Ahmed, Kalim;
Flouri, Eirini;
Vigliocco, Gabriella;
(2023)
Poor written pragmatic skills are associated with internalising symptoms in childhood: evidence from a UK birth cohort study.
Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
, 2
, Article 1075836. 10.3389/frcha.2023.1075836.
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Abstract
Introduction: This study examined the relation between pragmatic language and internalising (depressive and anxiety) symptoms in 11-year-olds, using data from the 1958 British birth cohort study. Methods: The cohort children were asked at age 11 to write an essay on their life as they imagined it would be at age 25. We analysed 200 of these essays for relevance, organisation and context-dependent references. Results: We found associations between these aspects of pragmatic language and children's internalising symptom scores across parent and teacher ratings, even after adjustment for cognitive ability, socioeconomic position and structural language. Most notably, children writing more coherent essays had fewer teacher-rated internalising symptoms, after adjustment for confounders. Additionally, children who provided more relevant and varied information about their imagined future home-lives had fewer parent-rated internalising symptoms, after adjustment for confounders. Discussion: The unique associations between pragmatic language skills and internalising symptoms observed are notable but preliminary, highlighting both the need for further research and potential applications for risk-assessment tools.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Poor written pragmatic skills are associated with internalising symptoms in childhood: evidence from a UK birth cohort study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/frcha.2023.1075836 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/frcha.2023.1075836 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 Ahmed, Flouri and Vigliocco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | language development, pragmatic language, relevance, deixis, narrative organisation, internalising symptoms |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10172298 |
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