Article: Speaking Multiple Languages Can Influence Children's Emotional Development

From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120802184015.htm

Speaking Multiple Languages Can Influence Children's Emotional Development
August 2, 2012

[Code]-switching, or switching back and forth between different languages, happens all the time in multilingual environments, and often in emotional situations. In a new article in the July issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Stephen Chen and Qing Zhou of the University of California, Berkeley and Morgan Kennedy of Bard College delve deeper into this linguistic phenomenon.

Drawing on research from psychology and linguistics, the researchers seek to better understand how using different languages to discuss and express emotions in a multilingual family might play an important role in children's emotional development. They propose that the particular language parents choose to use when discussing and expressing emotion can have significant impacts on children's emotional understanding, experience, and regulation.

Read the full article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120802184015.htm