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Cited by 2,346Language Development and DisordersChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentReading and Literacy Development

The specificity of environmental influence: socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech.

Hoff, Erika·2003·Child Development
DOI 10.1111/1467-8624.00612
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Abstract

The hypothesis was tested that children whose families differ in socioeconomic status (SES) differ in their rates of productive vocabulary development because they have different language-learning experiences. Naturalistic interaction between 33 high-SES and 30 mid-SES mothers and their 2-year-old children was recorded at 2 time points 10 weeks apart. Transcripts of these interactions provided the basis for estimating the growth in children's productive vocabularies between the first and second visits and properties of maternal speech at the first visit. The high-SES children grew more than the mid-SES children in the size of their productive vocabularies. Properties of maternal speech that differed as a function of SES fully accounted for this difference. Implications of these findings for mechanisms of environmental influence on child development are discussed.

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  • Caregivers' education is known to affect infants' gestures, caregivers' contingent speech, and children's vocabulary outcomes.

    “Caregivers' education is known to affect infants' gestures, caregivers' contingent speech, and children's vocabulary outcomes (e.g., Hoff, 2003; McGillion et al., 2017; Rowe & Goldin‐Meadow, 2009).”

    From The role of dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' verbal and multimodal responses in predicting vocabulary outcomes (2025) · cites this paper as Hoff, 2003

    The Participants section (p. 2) distinguishes mothers by education level, and the Results (p. 5) report SES-related differences in topic-continuing replies, a measure of responsive maternal speech. The paper also reports differences in children's productive vocabulary growth (p. 1). It does not report an effect on infants' gestures; education was part of the SES grouping rather than an independently tested factor. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • Socioeconomic disparities are associated with children's language skills as well as parental behaviors such as linguistic input and sensitivity.

    “socioeconomic disparities are associated with children ' s language skills 9,27 as well as parental behaviors such as linguistic input and sensitivity. 28,29”

    From Parenting Behavior and Child Language: A Meta-analysis. (2019) · cites this paper as [28]

    The study summary (p. 1) and Discussion (pp. 6, 9) link socioeconomic status to children's vocabulary development and differences in maternal speech, supporting the language-skills and linguistic-input parts of the claim. The cited passages do not establish an association with parental sensitivity. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Many previous studies show that maternal education is positively associated with children's vocabulary size.

    “This result is in contrast with many previous studies that show that maternal education is positively associated with children's vocabulary size (e.g., Feldman et al., 2000; Fenson et al., 2007; Hoff, 2003).”

    From The role of dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' verbal and multimodal responses in predicting vocabulary outcomes (2025) · cites this paper as Hoff, 2003

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Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Bernicot, J., & Roux, M. (1998). La structure et l'usage des enonces: Comparison d'enfants uniques et d'enfants second nes [The structure and function of sentences: Comparison of only children and second born children]. In J. Bernicot, H. Marcos, C. Day, M. Guidette, J. RabainJamain, V. Laval, & G. Babelot (Eds.), De l'usage des gestes et des mots chez les enfants [On the function of gesture and words in the infant] (pp. 157-178). Paris: Armand Colin.
  2. Snow, C. E. (1999). Social perspectives on the emergence of language. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), The emergence of language (pp. 257-276). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  3. Snow, C. E., de Blauw, A., & Van Roosmalen, G. (1979). Talking and playing with babies: The role of ideologies of child-rearing. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech: The beginning of interpersonal communication (pp. 269288). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  4. Snow, C. E., Dubber, C., & De Blauw, A. (1982). Routines in mother-child interaction. In L. Feagans & D. C. Farran (Eds.), The language of children reared in poverty (pp. 5372). New York: Academic Press.

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Authors
Hoff, E.
Affiliations
Florida Atlantic University (US)
Corresponding author
Hoff, Erika
ORCID
Hoff, Erika
Venue
Child Development
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2003-09-12
Volume
74
Issue
5
Pages
1368-1378
ISSN
  • 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-8624
DOI
10.1111/1467-8624.00612
OpenAlex
W2165345255
Cited by
2,346
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 66 · 2025: 103 · 2024: 131 · 2023: 117 · 2022: 179 · 2021: 176 · 2020: 204 · 2019: 202 · 2018: 140 · 2017: 128 · 2016: 140 · 2015: 124 · 2014: 106 · 2013: 105 · 2012: 103
FWCI
29.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Child Development (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01hd020936-03)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD20936)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
Keywords
socioeconomic status, vocabulary development, maternal speech, language learning, early childhood, mother-child interaction
MeSH terms
Child, Preschool, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Language Development, Male, Mother-Child Relations, Social Environment, Socioeconomic Factors, Verbal Behavior, Vocabulary

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