Research examining the cognitive consequences of bilingualism
has expanded rapidly in recent years and has revealed effects on
aspects of cognition across the lifespan. However, these effects
are difficult to find in studies investigating young adults. One
problem is that there is no standard definition of bilingualism
or means of evaluating degree of bilingualism in individual
participants, making it difficult to directly compare the
results of different studies. Here, we describe an instrument
developed to assess degree of bilingualism for young adults who
live in diverse communities in which English is the official
language. We demonstrate the reliability and validity of the
instrument in analyses based on 408 participants. The relevant
factors for describing degree of bilingualism are: (1) the
extent of non-English language proficiency and use at home, and
(2) non-English language use socially. We then use the
bilingualism scores obtained from the instrument to demonstrate
their association with: (1) performance on executive function
tasks, and (2) previous classifications of participants into
categories of monolinguals and bilinguals.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Anderson2018-hf
%A Anderson, John A E
%A Mak, Lorinda
%A Keyvani Chahi, Aram
%A Bialystok, Ellen
%D 2018
%I Springer US
%J Behav. Res. Methods
%K Bilingualism LSBQ Language_and_social_background_questionnaire Latent-factor-analysis myown
%N 1
%P 250--263
%T The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population
%V 50
%X Research examining the cognitive consequences of bilingualism
has expanded rapidly in recent years and has revealed effects on
aspects of cognition across the lifespan. However, these effects
are difficult to find in studies investigating young adults. One
problem is that there is no standard definition of bilingualism
or means of evaluating degree of bilingualism in individual
participants, making it difficult to directly compare the
results of different studies. Here, we describe an instrument
developed to assess degree of bilingualism for young adults who
live in diverse communities in which English is the official
language. We demonstrate the reliability and validity of the
instrument in analyses based on 408 participants. The relevant
factors for describing degree of bilingualism are: (1) the
extent of non-English language proficiency and use at home, and
(2) non-English language use socially. We then use the
bilingualism scores obtained from the instrument to demonstrate
their association with: (1) performance on executive function
tasks, and (2) previous classifications of participants into
categories of monolinguals and bilinguals.
@article{Anderson2018-hf,
abstract = {Research examining the cognitive consequences of bilingualism
has expanded rapidly in recent years and has revealed effects on
aspects of cognition across the lifespan. However, these effects
are difficult to find in studies investigating young adults. One
problem is that there is no standard definition of bilingualism
or means of evaluating degree of bilingualism in individual
participants, making it difficult to directly compare the
results of different studies. Here, we describe an instrument
developed to assess degree of bilingualism for young adults who
live in diverse communities in which English is the official
language. We demonstrate the reliability and validity of the
instrument in analyses based on 408 participants. The relevant
factors for describing degree of bilingualism are: (1) the
extent of non-English language proficiency and use at home, and
(2) non-English language use socially. We then use the
bilingualism scores obtained from the instrument to demonstrate
their association with: (1) performance on executive function
tasks, and (2) previous classifications of participants into
categories of monolinguals and bilinguals.},
added-at = {2021-03-04T21:51:12.000+0100},
author = {Anderson, John A E and Mak, Lorinda and {Keyvani Chahi}, Aram and Bialystok, Ellen},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/26121cafaad1154bdc18d021431ff3033/janderz8},
interhash = {a09cb2fedc30fc6f0d5cd2a753894ce8},
intrahash = {6121cafaad1154bdc18d021431ff3033},
journal = {Behav. Res. Methods},
keywords = {Bilingualism LSBQ Language_and_social_background_questionnaire Latent-factor-analysis myown},
month = feb,
number = 1,
pages = {250--263},
publisher = {Springer US},
timestamp = {2021-03-04T21:54:29.000+0100},
title = {{The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population}},
volume = 50,
year = 2018
}