Language comprehension of pre-school children reared in one-parent families: a preliminary report

In a previous study ( DiSimoni and Mucha , J. Aud . Res., 1982, 22, 265-270) 97 essentially normal pre-school children were given the Token Test for Children (TTC), a receptive language test of semantic function. The socioeconomic status (SES) of each parent was estimated on a 7-pt scale. Data were here further analyzed to show that while TTC scores were not correlated with SES for the whole group, in a subgroup of 33 Ss in 1-parent families (all mothers) the correlation was strong (p = 0.003) between TTC and maternal SES. Thus, receptive language comprehension varies not only with family SES but with important familial factor(s) beyond the power of this exploratory study to elucidate.