How do parents think about multilingual upbringing? Comparing OPOL parents and parents who mix languages

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic Information for Participants in the OPOL and Mixing Families.

		OPOL (N = 68)	Mixing (N = 66)
Number of children per family	Mean (SD)	1.88 (0.74)	1.91 (0.80)
Age of youngest child	0–5	50%	35%
	6–11	21%	21%
	12–17	18%	23%
	18 and older	12%	21%
Families with at least one child diagnosed with dyslexia or a developmental language disorder		7%	8%
Number of parents	1	0%	10%
	2	100%	85%
	More than 2	0%	5%
Parents’ educational level	University (of Applied Sciences)	86%	84%
	Vocational education or lower	14%	16%
Number of languages spoken at home	2	100%	67%
	3	0%	28%
	4	0%	4%
	5	0%	1%
Languages spoken at home ^a	Dutch	58	60
	English	19	38
	Spanish	12	8
	French	8	8
	Italian	8	4
	German	4	7
	Frisian	10	1
	Other	19	30

Note. ^a31 different languages were reported in total. All languages spoken by at least 10 families in the sample are specified in the table. Other languages reported more than once in the sample included:

• For the OPOL group: Turkish (3), Czech (2), Russian (2), Croatian (1), Czech (1), Indonesian (1), Limburgish (1), Romanian (1), Serbian (1), Swedish (1)

• For the Mixing group: Greek (4), Turkish (4), Limburgish (3), Hebrew (2), Polish (2), Swedish (2), Croatian (1), Czech (1), Indonesian (1), Romanian (1), Serbian (1)

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics for Statements on Preparation (scale range 1-5) for the OPOL and Mixing Families.

	OPOL					Mixing
	N	M	SD	Min-Max		N	M	SD	Min-Max
A.1	68	4.78	0.57	2–5		66	4.26	1.11	1–5
A.2	67	3.27	1.25	1–5		65	3.38	1.11	1–5
A.3	68	3.00	1.24	1–5		65	3.17	1.17	1–5

Table 3. Moment at which Parents Started Preparing or Planning for the OPOL and Mixing Families.

	OPOL (N = 45)	Mixing (N = 47)
Before I knew I was going to have a child	10 (22%)	5 (11%)
During first pregnancy	26 (58%)	20 (43%)
During later pregnancy	1 (2%)	3 (6%)
Before first child turned one year old	3 (7%)	11 (23%)
At a later time	5 (11%)	8 (17%)
Total before birth of first child	36 (80%)	25 (53%)
Total after birth of first child	9 (20%)	22 (47%)

Table 4. Methods and Resources for Preparation for the OPOL and Mixing Families.

	OPOL (N = 57)	Mixing (N = 52)
Read books	16 (28%)	19 (37%)
Advice from an expert	10 (18%)	14 (27%)
Advice from other parents	16 (28%)	18 (35%)
Read on the internet	35 (61%)	31 (60%)
My own knowledge/experience	31 (54%)	29 (56%)
Other	8 (14%)	5 (10%)

Note. Participants could select multiple answers; hence, percentages do not add up to 100%.

Table 5. Descriptive Statistics for Parent’s Ratings of Statements on Attitudes for the OPOL and Mixing Families (Scale Range 1-5).

	OPOL				Mixing
	N	M	SD	Min-Max	N	M	SD	Min-Max
B.1 I think that multilingual upbringing requires more attention from the parents than monolingual upbringing.	64	3.38	1.35	1–5	62	3.73	1.15	1–5
B.2 I think good communication between parents in multilingual upbringing is more important than in monolingual upbringing.	63	3.24	1.13	1–5	60	3.50	0.97	2–5
B.3 I think that multilingual upbringing is always better than a monolingual upbringing.	63	3.40	1.20	1–5	58	3.78	1.01	1–5
B.4 I think that children who are raised multilingual are more likely to have a language delay than children who are raised monolingual.	63	2.11	1.14	1–5	61	1.98	0,87	1–4
B.5 I think children will benefit from multilingual upbringing later in life.	62	4.81	0.40	4–5	57	4.79	0.41	4–5
B.6 I think that one can only succeed in multilingual upbringing if one prepares very well.	64	2.25	0.99	1–5	62	2.79	1.04	1–5
B.7 I think that multilingual upbringing is more difficult for parents than monolingual upbringing.	63	2.83	1.19	1–5	63	3.32	1.18	1–5
B.8 I think that being raised multilingual is more difficult for a child than being raised monolingual.	65	2.31	1.07	1–5	63	2.41	1.06	1–5
B.9 I think it is very important to be able to speak several languages well.	63	4.17	0.85	2–5	62	4.39	0.66	3–5
B.10 I think that children who have been raised multilingual will always be more of a ‘citizen of the world’ than children who have been raised monolingual.	62	3.61	1.12	1–5	60	4.03	0.92	2–5

Figure 1. Scree Plot for Factor Analysis of the Statements on Attitudes.

Figure 2. Results of Factor Analysis of the Statements on Attitudes.

Table 6. Descriptive Statistics for Weighted Averages on Attitude Factors for the OPOL and Mixing Groups (Scale Range 1-5).

	OPOL				Mixing
	N	M	SD	Min-Max	N	M	SD	Min-Max
Factor 1 (Effort/difficulty for parents)	65	2.96	1.01	1.00-5.00	63	3.38	0.99	1.45-4.78
Factor 2 (Value of multilingual upbringing)	65	3.89	0.73	2.41-5.00	63	4.16	0.65	2.53-5.00
Factor 3 (Risk/difficulty for child)	65	2.20	0.99	1.00-5.00	63	2.23	0.87	1.00-4.00

Table 7. Frequencies of Responses About Using the Same Approach Again.

	OPOL (N = 66)	Mixing (N = 63)
Yes, certainly	36 (55%)	19 (30%)
Yes, probably	11 (17%)	16 (25%)
Yes, but with changes	15 (23%)	17 (27%)
No, probably not	3 (5%)	7 (11%)
No, certainly not	1 (2%)	4 (6%)
Total yes (certainly/probably)	47 (71%)	35 (56%)
Total no (certainly/probably not)	4 (5%)	11 (17%)

Table 8. Themes in Responses to Open Question About What Parents Would Want to Change.

	OPOL (N = 25)	Mixing (N = 38)
More consistent, more clear, set/adhere to rules	8 (32%)	18 (47%)
More attention for my native language / for a specific language	9 (36%)	23 (61%)
Resources (radio, tv, books), external support (schooling/friends), more reading/writing for a specific language	8 (32%)	10 (26%)
More languages	3 (12%)	0 (0%)
More flexibility	1 (4%)	0 (0%)

Note. N refers to the total number of parents in each group who expressed a certain desire for change. Participants’ responses could include multiple themes; hence, percentages do not add up to 100%.

Table 9. Descriptive Statistics for Statements About Concern and Self-Confidence (scored 1-5) for the OPOL and Mixing Families.

	OPOL				Mixing
	N	M	SD	Min-Max	N	M	SD	Min-Max
Concern	65	2.03	1.12	1–5	63	2.06	1.15	1–5
Confidence	65	4.03	0.77	2–5	62	3.69	0.84	2–5

Table 10. Descriptive Statistics for Scales on Experience of Multilingual Parenting (scale range 1-7) for the OPOL and Mixing Groups.

	OPOL				Mixing
	N	M	SD	Min-Max	N	M	SD	Min-Max
Challenging	65	3.91	1.69	1–7	62	4.55	1.47	1–7
Interesting	65	5.83	1.34	1–7	62	5.68	1.36	1–7
Easy	65	4.62	1.56	1–7	62	4.06	1.52	1–7

Data availability statement

The dataset associated with this study is available at https://osf.io/dvmjw/ (doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/DVMJW).