proficiency battery — Revised:Englishand Spanish forms [WLPB-R] (Woodcock 1991). Four WLPB-R sub-testscores—MemoryforSentences,PictureVocabulary,ListeningComprehen-sion,andVerbalAnalogies—yieldanorallanguageclusterscore(computedfromtheaverageofWscoresfromeachsub-testandnormalizedaccordingtoage).MemoryforSentencesisamixedexpressive-receptivemeasureofsyn-tactic and semantic competence, where the child is asked to repeat words,phrases,andthenwholesentencesthatincreaseinlength.PictureVocabularyisameasureofexpressivevocabularyknowledge that requiresnamingpic-turesof items.ListeningComprehension isareceptivemeasureofsyntacticandsemanticcompetence,wherethechildlistenstoincreasinglycomplexsen-tencesorpassagesandisaskedtoprovidethewordthatismissingattheendofthesentenceorthepassage.VerbalAnalogiesisareceptivemeasureofse-mantics,wherethechildisaskedtoprovideabriefverbalanswertoamissingiteminasentencethatcarriesalogicalrelationship.TheWLPB-Risamea-sureoflanguagecompetencewidelyusedinempiricalstudiesandeducational

12 B. A. Collins et al.

settings. Ithaspublishedvalidity, reliability,andnorms forages2.0 to90+in English and Spanish; the present study uses standard scores (M=100,SD=15).

4.3.2. Emotional and behavioral well-being. Teachersreportedonfivedi-mensionsofemotionalandbehavioralwell-beingandschoolfunctioningusingtheBehavior and emotional rating scale — 2 [BERS-2](Epstein2004).This52-item,strength-basedscaleassessesemotionalandbehavioralstrengthsonfivesubscales(interpersonal,intrapersonal,andaffectivestrengths,familyin-volvement,andschoolfunctioning).TheInterpersonalStrengthssubscaleas-sessesachild’sabilitytocontrolemotionsorbehaviorinasocialsituation.TheIntrapersonalStrengthssubscaleassessesachild’soutlookonhisorhercom-petenceandaccomplishments.TheAffectiveStrengthssubscaleaddressesachild’sabilitytoexpressfeelingstowardsothersandtoacceptaffectionfromothers.TheFamilyInvolvementsubscaleisameasureofthechild’sconnec-tiontofamilyandfocusesonthechild’ssenseofbelongingandrelationshipwithhisorherfamily.TheSchoolFunctioningsubscalefocusesonachild’scompetenceandengagementinschoolandclassroomtasks.Foreachof thesubscales,astandardizedscaledscoreisusedwithadistributionmeansetat10andthestandarddeviationat3.Studieshavedocumentedstrongpsychometricproperties,content,criteria,andconstructvalidityandlackofracialorethnicbias(Epstein1999).

4.3.3. Child characteristics. Children’s non-verbal cognitive ability and generalintelligencewasmeasuredwiththeUniversal Nonverbal Intelligence Test[UNIT](BrackenandMcCallum1998),whichisadministeredandcom-pletedwithout theuseof language.TheUNIThasbeenwidelyused in thecognitiveassessmentofchildrenwhosetestperformancemaybeaffectedbylanguageimpairmentorsecondlanguagebarriers.Extensivepublishedstudieshavedetermined theUNIT’s reliabilityandvalidity tobeconsistentlyhigh.Thefullscaleintelligencequotientstandardscoreisusedinthepresentanal-yses.Genderwasdummycoded(female=0,male=1).

4.3.4. Home factors. Primary caregivers, for the most part mothers, re-spondedtoseveralquestionnairesregardingthehomecontext.MaternalEdu-cationwasmeasuredbythehighestlevelofschoolingcompletedbymothers(elementaryonly,partialorcompletehighschool,collegedegree,andsoon).Ordinalscoresrangedfrom0(none)to12(MA/PhD).Thechild-per-adultratiowasdeterminedbydividingthenumberofchildrenbythenumberofadultsinthehousehold.All relatedandunrelated individuals living in thehouseholdunderage18werecountedaschildren;thoseolderthan18yearswerecounted

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 13

asadults.Inthepresentstudy,achildisconsideredtobelivinginpoverty,andscoredoneonthisdichotomousvariable,whenthehouseholdisarecipientofat least one government programwhich ties eligibility to income thresholdlevels set by federal or state poverty guidelines (U.S.Census 2000).TheseprogramsincludetheSpecialSupplementalNutritionProgramforWomen,In-fants,andChildren(WIC),FoodStamps,HeadStart,Section8housingassis-tance,andWelfare.

4.3.5. School factors. Threerelevantcharacteristicsoftheschoolcontextwereevaluatedthroughteacherquestionnaires—teachingexperience,transi-tiontokindergartenpractices,andproportionofSpanishspeakers.Numberofyearsasclassroomteacherswasusedasanindicatorofteachingexperience.TheTransition practices survey( NationalCenterforEarlyDevelopmentandLearning1996),a21-itemcomprehensivesurveyofpracticesrelatedtofacili-tatingthetransitionofchildrenintokindergarten,wasadministeredtoteach-ers.Asummedscoreoftransitionpracticesusedbykindergartenteachersisused in the present analyses. Proportion of Spanish speaking students wascomputedbydividing thenumberofSpanishspeakingchildrenby the totalnumberofchildreninthekindergartenclassroom.

5. Results

Themeansandstandarddeviationsofthescoresforthestudy’svariablesarepresentedinTable1.Children’soral languagecompetenceforbothSpanish(M=67,SD=19)andEnglish(M=70,SD=18)arewellbelowthenormedaveragemeanstandardscoreof100.Belowaverageperformanceforduallan-guagechildrenonmeasuresoflanguagecompetenceistypicalwhencomparedtomonolingualnormsandhasbeenreportedinstudiesofsimilarpopulationsusingthesamemeasures(OllerandEilers2002;Páezetal.2007).Children’snon-verbalIQswereintheaveragerangeforthegeneralpopulation(M=96,SD=13).Theemotional andbehavioral strengthsof childrenwereaverageoraboveaverageinalldimensions(scaledscoremeans11–13SD=3).Con-nections to familywereparticularlyhigh (1SDabovenorm).Kindergartenteachershadawiderangeinyearsofteaching(M=16,SD=8)andvariedintransitionpractices(M=9.6,SD=4.1).TheproportionofSpanishspeakersinclassroomswashigh,withtheaverageclassroomcomprisedofapproximatelythree-quartersSpanishspeakers(M=.73,SD=.31).Therelationshipwithinandacrossthepredictorandoutcomevariableswere

analyzedusingbivariatePearson-correlations(Table1).Ofnote,themainpre-dictors, Spanish and English competence, were not significantly associated

Table1.

Biva

riat

e Pe

arso

n’s c

orre

latio

ns o

f stu

dy v

aria

bles

Mean

SD1

23

45

67

89

1011

1213

14

OralL

anguageCom

petence

1Spanish

67.4

21.1

12

English

69.6

18.7

.13

1

EmotionalandBehavioralW

ell-being

3Interpersonal

Strength

12.3

3.3

.19*

.21**

1

4Intrapersonal

Strength

12.2

3.5

.26**

.36**

.68**

1

5Affective

Strength

12.5

3.5

.15*

.23**

.71**

.82**

1

6Connectionto

Family

12.8

3.0

.11

.30**

.67**

.69**

.66**

1

7School

Functioning

11.3

2.9

.36**

.43**

.61**

.68**

.48**

.53**

1

ChildFactors

8Gender

.5

.5

−.17**

.01

−.05

−.02

.03

−.16

−.02

19

Non-verbalIQ

95.5

12.5

.18**

.48**

.23**

.25**

.14

.19*

.39**

−.01

1

Hom

eFactors

10Maternal

Education

5.1

2.7

.05

.31**

.11

.20**

.14

.17*

.24**

.04

.17*

1

11Poverty

.86

.35

−.06

−.19**

−.17*

−.10

−.06

−.08

−.20**

−.02

−.18**

−.21**

112

Children-Per-

Adults

1.7

1.1

−.12

−.03

.10

.02

.03

.07

.01

.07

−.008

−.10

.25**

1

SchoolFactors

13Teacher

Experience

16.0

8.4

−.22**

−.06

.06

−.04

.07

.13

−.12

−.05

−.09

−.15

.03

.09

1

14Kindergarten

Transition

9.6

4.1

.28**

−.01

−.05

.08

.07

.12

.14

.13

−.01

.09

.05

.01

−.06

1

15Proportion

Spanish

Speakers

.73

.31

.28**

−.20**

.07

.06

.13

−.05

.13

.08

−.09

−.08

.10

.14

.08

.38**

* p≤.05level.**

p≤.01level.

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 15

withoneanother.Theemotionalandbehavioraloutcomesweresignificantlyassociated across dimensions (rs ranging from .48 to .82, p<.01). Spanishcompetencewassignificantlyassociatedwitheachofthedimensionsofwell-being,exceptconnectiontofamily(rsrangingfrom.15to.36,p<.05).Eng-lishcompetencewassignificantlyassociatedwitheachofthefivedimensionsofwell-being(rsrangingfrom.21to.43,p<.01).The relationship between child, home, and school factors and language

competence and well-being were also analyzed using bivariate Pearson-correlations. Gender was significantly associated with Spanish competence(r=−.17,p<.01),indicatingapositiverelationshipamonggirls.Non-verbalIQwasassociatedwithSpanishcompetence(r=.18,p<.01),Englishcompe-tence(r=.48,p<.01),andeachofthedimensionsofwell-being(rs rangingfrom.19to.39,p<.05)withtheexceptionofaffectivestrengths.Ofthecon-sideredhomefactors,maternaleducationwasassociatedEnglishcompetence(r=.31,p<.01),intrapersonalstrengths(r=.20,p<.01),connectiontofam-ily (r=.17,p<.05), and school functioning (r=.24,p<.01). Povertywasnegatively associatedwithEnglish competence (r=–.19,p<.01), interper-sonalstrengths(r=−.17,p<.05),andschoolfunctioning(r=−.20,p<.01).Of the considered school factors, Spanish competencewas associatedwithteaching experience (r=−.22,p<.01) and kindergarten transition practices(r=.28,p<.01).TheproportionofSpanish speakers in the classroomwasassociatedwithSpanishcompetence(r=.28,p<.01)andnegativelyassoci-atedwithEnglishcompetence(r=–.20,p<.01).SpanishandEnglishcompetenceaccountedforamoderatetolargepropor-

tion(Cohen1988)ofvariance(13–36percent)inallfivedimensionsofwell-being(Table2).Duallanguagecompetencesaccountedfor13percentofthetotalvarianceofinterpersonalstrengths(Spanishcompetence,enteredfirstintheblock,accountedfor6percentandEnglishcompetence,enteredsecond,accountedforanadditional7percent);25percentofthetotalvarianceofintra-personalstrengths(Spanish12percentandEnglish13percent);13percentofthetotalvarianceofaffectivestrengths(Spanish6percentandEnglish8per-cent); 13 percent of the total variance of connection to family (English 10percent);and36percentofthetotalvarianceofschoolfunctioning(Spanish21percentandEnglish15percent).Ineachofourmodels,languagecompetenceswerethestrongestpredictors

ofwell-being.Noneofthesubsequentblocksofchild,home,orschoolvari-ablesaccountedforasignificantchangeinvarianceinanyofthefivedimen-sionsofwell-beingaboveandbeyondthatoflanguagecompetence.Teachingexperiencewastheonlyotherindividualpredictorwithasignificantassocia-tion,andsolelywithconnectiontofamily(β =.19,p<.05).Thebivariatecor-relationwasnotsignificant,however,indicatinganassociationonlyafterhold-ingtheotherpredictorsinthemodelconstant.

16 B. A. Collins et al.

6. Discussion

Themainpurposeofthisstudywastoinvestigatetheassociationofduallan-guagecompetenceswithemotionalandbehavioralwell-beinginLatinochil-drenofimmigrantsinkindergarten.Thepresentstudydocumentstheassocia-tionsofbothSpanishandEnglishwithchildren’sconcurrentwell-being.Thesecondpurposeofthestudywastoexaminethecontributionofchild,home,andschool factors tochildren’semotionalandbehavioralwell-beingand tothedevelopmentofduallanguagecompetences.Languagecompetencevari-ableswerethestrongestpredictorsinourmodels.Thecontributionsofchild,home,andschoolvariablestowell-beingwasminimaland,inmostcases,non-significantafterconsideringlanguagecompetence.Theeffectof languagecompetencewasmoderatetolargeforeachof the

fivedimensionsofwell-beingconsideredinthestudy.Thesefindingsarepar-ticularlyrelevantconsideringthatpredictingwell-beingduringtheearlyschoolyearsisdifficult.Ithasbeenrecognizedthatthemajorityofvariabilityinchil-dren’searlyschooladjustmentremainsunexplained(Piantaetal.1999;Pianta

Table2. Emotional and behavioral well-being regression models

InterpersonalStrengths IntrapersonalStrengths

Block Block

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

OralLanguageCompetenceSpanish .25** .19* .18* .20* .21* .35** .27** .27** .28** .26**English .26** .17 .15 .17 .37** .32** .29** .30**

ChildFactorsGender .00 −.02 −.01 .03 .03 .02Non-VerbalIQ .18 .16 .16 .09 .09 .09

HomeFactorsMaternalEducation .02 .03 .11 .11Poverty −.13 −.13 .00 .00Child-Per-Adults .15 .14 .08 .07

SchoolFactorsTeacherExperience .08 .03KindergartenTransitionPractices −.14 .00ProportionofSpanishSpeakers .09 .05

R2 .06** .13** .15** .18** .20** .12** .25** .26** .27** .28**ΔR2 .06** .07** .02 .03 .02 .12** .13** .01 .01 .00

Notes: StandardizedBetacoefficients(β)foreachpredictorandoutcome(andsubsequentblocks)arelisted.Totalvariance(R2)andchangeintotalvariance(ΔR2)foreachblockofpredictorsarelisted.* p≤.05level.** p≤.01level.

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 17

andMcCoy1997).Furthermore,emotionalandbehavioralwell-beingduringtheearlyyearsofschooliscloselyrelatedtomanyshortandlong-termout-comessuchasacademicsuccess,employment,andpersonalresilience(Corn-wallandBawden1992;KameenuiandSimmons1998).OurfindingsstronglysuggestacriticalanduniquerelationshipbetweentheL1andL2competenceofLatinochildrenofimmigrantsandtheirwell-being.Theseextendpreviousfindings that themajorityofchildrenwith languagedeficitsalsoexperienceadjustmentproblems(Beitchmanetal.1996;Toppelbergetal.2002;Toppel-bergandShapiro2000).Inthepresentstudy,children’sduallanguagecompetences(inbothSpanish

andEnglish)werecloselylinkedtotheirinterpersonal,intrapersonal,andaf-fective strengths.This suggests thatchildrenwhoareable toexpress them-selves in both their first and second language and understand the languagebeingusedaroundthemmayfeelmoresecureandself-confident,andthusmaybebetterabletoformstrongerrelationships.BothSpanishandEnglishcompe-tencewereassociatedwithschoolfunctioning.Meaningfulcommunicationisessentialforoptimallearningandmeetingacademicexpectations.Competence

AffectiveStrengths ConnectiontoFamily SchoolFunctioning

Block Block Block

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

.23** .17* .18* .18* .15 .17 .11 .10 .11 .13 .46** .38** .37** .38** .31**.28** .27** .26** .28** .33** .30** .27** .26** .39** .31** .26** .29**

.09 .08 .07 −.07 −.07 −.08 .02 .00 −.03

.04 .03 .05 .06 .05 .07 .16 .14 .15

.04 .05 .05 .06 .09 .08−.03 −.03 −.07 −.07 −.13 −.14 .06 .03 .09 .07 .06 .04

.09 .19* −.01−.03 .16 .04 .15 −.09 .15

.06** .13** .14** .15** .17** .03 .13** .14** .15** .21** .21** .36** .38** .40** .43**

.06** .08** .01 .00 .02 .03 .10** .01 .01 .05 .21** .15** .02 .02 .02

18 B. A. Collins et al.

inboththefirstandsecondlanguageisassociatedwithcognitive,social,andacademicbenefits(Cummins1977),whichisfurtherevidencedinourstudy.Furthermore,ouranalysesindicatetheuniqueroleofEnglishcompetence

andteachingexperienceinchildren’sconnectiontofamily.ThisissurprisingasallofthechildreninthestudycomefromSpanishspeakingfamilies.Thefindingcouldreflectthatexperiencedteachersmayknowmoreaboutthewell-beingofchildrenwhoareabletocommunicatemoreeffectivelyinEnglish,and that theconnection to familymaybedifficult for teachers to recognizewithouthavingastrongrelationshipwithchildren.ThelargecontributionofEnglish competence to school functioning is not surprising, as previous re-searchhasdemonstratedtheimportanceofdevelopedEnglishlanguageskillsforacademicachievementandschool success (Carhilletal.2008;Ruiz-de-Velascoetal.2000;Suárez-OrozcoandSuárez-Orozco2001).Acloselyrelatedaimofthisstudywastoexaminetheassociationofdual

languagecompetencesandchildren’swell-beingwithinanecologicalframe-work.Theadaptationanddevelopmentofchildrenatschoolisinfluencedbyindividual,family,andinstitutionalcharacteristics(Bronfenbrenner1979).Inourmodels,themostproximalfactorswereconsideredfirstandlessproximalfactorswereexaminedsubsequently.Languagecompetencevariableswerethestrongest and, inmost cases, the only significant concurrent predictors thatexplained the well-being outcomes. By including rival predictor variablesshown tobeassociatedwithchildren’s linguisticandpsychosocialdevelop-ment,wewereabletogetarelativelyunbiasedestimateoftheeffectoflan-guagecompetenceonwell-being.Factorsathome,suchasmaternaleducationlevels,poverty,andtheratioofchildrenperadults,didnotcontributetoourmodelsbeyondthelinguisticpredictors.Furthermore,factorsinschool,suchas teaching experience, kindergarten transition practices, and proportion ofSpanishspeakingchildrenintheclassroom,didnotcontributetoourmodelsbeyond the linguisticpredictors.As languagecompetencewas, for themostpart, theonlysignificantvariableinourinclusiveanalyticalmodels,wecansuggest that dual language competence is a strong contributor to children’swell-being.Itisimportanttonotethatthewell-beingofthechildreninthepresentstudy

isaveragetoaboveaverage.Eachofthemeansforthefivedimensionsofwell-beingareabovethenormativemean(scaledscoreof10).Childreninoursam-ple mean averaged a full standard deviation above the normative mean inconnectiontofamily(scaledscoreof13).Thisfindingishighlyencouragingconsideringthatthemajorityofthechildreninthesamplelivewithmultipleestablishedriskfactors(highlevelsofpoverty,limitedaccesstohealthcare,discrimination,andimmigrationstress).TheoverallemotionalandbehavioralstrengthsofthechildrenmayberelatedtodeeplyheldvaluesinLatinofami-lies,includingastrongsenseoffamily,respect,courtesy,andloyalty.These

Spanish and English competence of immigrant children 19

arecommonlyemphasizedinLatinocultures.Thestrongemotionalandbe-havioralwell-beingofthechildreninthesamplecouldbearesultofLatinoparents’emphasison theirchildrenbeingbien educado (responsibleandre-spectfulmembersofsociety).

7. Conclusions

Thisstudyhasseveralpotentialimplicationsforaquicklygrowingchildpopu-lationthatoftengrowsupinlinguisticisolation,entersschoolatadisadvan-tage,andexperiencesincreasingacademicachievementgapsandmentalhealthdisparitiesovertime.Thereisaneedforsystematicinvestigationofthedevel-opmentofL1andL2competenceandpsychosocialwell-being indual lan-guagechildren.Thisstudyaddsimportantfindingstotheearlyidentificationofwell-beingandlanguagedevelopmentandmayinformeducationalpolicyandteachingstrategiesforchildrenofimmigrantsinthefollowingways.Thisstudysuggeststheimportanceofdevelopingthehomeandschoollan-

guageswhenconsideringthewell-beingofyoungchildrenatschool.Increasedlanguagecompetencecomeswithincreasedabilitytoselfregulate,expressandunderstandfeelings,andcreateknowledgeandawarenessofemotions,form-ing the basis for positive emotional and behavioral adaptation (Raver andKnitzer2002).Thus, childrenwhohave strongL1competences are able todeveloppositiveemotionalandbehavioralskillsathome,whichinturncon-tributetotheclassroom.ChildrenwhohavenotyetfullydevelopednecessaryL1competencesmaycometoschoolunequippedtohandletheincreasedcog-nitive,social,andemotionaldemandandmayhaveahigherrateofemotionalandbehavioralproblemsthanthosewhoarefluentintheirL1.CompetenceintheL2,theschoollanguage,mayaidineffectivecommunication,cooperation,directionfollowing,problemsolving,andthedevelopmentofarangeofaca-demicskills.Ourfindingsindicatethattheaveragechildinoursampleentersschoolwith

averagetoaboveaveragelevelsofwell-being.However,wealsoknowfrompreviousliteraturethatLatinochildrenofimmigrantsareatahighriskforaca-demic struggles and emotional and behavioral problems.As dual languagecompetenceisassociatedwithwell-beinginLatinochildren,educationalandmentalhealthprogramsshouldconsider targeting theacquisitionofcompe-tencesinboththeL1andL2.InthisstudywefoundthatL1andL2competencesaccountforoverone

thirdofthevarianceofschoolfunctioning.Specialistsshouldconsiderbothoftheseareasofchilddevelopmentineducationalandclinicalsettings.Consid-erationofboth theL1andL2 iscritical in theassessmentofdual languagechildren.Fromaneducationalperspective,wecansuggestthatsupportingthe

20 B. A. Collins et al.

developmentofboththeL1andL2,especiallyduringtheearlyschoolyears,islinguisticallyandpsychologicallyappropriate.Itisimportantthatschoolpro-gramsestablishaconnectionbetweenthehomeandschoolbyincorporatingaspectsofthehomeandcommunityintotheschoolcurriculum.TargetingthedevelopmentofL1andL2competencesatschoolcouldbebeneficialtochil-dren’semotionalandbehavioralwell-being.

Hunter College, Harvard Medical School, Judge Baker Children’s Center, New York University and Boston College

Correspondenceaddresses:bcollins@hunter.cuny.edu;claudio_toppelberg@hms.harvard.edu;cso2@nyu.edu;eoc2@nyu.edu;alfnie@gmail.com

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