Life satisfaction of 10-year-olds in a bilingual context in France: the predictive role of parental language practices and children’s use of the minority language

Abstract

ABSTRACT The transmission and maintenance of minority languages is at the core of family issues that can influence children’s life satisfaction. It is only very recently that family language policy studies have turned their attention to the socio-emotional domain. This study examined some predictors (parental language practices, children’s minority and majority language skills, their language use at home) of the life satisfaction of 86 children aged 10, living in France in a bilingual context, and whose language practiced at home is minorated. The children individually and collectively filled out questionnaires about their life satisfaction, their language practices, those of their parents and their own language skills. The results indicate that the parents’ language practices and the children’s use of languages at home are the only two variables that significantly predict the children’s life satisfaction. Although linked to their life satisfaction, the children’s skills in the minority language do not have a significant impact in the tested model. The data of this study thus tends to open new avenues for reflection on the place of child well-being in the study of family language policies.