First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings
We examined the extent to which three sibling structure variables number of siblings, birth order and presence of an older sibling at school age are linked to the second language skills of bilingual children. The research questions were tested using an ethnically heterogeneous sample of 1209 bilingu...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00705/full |
| _version_ | 1818155809875427328 |
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| author | Karin eKeller Karin eKeller Larissa Maria Troesch Alexander eGrob |
| author_facet | Karin eKeller Karin eKeller Larissa Maria Troesch Alexander eGrob |
| author_sort | Karin eKeller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We examined the extent to which three sibling structure variables number of siblings, birth order and presence of an older sibling at school age are linked to the second language skills of bilingual children. The research questions were tested using an ethnically heterogeneous sample of 1209 bilingual children with German as a second language. Controlling for children’s age, sex, nationality, number of children’s books at home, family language and parental German language skills, hierarchical regression analyses showed an inverse relationship between the number of siblings and second language skills: The more siblings a child had, the lower was his/her second language proficiency. This relationship was mediated by attendance in early education institutions. Moreover, first-born siblings showed better second language skills than later born siblings.The current study revealed that the resource dilution model, i.e., the decrease in resources for every additional sibling, holds for second language acquisition. Moreover, the results indicate that bilingual children from families with several children benefit from access to early education institutions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T14:48:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1ccfdf068a594d6fa4fa9f863a91c0d0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T14:48:19Z |
| publishDate | 2015-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-1ccfdf068a594d6fa4fa9f863a91c0d02022-12-22T01:01:35ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-06-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.00705138457First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblingsKarin eKeller0Karin eKeller1Larissa Maria Troesch2Alexander eGrob3University of BaselUniversity College LondonUniversity of BaselUniversity of BaselWe examined the extent to which three sibling structure variables number of siblings, birth order and presence of an older sibling at school age are linked to the second language skills of bilingual children. The research questions were tested using an ethnically heterogeneous sample of 1209 bilingual children with German as a second language. Controlling for children’s age, sex, nationality, number of children’s books at home, family language and parental German language skills, hierarchical regression analyses showed an inverse relationship between the number of siblings and second language skills: The more siblings a child had, the lower was his/her second language proficiency. This relationship was mediated by attendance in early education institutions. Moreover, first-born siblings showed better second language skills than later born siblings.The current study revealed that the resource dilution model, i.e., the decrease in resources for every additional sibling, holds for second language acquisition. Moreover, the results indicate that bilingual children from families with several children benefit from access to early education institutions.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00705/fullBirth Orderbilingualismlanguage proficiencysiblingsecond language acquistion |
| spellingShingle | Karin eKeller Karin eKeller Larissa Maria Troesch Alexander eGrob First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings Frontiers in Psychology Birth Order bilingualism language proficiency sibling second language acquistion |
| title | First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings |
| title_full | First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings |
| title_fullStr | First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings |
| title_full_unstemmed | First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings |
| title_short | First-born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings |
| title_sort | first born siblings show better second language skills than later born siblings |
| topic | Birth Order bilingualism language proficiency sibling second language acquistion |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00705/full |
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