摘要：Objectives. We investigated the relation between the language status of children and their behavioral and emotional well-being during their early school years. Methods. Behavioral and emotional well-being were drawn from teacher-reported data and included externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Three-level growth curve analyses were conducted on a subsample (n = 12 586) of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, kindergarten cohort, who originated from Asian countries. US-born, non-Hispanic White children served as the comparison group. Results. All children started with a similar level of internalizing and externalizing behaviors at kindergarten entry. The growth rate of problem behaviors was slowest in fluent bilingual and non–English-dominant bilingual children compared with White English-monolingual children. By contrast, problem behaviors increased at a significantly faster rate in non–English-monolingual children, who had the highest level of problem behaviors among all children by fifth grade. Conclusions . By fifth grade, fluent bilingual and non–English-dominant bilingual children had the lowest levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, whereas non–English-monolingual children had the highest levels of both behavior problems. Our data suggest emotional and behavioral benefits of being bilingual. Primarily because of the growth in the number of Asian and Latino immigrants to the United States, the use of non-English languages at home has increased significantly over the past few decades, and children of immigrants will account for most of the growth in the school-aged population by 2050. 1 The rise in the number of English-language-learner students, along with their academic struggles, has sparked debate about how to improve these children's school performance. Although it is understandable that policies have focused on academic achievement, children's emotional and behavioral well-being cannot be overlooked, because children who are suffering in these areas are also likely to suffer academically. 2 The early school years are a pivotal time marked by an increased ability to reason and new levels of peer competition. As school progresses, children may receive “failure feedback,” which can result in decreased confidence in their abilities or future success and negative educational trajectories. 3 These patterns may be felt more acutely by English-language-learner children, who are often experiencing not only their first nonfamilial social environment but also their first new cultural environment. The negative effects of social comparison and failure feedback may have unique implications for students who are beginning to see their own cultural identities as different from those of their peers. In addition, early behavior or peer problems in school have been linked to an increased probability of later dropout and delinquency. 4 – 8 This issue is of special importance for young children given the plasticity of the trajectories of behavioral and emotional well-being during the early school years. 9 – 12 The natural conclusion is that English-only instruction is the best way to improve English-language-learner students' communication with their peers and teachers and to avoid failure feedback; this type of instruction, in fact, has been the primary focus of education policies. However, more than 2 decades have passed since researchers began to document what they call the “immigrant paradox”: immigrants generally do well in American society, despite having to navigate a new culture and language and often having few economic resources, although this success often is not sustained by later generations. 13 , 14 As children become more Americanized (acculturated), they lose the protective features of their home culture, which often highly values education and familial respect. Moreover, they become increasingly reluctant to speak their family's language. 14 , 15 This is detrimental, because a growing body of research has documented the benefits of bilingual fluency to various academic outcomes, 15 – 21 higher self-esteem, 17 and stronger family cohesion. 17 , 22 Scholars have generally explained bilingualism's positive effects through its relationship with greater cognitive flexibility and abstract thinking skills 23 – 26 and through the access bilingual children have to positive “cultural capital” in their families and communities. 27 – 32 These results challenge the notion that a rapid shift to monolingual English fluency is best for these children's well-being. Asian and Latino children have been and are projected to be rapidly growing ethnic groups in the United States and often do not speak English at home. However, previous studies found that second-generation Asian youths are less likely than Latino youths to preserve their parents' linguistic heritage. 15 Furthermore, Asian children have long been considered a “model minority” given their generally better academic achievement compared with other children of immigrants and sometimes compared with mainstream peers as well. However, relatively less is known about Asian children's health and emotional well-being during their early school years. For these reasons, we chose to focus on Asian children in the present study. Specifically, we were interested in examining how being bilingual may shape Asian children's long-term emotional well-being and how bilingualism may be a strength that policymakers can draw upon in their efforts to promote children's success in school. Building on previous studies of bilingualism, 2 , 15 , 17 , 18 we assessed the net effects of language status on children's well-being in models that were controlled for a large set of child, family, and school characteristics, along with children's reading ability because of its obvious relation with language proficiency and children's emotional well-being.
