Factors of parental investment in the home language environment in peri-urban China: A mixed methods study

by Tianli Feng, Jingruo Guo, Sarah-Eve Dill, Dongming Zhang, Yuchen Liu, Yue Ma, Lucy Pappas, Scott Rozelle

The home language environment is a critical point of investment in early language skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment of low-socioeconomic-status households in non-western settings. This mixed methods study describes the home language environment and early child language skills among households in a low-socioeconomic-status, peri-urban district of Chengdu, China, and identifies factors influencing parental investment in the home language environment. Audio recordings were collected from 81 peri-urban households with children ages 18–24 months and analysed using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA^TM) system. The Mandarin version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory was administered to each child’s primary caregiver. The quantitative results revealed large variation in home language environments and child language skills among the sample, with relatively low average scores when compared to other Chinese samples. Qualitative interviews with a subset of 31 caregivers revealed that many caregivers face constraints on their knowledge of interactive parenting, compounded, in some households, by time constraints due to work or household responsibilities. The findings indicate a need for increased sources of credible parenting information for peri-urban caregivers of young children to promote investment in the home language environment.