The hypothesis that maternal generation from Mexico predicts infant receptive and expressive communication age at 22 months was investigated. Participants included 62 infants from Mexican American families who graduated from a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and 35 full-term infants also born to Mexican American parents. The results showed that infants born to mothers of recent generation from Mexico had lower language development scores than did infants born to mothers of later generation. Fathers’ education levels were also significant predictors of infants’22-month language outcome, although maternal generation from Mexico remained a stronger predictor of outcome than did paternal education level for expressive language and for receptive language for the NICU graduates. The results support theories that emphasize the importance of environmental context on child development.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Allen, D. V.
, & Bliss, L. S. (1987). Concurrent validity of two language screening tests. Journal of Communication Disorders, 20, 305-317.
2.
Bayley, N.
(1969). Manual for the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
3.
Beckwith, L.
, & Cohen, S. E. (1984). Home environment and cognitive competence in preterm children during the first five years. In A. Gottfried (Ed.), Home environment and early cognitive development (pp. 235-269). San Diego: Academic Press.
4.
Buriel, R.
(1993). Childrearing orientation in Mexican American families: The influence of generation and sociocultural factors. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 987-1000.
5.
Cobas, J. A.
, Balcazar, H., Benin, M. B., Keith, V. M., & Chong, Y. (1996). Acculturation and low-birthweight infants among Latino women: A reanalysis of HHANES data with structural equation models. American Journal of Public Health, 86, 394-396.
6.
Cuellar, I.
, Harris, L. C., & Jasso, R. (1980). An acculturation scale for Mexican American normal and clinical populations. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 2, 199-217.
7.
Escalona, S. K.
(1982). Babies at double hazard: Early development of infants of biologic and social risk. Pediatrics, 70, 670-676.
8.
Fagan, J. F., III
. (1987). The Fagan test of infant intelligence training manual. Cleveland, OH: Infantest Corporation.
9.
Garcia-Coll, C. T.
(1990). Developmental outcome of minority infants: A process-oriented look at our beginnings. Child Development, 61, 270-289.
10.
Gonzales, M. D. (1997). Predictors of language development in Hispanic high risk infants. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
11.
Gonzales, M. D.
, Montgomery, G., Fucci, D., Randolph, E., & Mata-Pistokache, T. (1997). A comparison of language abilities between two groups of premature Hispanic infants and one group of full-term Hispanic infants. Infant-Toddler Intervention. The Transdisciplinary Journal, 7, 1-16.
12.
Gonzalez, C. A. (1997). The developmental abilities of neonatal intensive care unit graduates. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Texas–Pan American, Edinburg, Texas.
13.
Hart, B.
, & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Brooks.
14.
Hendrick, D. L.
, Prather, E. M., & Tobin, A. R. (1990). Sequenced inventory of communication development–Revised edition, Test Manual. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
15.
Hollingshead, A. B.
(1957). Two factor index of social position. New Haven, CT: Author.
16.
Landry, S.
, Chapieski, L., Fletcher, J., & Denson, S. (1988). Three-year outcome for low birth weight infants: Differential effects of early medical complications. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 13, 317-327.
17.
Laosa, L. M.
(1980). Maternal teaching strategies in Chicano and Anglo-American families: The influence of culture and education on maternal behavior. Child Development, 51, 759-765.
18.
Laosa, L. M.
(1982a). Families as facilitators of children’s intellectual development at 3 years of age. In L. M. Laosa & I. E. Sigel (Eds.), Families as learning environments for children (pp. 1-45). New York: Plenum.
19.
Laosa, L. M.
(1982b). School, occupation, culture and family: The impact of parental schooling on the parent-child relationship. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 791-827.
20.
Montgomery, G.
, Fucci, D., Gonzales, M. D., Bettagere, R., Reynolds, M. E., & Petrosino, L. (1995). Effects of prematurity on the language development of Hispanic infants. Infant-Toddler Intervention: The Transdiciplinary Journal, 5, 219-231.
21.
Negy, C.
, & Woods, D. J. (1992). A note on the relationship between acculturation and socioeconomic status. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 14, 248-251.
22.
Norusis, M. J.
(1993). SPSS for windows advanced statistics release 6.0. Chicago: SPSS.
23.
Notari-Syverson, A.
, & Losardo, A. (1996). Assessing children’s language in meaningful contexts. In K. N. Cole, P. S. Dale, & D. J. Thal (Eds.), Assessment of Communication and Language (Vol. 6, pp. 257-280). Baltimore, MD: Brooks.
24.
Parke, R. D.
, & Buriel, R. (1998). Socialization in the family: Ethnic and ecological perspectives. In. W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, Emotional & Personality Development (5th ed., pp. 463-552). New York: John Wiley.
25.
Pearson, M. E.
(1989). Review of the Sequenced inventory of communication development, Revised edition. (1989). In O. K. Buros & J. B. Mitchell Jr. (Eds.), Mental Measurements Yearbook (Vol. 10, pp. 742-744). Lincoln: Buros Institute of Mental Measurement, University of Nebraska Press.
26.
Planos, R.
, Zayas, L. H., & Busch-Rossnagel, N. A. (1995). Acculturation and teaching behaviors of Dominican and Puerto Rican mothers. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 17, 225-236.
27.
Sameroff, A. J.
(1986). Environmental context of child development. Journal of Pediatrics, 109, 192-200.
28.
Saville-Troike, M.
(1986). Anthropological considerations in the study of communication. In O. L. Taylor (Ed.), Nature of communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations (pp. 47-72). San Diego: College-Hill.
29.
Scribner, R.
, & Dwyer, J. H. (1989). Acculturation and low birthweight among Latinos in the Hispanic HANES. American Journal of Public Health, 79, 1263-1267.
30.
Smith, K. J.
(1985). Sequenced inventory of communication development–Revised. In D. J. Keyser & R. C. Sweetland (Eds.), Test critiques (Vol. 2, pp. 714-722). Kansas City, MO: Test Corporation of America.
31.
Steward, M. S.
, & Steward, D. S. (1973). The observation of Anglo-Mexican, and Chinese-American mothers teaching their young sons. Child Development, 44, 329-337.
32.
Steward, M. S.
, & Steward, D. S. (1974). Effect of social distance on teaching strategies of Anglo-American and Mexican-American mothers. Developmental Psychology, 10, 797-807.
33.
Ventura, S. J.
, & Taffel, S. M. (1985). Childbearing characteristics of U.S.-and foreign-born Hispanic mothers. Public Health Reports, 100, 647-652.
34.
Williams, R. L.
, Binkin, N. J., & Clingman, E. J. (1986). Pregnancy outcomes among Spanish-surname women in California. American Journal of Public Health, 76, 387-391.
