CASL
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/22
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Item The relationship between gender, receptive vocabulary and literacy from school entry through to adulthood(2013-08) Law, James; Rush, Robert; Parsons, Samantha; Schoon, IngridIt is commonly assumed that boys have poorer language skills than girls but this assumption is largely based on studies with small, clinical samples or focussing on expressive language skills. This study examines the relationship between gender and receptive vocabulary, literacy and non-verbal performance at five years through to adulthood. The participants were UK birth cohort of 11, 349 children born in one week in March 1970. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the association of gender with language and literacy at 5 and 34 years. Non-verbal abilities were comparable at five years but there were significant differences for both receptive vocabulary and reading, favouring the boys and the girls respectively. Boys but not girls who had parents who were poor readers were more likely to be not reading at five years. Gender was not associated with adulthood literacy. Boys may have a slight advantage over girls in terms of their receptive vocabulary raising questions about the skills tested and the characteristics of clinical populations. The findings are discussed in terms of the nature of the way that children are assessed and the assumptions underpinning clinical practice.Item The Role of Pragmatics in Mediating the Relationship Between Social Disadvantage and Adolescent Behavior(2015) Law, James; Rush, Robert; Clegg, Judy; Peters, Tim; Roulstone, S.Objective: The relationship between social disadvantage, behavior, and communication in childhood is well established. Less is known about how these 3 interact across childhood and specifically whether pragmatic language skills act as a mediator between early social disadvantage and adolescent behavior. Method: The sample was the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a representative birth cohort initially recruited in England in 1991/1992 and followed through to adolescence and beyond. Of the original 13,992 live births, data were available for 2926 children at 13 years. Univariable analysis was first used to identify sociodemographic and other predictors of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at 13 years. The mediational role of the pragmatics scale of the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) at 9 years was then tested, controlling for age, gender, and IQ. Results: There was evidence of both a direct effect from social disadvantage (path C-_) to SDQ Total Behavior Score at 13 years (-.205; p < .001) and an indirect effect from social disadvantage to SDQ Total (-.225; p < .001) after adjusting for the CCC pragmatics scale as a mediator. The latter represents a reduction in the magnitude of the unadjusted effect or total effect- (-.430), demonstrating that the pragmatics scale partially mediates the relationship of early social disadvantage and adolescent behavior (even after controlling for other covariates). The same relationship held for all but the pro-social subscale of the SDQ. Conclusion: The results provide evidence to suggest that there maybe a causal relationship between these variables, suggesting that interventions targeting pragmatic skills have the potential to reduce adolescent behavioral symptoms.