Relations among socioeconomic status, age, and predictors of phonological awareness

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Authors
McDowell, Kimberly D.
Lonigan, Christopher J.
Goldstein, Howard
Advisors
Issue Date
2007-08
Type
Article
Keywords
Articulation , Preschool , Literacy , Phonology , Phonological awareness
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
McDowell, Kimberly D., Christopher J. Lonigan, and Howard Goldstein. 2007. "Relations among Socioeconomic Status, Age, and Predictors of Phonological Awareness". Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 50 (4): 1079-1092.
Abstract

PURPOSE: This study simultaneously examined predictors of phonological awareness within the framework of 2 theories: the phonological distinctness hypothesis and the lexical restructuring model. Additionally, age as a moderator of the relations between predictor variables and phonological awareness was examined. METHOD: This cross-sectional quantitative study included a total of 700 participants between 2 and 5 years of age. Participants were identified as being from homes of lower or higher socioeconomic status (SES) based on preschool funding source, and they completed 2 measures of vocabulary, 8 measures of phonological awareness, and 2 measures of speech sound accuracy. RESULTS: Results indicate that SES, age, speech sound accuracy, and vocabulary each contributed unique variance to the prediction of phonological awareness. Age amplified the relations between speech sound accuracy and phonological awareness and between SES and phonological awareness but not between vocabulary and phonological awareness. CONCLUSION: The current study provides further support for both the phonological distinctness hypothesis and the lexical restructuring model. Additionally, this study provides novel information regarding the role that age plays in the prediction models. Specifically, the effects of SES and speech sound accuracy on phonological awareness were amplified by age.

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Publisher
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Journal
Book Title
Series
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research;2007:, v.50, no.4
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
1092-4388
1558-9102
EISSN