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Sources of child vocabulary competence: a multivariate model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1998

MARC H. BORNSTEIN ,
MAURICE O. HAYNES  and
KATHLEEN M. PAINTER
MARC H. BORNSTEIN
Affiliation:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Bethesda, MD, USA
MAURICE O. HAYNES
Affiliation:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Bethesda, MD, USA
KATHLEEN M. PAINTER
Affiliation:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Bethesda, MD, USA
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Abstract

This study examines sources of individual variation in child vocabulary competence in the context of a multivariate developmental ecological model. Maternal sociodemographic characteristics, personological characteristics, and vocabulary, as well as child gender, social competence, and vocabulary competence were evaluated simultaneously in 126 children aged 1;8 and their mothers. Measures of child vocabulary competence included two measures each of spontaneous speech, experimenter assessments, and maternal reports. Maternal measures, from proximal to distal, included vocabulary, verbal intelligence, personality, attitudes toward parenting, knowledge of parenting, and SES. Structural equation modelling supported several direct unique predictive relations: child gender (girls higher) and social competence as well as maternal attitudes toward parenting predicted child vocabulary competence, and mothers' vocabulary predicted child vocabulary comprehension and two measures of mother-reported child vocabulary expression. In addition, children's vocabulary competence was influenced indirectly by mothers' vocabulary, social personality, and knowledge of child development. Maternal vocabulary itself was positively influenced by SES, maternal verbal intelligence, and mothers' knowledge about parenting. Individual variation in child vocabulary competence might best be understood as arising within a nexus of contextual factors both proximal and distal to the child.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 1998 , pp. 367 - 393
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We thank D. Clay, K. Dwyer, M. Fivel, E. Hoff-Ginsberg, L. Kim, A. W. O'Reilly, A. Rose, J. T. D. Suwalsky, K. Tanner and B. Wright for comments and assistance.