Maternal generation from Mexico as a predictor of infants' language development

The hypothesis that maternal generation from Mexico predicts infant recepti ve and expressive communication age at 22 months was investigated Participa nts included 62 infants from Mexican American families who graduated from a neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) and 35 full-term infants also born to M exican American parents. The results showed that infants born to mothers of recent generation from Mexico had lower language development scores than d id infants born to mothers of Inter generation. Fathers education levels we re also significant predictors of infants' 22-month language outcome, altho ugh maternal generation from Mexico remained a stronger predictor of outcom e than did paternal education level for expressive language and for recepti ve language for the NICU graduates. The results support theories that empha size the importance of environmental context on child development.