Schizotypy and Autistic Traits in Bilinguals: Associations with Language Deficits Across Native and Non-Native Languages
Abstract
Background: Schizotypal and autistic traits are increasingly understood as existing on continuous dimensions extending from subclinical variation to clinical schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), respectively. Language deficits are well documented in SZ and ASD but research on their relationship to subclinical schizotypal and autistic traits remains limited. Moreover, while evidence suggests SZ symptoms manifest more strongly in bilinguals’ native (L1) than non-native (L2) language, little is known about whether associated language deficits similarly differ between L1 and L2. Methods: The present study examined associations between schizotypy, autistic traits, and language performance in 503 bilinguals (436 English–French and 67 French–English) from the general population. Participants completed lexical, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic language tasks in both L1 and L2, together with questionnaires on schizotypy and autistic traits. Results: Higher schizotypy was associated with poorer syntactic and pragmatic performance in both languages and lexical performance in L1 only, while no association was found with semantic performance. Higher schizotypy was also associated with a reduced L1 advantage in lexical performance, but not in other linguistic domains. Autistic traits showed no independent association with linguistic performance or L1-vs-L2 differences. However, autistic traits moderated the relationship between schizotypy and language performance: higher autistic traits attenuated the negative association between schizotypy and performance in L1 while strengthening it in L2. Conclusion: Overall, the findings partially support dimensional understandings of SZ by showing that some language deficits associated with clinical SZ extend to subclinical schizotypy, without providing clear evidence that ASD-associated language deficits extend to subclinical autistic traits.
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BibTeX
@misc{hamilton2026schizotypy,
title = {{Schizotypy and Autistic Traits in Bilinguals: Associations with Language Deficits Across Native and Non-Native Languages}},
author = {Arthur Hamilton and Synthia Guimond and Olessia Jouravlev},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/q5fxb_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/q5fxb_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Schizotypy and Autistic Traits in Bilinguals: Associations with Language Deficits Across Native and Non-Native Languages
AU - Arthur Hamilton
AU - Synthia Guimond
AU - Olessia Jouravlev
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/q5fxb_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/q5fxb_v1/
AB - Background: Schizotypal and autistic traits are increasingly understood as existing on continuous dimensions extending from subclinical variation to clinical schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), respectively. Language deficits are well documented in SZ and ASD but research on their relationship to subclinical schizotypal and autistic traits remains limited. Moreover, while evidence suggests SZ symptoms manifest more strongly in bilinguals’ native (L1) than non-native (L2) language, little is known about whether associated language deficits similarly differ between L1 and L2. Methods: The present study examined associations between schizotypy, autistic traits, and language performance in 503 bilinguals (436 English–French and 67 French–English) from the general population. Participants completed lexical, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic language tasks in both L1 and L2, together with questionnaires on schizotypy and autistic traits. Results: Higher schizotypy was associated with poorer syntactic and pragmatic performance in both languages and lexical performance in L1 only, while no association was found with semantic performance. Higher schizotypy was also associated with a reduced L1 advantage in lexical performance, but not in other linguistic domains. Autistic traits showed no independent association with linguistic performance or L1-vs-L2 differences. However, autistic traits moderated the relationship between schizotypy and language performance: higher autistic traits attenuated the negative association between schizotypy and performance in L1 while strengthening it in L2. Conclusion: Overall, the findings partially support dimensional understandings of SZ by showing that some language deficits associated with clinical SZ extend to subclinical schizotypy, without providing clear evidence that ASD-associated language deficits extend to subclinical autistic traits.
ER -