Disentangling the causes and consequences of individual differences in language ability using longitudinal cohort data

该项目将通过确定语言技能与各种重要的生活结果之间的关系来评估提高儿童早期语言技能的社会价值。它将考虑驱动关系的因素，比较使用纵向结构方程模型的不同可能的因果关系。将使用两个纵向数据集；英国队列研究（BCS70）和千年队列研究（MCS）。使用两个处于不同年龄/发展阶段的队列研究，既可以检查成人结果，如就业、关系状况、生活满意度（使用较老的BCS70队列），也可以检查更直接的结果，如学校适应、学习成绩、同伴关系、行为问题和危险的健康行为（使用较年轻的千年队列）。研究人员将对语言发展速度不同的儿童进行分组，以检查语言发展速度是否会对以后的生活产生影响，或者是否存在一个可识别的阈值，低于这个阈值，语言能力就会对以后的生活结果产生不利影响。这项研究将为早期语言能力差异的真实生活后果提供第一个明确的测量，因此干预提高语言技能的价值。从这项研究中得到的更好的理解将使我们能够更有效地有针对性地对人口和最重要的发展时间点进行支出。

This project will evaluate the social value of improving language skills in early childhood by establishing how these skills are related to a variety of important life outcomes. It will consider what drives the relationships, comparing different possible causal accounts using longitudinal structural equation modelling. Two longitudinal datasets will be used; the British Cohort Study (1970 (BCS70) and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). The use of two cohort studies that are at different ages/developmental stages allows examination of both adult outcomes such as employment, relationship status, life satisfaction (using the older BCS70 cohort) and more immediate outcomes such as school adjustment, academic performance, peer relationships, behaviour problems and risky health behaviours (using the younger millennium cohort). Sub-groups of children with different rates of language development will be identified, to examine whether the rate at which language develops has later consequences or if there is an identifiable threshold below which language ability has an adverse impact on later life outcomes. This research will provide the first explicit measurement of the real lifetime consequences of differences in early language ability, and hence the value of intervening to improve language skills. The improved understanding that will arise from this research will allow more efficient targeted spending on the populations and developmental time points of greatest consequence.