1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This study focused on the awareness and use of, as well as the desire for, such resources among Québec-based parents raising infants/toddlers (0-4 years) with multiple languages in the home.» (p. 1)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«We hypothesise that non-HL parents have greater awareness of, and make greater use of, both child- and parent-directed resources – and that HL parents, by contrast, feel more of a desire for additional resources. Since existing research has not explicitly investigated resources for raising children multilingually, we base this hypothesis on evidence from studies of parents’ FLP [family language policy] experiences more generally.» (p. 3)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«This study’s participant sample consisted of 819 parents who lived in Québec, were 18 or older, and were raising a typically-developing infant/toddler aged 0–4 years with multiple languages in the home. 92.8% of participants identified as female, 6.5%, identified as male, 0.5% indicated a gender other than female or male, and 0.2% did not provide information concerning their gender. The participants’ mean age was 34.6 years, with ages ranging from 23 to 56. […] The children’s ages ranged from 3 weeks to 48 months, with a mean age of 23.5 months. 60.1% of participants reported that their children were being raised with one or more immigrant HLs (HL parents) while 39.9% reported that their children were being raised without any HLs (non-HL parents).» (p. 6)

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«This study’s results clearly demonstrate that parents do use – and want to use – resources as a form of language management to promote their children’s multilingual development. Our findings highlight that particular support is required by HL parents who want to raise their infants and toddlers with multiple languages in the home. The insights from this study provide an important initial understanding of Québec-based parents’ engagement with resources as a form of language management, and our study thereby lays the groundwork for the development of appropriate measures to address the needs of parents who are raising infants and toddlers with multiple languages in the home. Notably, the data from our study supported the conceptual distinction we made at the outset, between child-directed resources and parent-directed resources. Moreover, the study revealed a further conceptual distinction, namely that between material resources and social resources.» (p. 15)