Multilingualism and Out-Group Acceptance: The Mediating Roles of Cognitive Flexibility and Deprovincialization

Trajectories of cognitive flexibility through kindergarten and first grade: Implications for externalizing and internalizing behavior problems in the second grade

Developmental delays in cognitive flexibility early in elementary school can potentially increase vulnerability for subsequent externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. The first goal of the current study was to identify latent subgroups of children characterized by different developmental trajectories of cognitive flexibility throughout kindergarten and first grade using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 dataset. The second goal was to examine whether identified longitudinal developmental trajectories of cognitive flexibility could be associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors in the second grade, while accounting for background child (age, gender, and Spanish-speaking) and family (family income and mother's education) covariates. The analytic sample consisted of 15,827 kindergarteners (51.20% male; 48.50% White, 13.5% Black/African American, 24.3% Hispanic/Latino, 7.60% Asian, and 6.1% other), who were approximately 5.62 years old (SD = 4.48 months) at the study's outset. Most children lived in households with medium family income of approximately $50,000-$55,000. Using a growth mixture modeling approach, our analyses identified normative (91.05%; 50.4% male) and delayed (8.95%; 59.4% male) cognitive flexibility groups and demonstrated that delayed developers have higher levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors in the second grade, even after adjusting for background covariates. Our findings, in conjunction with research on cognitive flexibility training, suggest that caregivers may lower the risk for externalizing and internalizing behaviors in delayed developers by correcting inflexible thinking, encouraging alternative solutions, and providing emotional support when children face challenging problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Multilingualism and Ethnic Prejudice

Abstract. This study explored the relationship between the ability to talk to others in more than one language and ethnic prejudice, considering the quality and quantity of intergroup contact. A structural equation model analysis was carried out on a sample of 631 Italian citizens. The results showed that multilingualism led to an increase of acceptance of intergroup differences and positive attitudes toward Moroccans and that the quality (but not quantity) of intergroup contact-mediated those relationships. The mediating role of the quality of intergroup contact extends previous results on the relationship between multilingualism and positive attitudes toward ethnic out-groups. These findings are important from a scientific point of view, as they enrich the conditions of the intergroup contact hypothesis.

The current standing of bilingualism in today's globalized world: a socio-ecological perspective

Globalization has made interactions between individuals from different cultures and languages unavoidable. Therefore, questions concerning bilingualism have become increasingly important within the scholarly community. In this paper, we review this emerging research using a socio-ecological approach. We first present evidence that demonstrates how learning two languages is dependent upon the socio-ecologies of individuals. Second, we review studies that show how bilingualism promotes a myriad of positive social advantages. Then we discuss how the positive effects of bilingualism has affected the socio-ecologies of the individuals. Our discussion sheds light on the challenges that caregivers, educators, scientists, and policy makers face to promote bilingualism in today's globalized world. WC=106/150.

Intergroup Contact as an Agent of Cognitive Liberalization

Intergroup contact is widely recognized as one of the most validated methods of improving attitudes toward out-groups. Yet what is intergroup contact "good for" beyond this function? To answer this question we take a panoramic view of the literature, beginning with the recognition that contact is multifaceted in both form (e.g., face-to-face, indirect, simulated) and outcome (e.g., attitudes, cognition, behavior). Taking this highly inclusive view of what contact is and what contact does suggests that it plays a fundamental role in the shaping of human cognition. An increasingly diverse body of research demonstrates that contact exerts a generalizing reaction across target out-groups, making respondents less inward looking and more open to experiences. Contact shapes ideology regarding how the world ought to operate (i.e., ideologies about social hierarchy or regulation); over time, it can promote new ways of problem-solving, enhance cognitive flexibility, and foster creativity. For these reasons, we believe that contact is a key liberalizing agent that shapes human cognition and experience; consequently, contact theory should now share the stage with other prominent theories (e.g., cognitive dissonance) that speak to a broader understanding of human nature.