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. 2018 Feb;50(1):250-263.
doi: 10.3758/s13428-017-0867-9.

The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population

John A E Anderson  1 , Lorinda Mak  1 , Aram Keyvani Chahi  1 , Ellen Bialystok  2
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The language and social background questionnaire: Assessing degree of bilingualism in a diverse population

John A E Anderson et al. Behav Res Methods. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Research examining the cognitive consequences of bilingualism has expanded rapidly in recent years and has revealed effects on aspects of cognition across the lifespan. However, these effects are difficult to find in studies investigating young adults. One problem is that there is no standard definition of bilingualism or means of evaluating degree of bilingualism in individual participants, making it difficult to directly compare the results of different studies. Here, we describe an instrument developed to assess degree of bilingualism for young adults who live in diverse communities in which English is the official language. We demonstrate the reliability and validity of the instrument in analyses based on 408 participants. The relevant factors for describing degree of bilingualism are: (1) the extent of non-English language proficiency and use at home, and (2) non-English language use socially. We then use the bilingualism scores obtained from the instrument to demonstrate their association with: (1) performance on executive function tasks, and (2) previous classifications of participants into categories of monolinguals and bilinguals.

Keywords: Bilingualism; LSBQ; Language and social background questionnaire; Latent-factor-analysis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Parallel analyses. Part A displays the three factor solution presented in the text for bilinguals and monolinguals. Part B displays greater variability in the multilinguals’ responses (i.e., less variance is explained, and more factors/principal components are required).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Factor loadings and latent variables.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlations of composite factor score with behavioral measures. Part A displays the relationship between the composite factor score and each of the behavioral measures. Dashed lines are upper and lower 95% confidence bounds. The sub-plots on the right side emphasize the interactions between the Shipley and Flanker word/non-word performance. Part B displays the correlation values and 95% confidence intervals for each factor.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Agreement between subjective and objective categorizations of bilingualism. Quantile scores are derived from the composite factor score (see text). The table below shows the count values (BL is bilingual, ML is monolingual). Min and max refers to the minimum and maximum observed values of the composite score for each quantile. Values not contained in the dotted lines are cut off scores.
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