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ERIC Number: EJ1338885
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-May
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0663
EISSN: N/A
Do Spanish-English Bilingual Children Outperform Monolingual English-Speaking Children on Executive Function Tasks in Early Childhood? A Propensity Score Analysis
Goodrich, J. Marc; Koziol, Natalie A.; Yoon, HyeonJin; Leiva, Sergio
Journal of Educational Psychology, v114 n4 p870-892 May 2022
Despite much research examining whether bilingual individuals demonstrate superior executive function (EF) skills compared to monolinguals, the purported bilingual advantage remains controversial. One potential reason for discrepant findings across studies examining the bilingual advantage is the difficulty in matching monolingual and bilingual groups on important confounding variables that are related to EF. To address this limitation of prior research, we used a propensity score matching approach to evaluate the presence of the bilingual advantage in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011. Consistent with recent theories of EF development; we hypothesized that before matching, we would observe bilingual advantages on report- but not performance-based measures of EF. However, we expected that after matching bilingual and monolingual children on a comprehensive set of covariates there would be no group differences in EF. We matched bilingual Spanish-English and monolingual English kindergarteners on a comprehensive set of child- and school-level covariates and conducted a sensitivity analysis to evaluate whether results were sensitive to unobserved confounds. After matching groups (n = 252 matched pairs of monolingual and bilingual children), bilinguals had greater teacher-rated inhibitory control and attentional focus than did monolinguals; however, only the effect for inhibitory control was robust to unobserved confounds. In contrast, no effects of bilingualism were observed for performance-based measures of working memory or cognitive flexibility. Results are discussed in the context of recent theoretical models of EF development in early childhood.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey; Woodcock Johnson Psycho Educational Battery; Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A