Citation

Cooper CE, Crosnoe R, Suizzo MA, Pituch KA. J. Fam. Issues 2010; 31(7): 859-883.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0192513X09351515

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Using multilevel models of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort (N = 20,356), the authors find that parental involvement in education partially mediates the association between family poverty and children’s math and reading achievement in kindergarten, but differences exist across race. In Asian families, poor and non-poor children have similar levels of achievement. Poverty is not related to Black children’s participation in organized activities, but these activities are not associated with Black children’s achievement. Home-learning activities predict reading achievement in Hispanic families only. The findings provide support for application of the family process model to educational outcomes during the transition to elementary school and underscore the need to examine developmental models across racial subsets of the population.