Is there a (transracial) adoption achievement gap?
In one of the first longitudinal population-based studies examining adopted children's educational achievement, we analyze whether there is a test-score gap between children in adoptive families and children in biological families. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we find in aggregate adopted children have lower reading and math scores than their counterparts living in biological families. Yet there is significant variation among adoptive families by their race and health status. On one hand adoptive parents tend to be White and have more economic capital than their non-adoptive counterparts potentially contributing to educational advantages. However adopted children are also more likely to have special educational needs, contributing to greater educational disadvantages. Untangling these variables through a multivariate regression analysis, we find that transracially adopted children have similar test scores to White children living with biological parents. We point to the interaction between race, family resources and children's health status and how these characteristics differentially shape achievement outcomes for adopted children.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 35 (2013)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
|Contact details of provider:|| Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth|
References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Brooks, Devon & James, Sigrid, 2003. "Willingness to adopt back foster children: implications for child welfare policy and recruitment of adoptive families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5-6), pages 463-489.
- Mohanty, Jayashree & Newhill, Christina, 2006. "Adjustment of international adoptees: Implications for practice and a future research agenda," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 384-395, April.
- Sharma, Anu R. & McGue, Matthew K. & Benson, Peter L., 1996. "The emotional and behavioral adjustment of United States adopted adolescents: Part I. An overview," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1-2), pages 83-100.
- Smith-McKeever, Chedgzsey, 2006. "Adoption satisfaction among African-American families adopting African-American children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 825-840, July.
- Kaushal, Neeraj & Nepomnyaschy, Lenna, 2009. "Wealth, race/ethnicity, and children's educational outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 963-971, September.
- Wilson, Samantha L. & Weaver, Terri L. & Cradock, Mary Michaeleen & Kuebli, Janet E., 2008. "A preliminary study of the cognitive and motor skills acquisition of young international adoptees," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 585-596, May.
- Groze, Victor, 1996. "A 1 and 2 year follow-up study of adoptive families and special needs children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1-2), pages 57-82.
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:35:y:2013:i:1:p:142-150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu)
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.