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Bilingualism, School Achievement, and Mental Wellbeing: A Follow‐up Study of Return Migrant Children
Author(s) -
Vuorenkoski Lauri,
Kuure Olli,
Moilanen Irma,
Penninkilampi Varpu,
Myhrman Antero
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00607
Subject(s) - psychology , neuroscience of multilingualism , vulnerability (computing) , developmental psychology , computer security , computer science , neuroscience
In the first phase of this follow‐up study we investigated how the use of more than one language affects mental wellbeing and school achievement among 320 school‐aged Finnish‐Swedish re‐migrant children. Now, in the second phase, we screened the same series of children 6 years after migration for psychiatric and psychosomatic symptoms. Out of five groups distinguished in terms of patterns of language use, two had fared well and three showed evident vulnerability. Both successful groups were marked by consistent use of the two languages, Finnish and Swedish, whereas the risk groups were characterised by mixed use of languages before re‐migration or substantial language shift after re‐migration.