Abstract
Children and adolescents with language impairment (LI) are at risk of emotional health difficulties. However, less is known about whether these difficulties continue into adulthood for this group, or about the potential role of environmental resources (e.g., social support) or internal resources (e.g., self‐efficacy). This study investigates emotional health in 81 adults with a history of developmental LI (aged 24) compared with 87 age‐matched peers (AMPs) using Beck Inventories. Social support and self‐efficacy measures were examined as predictors. The results were fourfold: (1) adults with LI had higher levels of emotional health problems; (2) whilst the availability of social support was similar across groups, people with LI received more help from others compared to peers; (3) social support was not significantly related to emotional health in those with LI – in contrast, for AMPs, uptake of support indicated poorer emotional health; (4) self‐efficacy was the strongest predictor of emotional health in both groups and fully mediated the relationship between language and emotional health (no moderation by group). This cross‐sectional study has implications for concurrent factors that might affect emotional health outcomes for children and young people with and without LI.
Highlights
Emotional health difficulties are expensive to treat once they reach clinical levels (Thapar, Collishaw, Pine, & Thapar, 2012)
We investigate these variables in a sample of young adults with histories of developmental language impairment (LI) and compare them to a sample of age-matched peers (AMPs) without LI
Gene–environment influences may include the fact that parents of children with LI experience higher rates of emotional health problems which in turn may impact on the level of family support available to children and young people (O’Connor, Heron, Golding, Beveridge, & Glover, 2002)
Summary
Emotional health difficulties are expensive to treat once they reach clinical levels (Thapar, Collishaw, Pine, & Thapar, 2012). In the literature on typical adults (Aneshensel & Stone, 1982), as well as in older adults with acquired language difficulties (Hilari, Needle, & Harrison, 2012), perceived social support provides an important context for ameliorating depression and anxiety. Despite these findings, measurement of social support is not straightforward. No previous studies of emotional health in adults with LI have included social support measures, findings from adolescents have suggested that family may play a larger role for these individuals compared to peers (Botting & Conti-Ramsden, 2008; Conti-Ramsden & Durkin, 2008)
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