Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills

Background. Language development in toddlers can be influenced by social interactions in environments and proximal contexts with mothers and fathers. We present the literature on mothers’ and fathers’ education level and socioeconomic status on the child’s language development; further evidence is n...

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Main Authors: Allegra Cattani, Emre Celik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-10-01
Series:Brain Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/14/11/1078
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author Allegra Cattani
Emre Celik
author_facet Allegra Cattani
Emre Celik
author_sort Allegra Cattani
collection DOAJ
description Background. Language development in toddlers can be influenced by social interactions in environments and proximal contexts with mothers and fathers. We present the literature on mothers’ and fathers’ education level and socioeconomic status on the child’s language development; further evidence is needed in the Italian-speaking context. Aims. The study aims to confirm the role of mother and father education level on toddlers’ language skills assessed with direct and indirect measures. Methods and Procedures. Participants were 51 Italian-speaking children aged 33 to 41 months. Children were tested with a lexical test (PinG test) for comprehension and production of nouns and predicates and a morpho-syntactic test for grammar comprehension (PCGO). Parents of the children completed a demographic form and the Italian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI long version. Two series of one-way ANCOVAs were performed to study the role of mothers’ and fathers’ level of education on separate measures of their child’s language. Outcomes and Results. Findings suggest that in most families, mothers’ level of education is higher than fathers’ level of education. There was no significant difference between children of parents with low–middle level of education and children of parents with high level of education for the grammar comprehension tasks (PCGO) and indirect measure of vocabulary production (MacArthur-Bates CDI). However, both mothers’ and fathers’ level of education appears to be significant for the direct measurement of word production. Conclusions and Implications. This study provides new evidence for the role of mothers’ and fathers’ education on the development of word production in children aged 33 to 41 months, contributing to enriching the literature on the Italian context; it lays the groundwork for future research on the social and environmental factors that can affect language development.
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spelling doaj-art-d20f2e02a747486f87fa40fd33cae0e62025-08-20T02:08:13ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252024-10-011411107810.3390/brainsci14111078Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language SkillsAllegra Cattani0Emre Celik1Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, ItalyDepartment of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, ItalyBackground. Language development in toddlers can be influenced by social interactions in environments and proximal contexts with mothers and fathers. We present the literature on mothers’ and fathers’ education level and socioeconomic status on the child’s language development; further evidence is needed in the Italian-speaking context. Aims. The study aims to confirm the role of mother and father education level on toddlers’ language skills assessed with direct and indirect measures. Methods and Procedures. Participants were 51 Italian-speaking children aged 33 to 41 months. Children were tested with a lexical test (PinG test) for comprehension and production of nouns and predicates and a morpho-syntactic test for grammar comprehension (PCGO). Parents of the children completed a demographic form and the Italian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI long version. Two series of one-way ANCOVAs were performed to study the role of mothers’ and fathers’ level of education on separate measures of their child’s language. Outcomes and Results. Findings suggest that in most families, mothers’ level of education is higher than fathers’ level of education. There was no significant difference between children of parents with low–middle level of education and children of parents with high level of education for the grammar comprehension tasks (PCGO) and indirect measure of vocabulary production (MacArthur-Bates CDI). However, both mothers’ and fathers’ level of education appears to be significant for the direct measurement of word production. Conclusions and Implications. This study provides new evidence for the role of mothers’ and fathers’ education on the development of word production in children aged 33 to 41 months, contributing to enriching the literature on the Italian context; it lays the groundwork for future research on the social and environmental factors that can affect language development.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/14/11/1078parental educationlanguage developmentvocabulary comprehensionvocabulary productionItalian-monolingual children
spellingShingle Allegra Cattani
Emre Celik
Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
Brain Sciences
parental education
language development
vocabulary comprehension
vocabulary production
Italian-monolingual children
title Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
title_full Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
title_fullStr Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
title_full_unstemmed Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
title_short Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
title_sort maternal and paternal education on italian monolingual toddlers language skills
topic parental education
language development
vocabulary comprehension
vocabulary production
Italian-monolingual children
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/14/11/1078
work_keys_str_mv AT allegracattani maternalandpaternaleducationonitalianmonolingualtoddlerslanguageskills
AT emrecelik maternalandpaternaleducationonitalianmonolingualtoddlerslanguageskills