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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Alan Fenton
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s) 2024. Background: Very preterm birth (<32 weeks gestation, VP), immigrant background, and language barriers are all independently associated with a high risk for mental health problems in childhood, but research has neglected the long-term development of immigrant children born VP. We assessed whether behavioural and socio-emotional problems of 5-year-old children born VP growing up across different language contexts in the European Union are associated with an immigrant background and linguistic distance of families’ mother tongue (L1) to the host countries’ official languages. Methods: Data are from a population-based cohort including all VP births in 2011/12 in 11 European countries; a total of 3,067 children were followed up at 2 and 5 years of age. Behavioural and socio-emotional difficulties were assessed using the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results: Mixed-effects models showed that a larger linguistic distance of children’s L1 to the host countries’ official language was associated with higher SDQ total scores (0.02 [0.01, 0.03]), after adjusting for a wide range of social risks, biological, and perinatal clinical factors. Conclusion: Language barriers in the form of linguistic distance between VP children’s L1 and countries’ official languages play a critically important role for the behavioural and socio-emotional development of immigrant children born VP. Impact: Immigrant children born very preterm across Europe face systemic inequalities such as language barriers. Language barriers can be operationalised as a continuous linguistic distance score between children’s mother tongues and countries’ official languages. Linguistic distance plays an important role for the behavioural and socio-emotional development of immigrant children born VP. Research, policy, and practice need to better account for language barriers to increase equity in health and education.
Author(s): Jaekel J, Aubert AM, Jaekel N, Costa R, Johnson S, Zeitlin J, Seppanen AV, El Rafei R, Bonnet C, Aubert AM, Zeitlin J, Andronis L, Kim SW, Petrou S, Pfeil JM, Thiele N, Mader S, Johnson SJ, Fenton A, Draper ES, Aden U, Rodrigues C, Costa R, Barros H, Pikula T, Montgomery A, Mazela J, Gadzinowski J, Koopman-Esseboom C, Ferrari F, Faldella G, Ancora G, Carnielli V, Croci I, Cuttini M, Wohlers L, Misselwitz B, Zemlin M, Maier RF, Truffert P, Pierrat V, Jarreau PH, Burguet A, Ancel PY, Mannamaa M, Varendi H, Toome L, Pedersen P, Boerch K, Sarrechia I, Ortibus E, Oostra A, Cloet E, Bruneel E, Van Reempts P, Lebeer J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Pediatric Research
Year: 2024
Pages: Epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 24/11/2024
Acceptance date: 19/09/2024
Date deposited: 17/12/2024
ISSN (print): 0031-3998
ISSN (electronic): 1530-0447
Publisher: Springer Nature
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-024-03623-4
DOI: 10.1038/s41390-024-03623-4
Data Access Statement: The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to reasons of confidentiality and participant personal data privacy, but aggregated data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
PubMed id: 39582061
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