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Abstract
AbstractWe examine the relationship between parental ethnic identity and the test scores of ethnic minority children. We use standard survey measures of the strength of parental identity alongside validated cognitive test scores in a rich British cohort study. We show that children whose mothers report either an adoption or an active rejection of the majority identity tend to score lower in cognitive tests at age 7, compared with those children whose mothers report neutral feelings about the majority identity. We find no consistent differences in test scores according to mothers’ minority identity. Our findings provide no support for education or citizenship policies that promote the adoption of the majority identity or discourage the maintenance of separate identities in ethnic minority communities.
Highlights
We examine the relationship between parental ethnic identity and the test scores of ethnic minority children
Using an ethnic minority sample drawn from a rich UK cohort study, we examine the relationship between parental ethnic identity and children’s test scores
We examine the relationship between parental ethnic identity and test scores in ethnic minority children
Summary
We examine the relationship between parental ethnic identity and the test scores of ethnic minority children. As we discuss further below, ethnic identity has been widely implicated in education and labour market outcomes for ethnic minority individuals We extend this strand of existing work by examining the role of parental ethnic identity in the cognitive performance of young children. Our main contribution is to show the relationship between parental ethnic identity and childhood outcomes using direct measures of cognitive development in young children. The second is that mothers adopt a position on the majority identity in response to challenging circumstances, which are reflected in children’s lower test scores This second interpretation does not imply a direct relationship between parental ethnic identity and child test scores, but instead implies the presence of omitted variables in our empirical model. After excluding those with missing information on the outcome and family variables, our main sample is composed of 1,249 children, of whom 629 have two parents with complete information on the father
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