Social Confidence in Early Adulthood Among Young People With and Without a History of Language Impairment.

The study is observational, so it cannot show that language impairment causes lower self-esteem, higher shyness, or lower social self-efficacy. The mediation result is based on statistical associations, and the paper states that other variables, such as school success, socioeconomic status, or nonverbal skills, could be involved. Only 62 participants with a history of language impairment and 57 comparison participants provided data at both 17 and 24 years. The language-impairment group was recruited from language units for children who would find it difficult in mainstream education even with support, so the results may not apply to every young person with a history of language impairment. The comparison group was not all followed from the same schools from age 16; 22 were recruited at age 24 to match age and personal income. The language test used at age 24 is normed up to 21;11 years, so its use in 24-year-olds extends beyond the test's normed range. Social self-efficacy was measured only at 24 years, so change from adolescence to adulthood cannot be examined for that outcome. The paper notes that the effects were modest and that sample size restrictions prevented including every possible covariate.

The study reports funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at South London, the Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust, and King’s College London. No commercial sponsor or author conflict of interest is named in the supplied text.

Do not read the 24% mediation finding as proof that language ability causes shyness, which causes low self-esteem. The paper states that mediation analysis is statistically a set of correlations, and other factors such as school success, socioeconomic status, or nonverbal skills may be involved.