The Role of Socioeconomic and Sociocultural Factors in Language Minority Children's Development: An Ecological Research View

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to critically review contemporary literature on external factors influencing language minority children's development. This article merges literature from separate modules, stemming from researchers within a developmental psychology and an ethnic minority perspective. The first section presents an overarching multidimensional model for understanding the importance of an ecological perspective to the study of development in language minority children. This first section presents a context for the second section on socioeconomic status (SES) factors, and for the third section on sociocultural factors influencing development in language minority children. This article closes by presenting some recommendations for much-needed research for broadening our current understanding of the interacting effect of SES, sociocultural, and other mediating factors (i.e., biological, psychological) on developmental and educational achievement levels attained by language minority children's development.