Toddlers' language development: Sex differences within social risk.

Sex differences in the association between environmental risk and language development were examined in a longitudinal study of 54 high-social-risk families. Measures of the environment included information about family stress and coping, opportunities for cognitive and linguistic stimulation, the nature of learning experiences, and the affective quality of the infant-mother relationship. Despite apparently similar family conditions and early experiences, there were significant sex differences favoring girls on observational measures of spontaneous language production at 20 and 30 months of age. For the group as a whole, sex differences on standardized tests at 24 and 36 months of age were nonsignificant. In addition, relations between aspects of the learning environment and children's language performance differed for boys and girls, supporting a moderator interpretation of the findings.