Home educational contexts of Asian American children: Disentangling the effects of structural and cultural factors

Abstract

Asian Americans excel across educational measures relative to other racial/ethnic groups and their educational advantage is already sizable at kindergarten entry. Although much research has focused on the educational achievement gap between Asian Americans and other groups, little is known about the home educational contexts of these children. Informed by an integrative framework that accounts for the effects of cultural orientation, social class, and minority status on home contexts, the study examined a broad array of home environment dimensions faced by children of Asian American mothers (e.g., educational expectations and emphasis on education, educational materials and learning activities at home, parent–child relationships, and organized activities outside the home) and compared these with the home contexts of children of White, Hispanic, and Black mothers, drawing from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011). Propensity score matching techniques revealed that differences between Asian and non-Asian American children's home dimensions were largely explained by socioeconomic status (SES). Asian American parents’ educational expectations were higher than those of Whites, but comparable to those of non-White parents with similar SES levels. Asian Americans were significantly more likely than others to expose their children to extracurricular and family activities outside the home. Asian American homes, especially those with foreign-born mothers, were more likely than their SES-equivalent peers to consider schools in residential decisions. Findings of this study are framed within the persistent discussions – and sometimes contradictory conclusions – about how cultural vis-à-vis structural factors affect the home context of Asian American children.