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Presenter: Claudio O. Toppelberg, M.D., Harvard Medical School
Discussant / Mentor: Alex Kopelowicz, M.D. – UCLA

Linguistic Functioning and Psychopathology in a Boston Public Schools’ Longitudinal Cohort (n=228) of Young Latino Bilingual Children of Immigrants*

Authors: Claudio O. Toppelberg, Brian Collins, Ying Xiong, Alfonso Nieto-Castañon

Background:
With the steady growth in numbers of immigrant children, most of them Latino, in the United States (from 6 % of the child population in 1970, to 19% in 2000, to a projected 25% in 2010; Capps et al., 2005), the need to better understand population-specific risk factors for psychopathology becomes more urgent, as very little research has been conducted. One crucial area that needs to be addressed is linguistic functioning, due to its neurocognitive, regulatory and socioemotional role in the successful adaptation of the immigrant child. 

Method:
We present preliminary data 1.) on the full cohort during the kindergarten year at age 6 (n=228, girls=113), and 2.) in a subgroup at age 8 (n=100) from the original cohort currently being re-assessed. We first present descriptive analyses (immigration, demographics), followed by cross-sectional correlations between measures of Spanish and English receptive vocabulary (Peabody PVT/TVIP) and other expressive and receptive language domains (Woodcock LPB-R); and parent- and teacher-reported psychopathology measured with the CBCL and TRF.  

Results:
Most of the children: lived in poverty (86%) with their mothers (99%), and were born in the U.S (90%) of Dominican decent (52%).  At age 6: Significant cross-sectional correlations between language and psychopathology measures were found within the full cohort. Two receptive language domains (Memory for Sentences and Verbal Analogies) are related, especially in Spanish, to multiple domains of parent-and teacher- reported psychopathology. Parent-reported psychopathology is associated with Spanish (more than with English) competence, while teacher-reported psychopathology with competences in both languages
At age 8:  Correlations are more evenly distributed between languages (Spanish/English)

Conclusion:
Results are consistent with previous findings from bilingual clinical samples and population-based studies of English monolingual children.

*Funded by an NIMH Mentored Minority Scientist Development (K01) award (PI: C.Toppelberg)