Minority Language Parenting in Europe and Children’s Well-Being

Abstract

Language is of central importance in parenting. This becomes particularly clear in a minority context, where parents may be pressured into speaking a language to children that they hardly know, or where children may not speak the language that their parents speak with them. Because of linguistic issues, minority language background parents may feel insecure in their parenting role, and their children’s positive development may be adversely affected. This chapter reviews research from various research traditions in the currently (2015) 28 countries of the European Union that can potentially inform relations between language use by parents with a minority language background as an integral part of parenting on the one hand‚ and young children’s socioemotional well-being on the other. Few European research projects so far have specifically addressed the complex relations between the language related aspects of parenting in minority language background families and children’s socioemotional well-being. However, the evidence brought together here supports the notion that children’s minority language use and proficiency as mediated by their parents’ linguistic choices and practices positively affects both parents’ and young children’s well-being, thus contributing to harmonious bilingual development.