Citation

Colón-Quintana N, Polo AJ, Smith Carter J. J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, DePaul University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15374416.2020.1731818

PMID

32175782

Abstract

Objective: Extant research associates language with essential social and emotional processes. Although the risk for depression among Latinx youth in the United States is well documented, the link between their language proficiency and depressive symptoms remains poorly understood. Further, research employing standardized language assessments with Latinx early adolescents is scarce and reciprocal associations between language proficiency and depressive symptoms have not been examined.Method: This longitudinal study addressed these gaps by investigating the relation between language proficiency and depression in a sample of 218 dual language Latinx students of predominantly low-income backgrounds (M_age = 12.1, SD = 1.1; 49.1% female) recruited from seven public schools in a large city in the Midwest of the United States. Language proficiency in English and Spanish was assessed using the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-Revised and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory.Results: Paired samples t-tests showed lower than expected growth in English vocabulary and higher than expected growth in the ability to reason using lexical knowledge in Spanish over a one-year period. Cross-lagged panel analyses (χ² (99) = 211.19, p < .001, CFI = .93, TLI = .92, RMSEA = .07 (90% CI [.06,.09])) indicated that growth in English language proficiency is predictive of decreased depressive symptoms. Likewise, increases in depressive symptoms are predictive of decreased English language proficiency.Conclusions: Results have important implications for the design of appropriate psychological interventions and sensible educational policies for students of linguistic minority backgrounds.

Language: en