Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic influences on patterns of achievement socialization in young children: An investigation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and European Americans

The purpose of this study was to investigate socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences in the socialization of young children for the kindergarten environment. A nationally-representative sample of African American, Hispanic American, and European American children and their families were studied utilizing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K). Families from each of these racial/ethnic groups were identified as being in a higher or lower income subgroup based on reported family income.;Based on social capital theory, it was expected that the types and extent of social capital relating to children's kindergarten readiness would vary not only by racial/ethnic group, but also by the level of financial capital resources within each racial/ethnic group. Five forms of social capital were operationalized in the present study: parent expectations for future academic achievement, parent educational support, home educational activities, cultural/religious emphasis in the home, and children's participation in extracurricular activities. The outcome measure, kindergarten readiness, was a composite of direct child assessment scores of mathematical reasoning and language/literacy. Factor analysis statistical techniques were used to derive both the social capital and outcome measures.;The regression models derived in the present study were found to be remarkably similar for European American and African American children regardless of level of income, but differed considerably for the Hispanic American groups. For the lower income Hispanic American subgroup of children, neither home educational activities or parent educational support were significantly linked to kindergarten readiness, and the parent expectations variable was not found to be related to kindergarten readiness in either the low or the high income Hispanic group. The results of this study suggest that many African American families are providing ample opportunities for their children to develop the educational skills necessary for kindergarten and that the pervasive educational gap between African American and European American children may be a factor of other environmental disparities, e.g. quality of schools and other community resources. For Hispanic American children, the results suggest that many parents are not providing the same types of enrichment opportunities for their children's development as majority parents.