Asian Children’s Verbal Development: A Comparison of Three Countries

Kate Choi, Amy Hsin and Sara McLanahan
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Kate Choi: University of Western Ontario
Amy Hsin: Queens College and City University of New York
Sara McLanahan: Princeton University

Working Papers from Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing.

Abstract: Using longitudinal data from three countries - the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia – we document White-Asian differences in verbal development from early to middle childhood to assess whether the Asian academic advantage extends to verbal skills during childhood. We find that the children of Asian immigrant mothers do not have a clear advantage over Whites. Rather, how they perform seems to be age and context specific. In the United States, Asian children begin school with higher verbal scores than Whites, but their advantage erodes over time. In the United Kingdom and Australia, Asian children show an initial disadvantage at school entry, but their scores grow at a faster rate and converge towards those of White children. Much of the observed White-Asian difference in verbal development is due to differences in parents’ socioeconomic status.

Keywords: Asian model minority hypothesis; verbal development; cross-national research; United States; United Kingdom; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-12
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