Language skills are essential to successfully participate in education processes and in society more generally. In Germany between 15% and 50% of all children lack proficiency in the German language. Disadvantaged children (e.g. migrant children or children with a low socioeconomic status) are especially affected by this. Following socioecological and sociocultural theories on human development (e.g. Bronfenbrenner, 1990; Rogoff, 1990; Vygotski, 1978), the quality and quantity of the linguistic input these children experience can be considered as one of the reasons for their lack in language skills. These theories emphasize the importance of a meaningful and stimulating environment as well as social interactions for (language) development.

The family is a child’s first and foremost learning environment. For children who experience a lack of qualitative and quantitative language input at home, daycare centers might provide a valuable learning setting. Here, not only child-teacher but also peer interactions exert an influence on a child’s development (Wentzel, 2011). The peer-related makeup of daycare centers varies. For example, in Germany the proportion of children who do not predominantly speak German at home or who have a migration background averages 20% to 30% in daycare centers. However, the settings’ respective proportions vary from zero to more than 80%. Also, standard deviations of 20% to 30% illustrate that such differences are rather the rule than the exception (e.g. Anders et al., 2012). Local surveys show that such segregation patterns are not (only) due to country-specific or regional differences in the population structure but can also be observed within cities and city districts (Hogrebe, 2014).

Research on school context effects demonstrates that the social and ethnic composition of classes and schools exerts an independent influence on students’ cognitive skills even after controlling for individual characteristics and other institutional aspects (Thrupp, Lauder & Robinson, 2002). Mostly, these studies focus on the ethnic background or socioeconomic status as relevant contextual factors. More recently, Fantuzzo, LeBoeuf, and Rouse (2014) showed that student risk factors such as preterm birth, low birth weight or inadequate parental care are more important than student demographics relating to migration or income. Findings in early childhood education are scarce and inconsistent. Henry and Rickman (2007), Mashburn et al. (2009) as well as Justice et al. (2011) show a positive relationship between the peers’ average cognitive and linguistic skills and a child’s language competencies, but they only use information on four to eight peers and do not consider a center’s composition in total. Schechter and Bye (2007), de Haan et al. (2013) as well as Reid and Ready (2013) focus on the relevance of the socio-economic composition in early childhood institutions especially for children from families with low-income or a low socio-economic status. Research findings on differential effects are still inconsistent. Mashburn et al. (2009) find that children with better language skills profit from a beneficial peer context. In contrast, Justice et al. (2011) claim that better skilled children are rather resistant to context effects while less skilled children are positively influenced by a better peer-related linguistic environment. Also, children’s risk factors that have shown to be important in the school context have so far not been included in context studies in early childhood education.

Against this background, we investigate a) if the proportion of at-risk children in daycare settings affects the language skills of all children and, if so, which composition factors are decisive, and b) if differential effects can be observed for subgroups of children. The presented analyses are embedded in the project “Context effects of preschools: children's language skills at school entry” which is funded by the German Research Foundation.

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