School readiness of children from immigrant families: Contributions of region of origin, home, and childcare.

Abstract

Children from immigrant families make up a growing proportion of young children in the United States. This study highlights the heterogeneity in early academic skills related to parental region of origin. It also considers the contributions of early home and nonparental care settings to the diversity in early academic performance. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; N ≅ 6,850), this study examines associations between parental region of origin and children’s math and reading skills at age 5. It also considers whether home and nonparental care environments are pathways through which parental region of origin relates to academic achievement. There was significant heterogeneity in children’s early reading and math skills related to parental region of origin. Children of Indian Asian and East Asian/Pacific Islander parents outscored children of native-born White parents and every other immigrant subgroup. Children of Mexican and Central American/Spanish Caribbean parents performed below other immigrant subgroups and native-born White children. Differences in child, socioeconomic, and family characteristics largely explained relations between parental region of origin and early academic skills. Indirect effects of early home environments and nonparental care played a modest but important role in explaining variability in academic skills related to region of origin.

Center-Based Preschool and School Readiness Skills of Children From Immigrant Families

“…These beliefs are related to differences in early reading practices in the home environment (Jung, Fuller, & Galindo, 2012). Indeed, Koury and Votruba-Drzal (2014) have shown that there are differences in several aspects of children's home environments related to parental region of origin, including the provision of cognitive stimulation and emotional support. Based on prior research that shows that center-based EEC is associated with the greatest cognitive skills gains among children from less advantaged home environments (Bradley, McKelvey, & Whiteside-Mansell, 2011;Magnuson et al, 2004;Votruba-Drzal et al, 2013), we hypothesize that there may be variability in the implications of center-based EEC experiences based on parental region of origin.…”

Effortful control and early academic achievement of Chinese American children in immigrant families

“…Previous research has shown that several family factors are associated with early achievement of children in immigrant families: (a) socioeconomic status (SES) (Han, 2008;Han et al, 2012), (b) parent acculturation, especially in the domain of English proficiency (Han et al, 2012), and (c) parenting practices (Koury & Votruba-Drzal, 2014). Applied to the bioecological framework, these family factors reflect both proximal processes (e.g., parent-child relationship and parenting) and aspects of the exosystems (e.g., SES, family's ethnic and cultural backgrounds) that can shape children's academic development.…”

The Asian American Advantage in Math among Young Children

“…For example, Chinese parents have children with a .783 advantage in early math skills, which is distinct from Filipino children (.145) and Korean children (.287) in our results but are often grouped together as "Asian" or "East Asia/ Pacific Islands" in other studies (e.g., Koury and Votruba-Drzal 2014). Likewise, the evidence for an emergent Vietnamese advantage, when socioeconomic and parenting advantages are accounted for (.290), would go unnoticed if classified under "Other Asians" (e.g., Sun 2011).…”