Associations of language barriers with very preterm children's behavioural and socio-emotional problems across Europe.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Very preterm birth (<32 weeks gestation, VP), immigrant background, and language barriers are all independently associated with a high risk for mental health problems in childhood, but research has neglected the long-term development of immigrant children born VP. We assessed whether behavioural and socio-emotional problems of 5-year-old children born VP growing up across different language contexts in the European Union are associated with an immigrant background and linguistic distance of families' mother tongue (L1) to the host countries' official languages.

Methods

Data are from a population-based cohort including all VP births in 2011/12 in 11 European countries; a total of 3,067 children were followed up at 2 and 5 years of age. Behavioural and socio-emotion

SUBMITTER: Jaekel J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12920130 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature