Early Bilingualism is Associated with Lower Mental Health Problems across Childhood:A Longitudinal Investigation

This study investigated the association between early bilingualism and children’s mental health trajectories from early to middle childhood in the United Kingdom (UK). Data were drawn from the Millennium Cohort Study, with parents of 15,435 children (2,146 bilinguals; 49% female) completing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire when their children were aged 3, 5, 7 and 11 years. The sample, representative of the UK population, included children from White British (81%), Pakistani (5%), Black (2.6%) and Indian (2.2%) backgrounds. After adjusting for key variables (e.g., sex, socio-economic status, child’s ethnicity), early bilingual children consistently exhibited lower levels of internalizing and externalizing problems than monolinguals peers. The mental health advantage was particularly evident among children from low to mid-level family socio-economic status.