The Role of Family SES and Language Background in Shaping the Well-Being of Children of Asian Origin in the Context of School Mobility

Abstract

Using a sample of children of Asian origin from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (N ≈ 1,480), this study examines the relationship between school mobility and children’s well-being trajectories from kindergarten to fifth grade, paying particular attention to whether such relationships differ by child language status and family socioeconomic status. Considering a rich set of characteristics including family and school environments, the growth curve analyses indicate that children who had ever changed schools during these years performed worse on their reading and math scores, as well as being reported by teachers to have worse internalizing behaviors. This was only true when these children were from low-SES families or when their language background was predominately non-English-speaking. In contrast, children who changed schools at least once performed as well as, if not better than, their peers if they were from high-SES families or if they had a bilingual background (speaking both English and a non-English language). This study explores both the risk and the protective factors that help explain the well-being trajectories of children of Asian origins.