Abstract
Evidence for educational or cognitive advantages in multilinguals is mixed and may reflect socioeconomic or cultural confounds. Using 1673 UK adolescents from the SCAMP cohort, we examined educational attainment at ages 11 and 16 and change in cognitive control between these time points, comparing simultaneous multilinguals, children learning English as a second language, and monolinguals while adjusting for relevant covariates. Simultaneous multilinguals showed a small but reliable attainment advantage over monolinguals at both ages, whereas cognitive differences appeared only in cross-sectional analyses. Children learning English as a second language showed lower attainment at 11, steeper gains, and higher attainment by 16, with no evidence of cognitive differences. Mediation analyses indicated that attainment advantages were largely independent of cognitive measures, suggesting that educational outcomes and cognitive differences should be decoupled. These findings inform policy discussions on multilingual education.
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Data availability
SCAMP data are not publicly available. However, some data can be shared on request subject to approval by the SCAMP Data Access Committee. Data access requests should be directed to Dr Mireille B Toledano (Principal Investigator; m.toledano@imperial.ac.uk).
Code availability
The code for the analyses described in this paper will be made available on OSF.
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Acknowledgements
The SCAMP study is an independent research study funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (PRP; Secondary School Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Use and Neurocognitive and Behavioural Outcomes/091/0212) via the Research Initiative on Health and Mobile Telecommunications, a partnership between public funders and the mobile phone industry. This study was supported by funds from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards (Health Protection Research Units -2012-10141), a partnership between Public Health England and Imperial College London, and the MRC Centre for Environment and Health (MR/L01341X/1). An extension to SCAMP was funded by the NIHR PRP. The funders of the study had no role in the design or conduct of the study or in the reporting of the SCAMP study results. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, Public Health England, or Department of Health and Social Care.
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M.D., M.T., I.D. with colleagues constructed the SCAMP cohort and designed the original cognitive tests. R.F. and S.S. secured educational data and linked to cohort. R.P. carried out the analysis. M.T., R.P., and R.F. conceived the design. M.T., R.P., and R.F. wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.
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Perry, R.C., Filippi, R., Toledano, M.B. et al. Multilingualism educational attainment and cognitive development in UK adolescents. npj Sci. Learn. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00411-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00411-z
