Ethnic Differences in Children's Intelligence Test Scores: Role of Economic Deprivation, Home Environment, and Maternal Characteristics
Abstract
We examine differences in intelligence test scores of black and white 5-year-olds. The Infant Health and Development Program data set includes 483 low birthweight premature children who were assessed with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. These children had been followed from birth, with data on neighborhood and family poverty, family structure, family resources, maternal characteristics, and home environment collected over the first 5 years of life. Black children's IQ scores were 1 SD lower than those of white children. Adjustments for ethnic differences in poverty reduced the ethnic differential by 52%. Adjustments for maternal education and whether the head of household was female did not reduce the ethnic difference further. However, differences in home environment reduced the ethnic differential by an additional 28%. Adjustments for economic and social differences in the lives of black and white children all but eliminate differences in the IQ scores between these two groups.
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- Authors
- Brooks-Gunn, J., Klebanov, P. K., & Duncan, G. J.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- ORCID
- Duncan, Greg J.
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1996-04
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 396
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1988511558
- Cited by
- 349
- References
- 81
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 17.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Public Health Service (MCJ-060515)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Keywords
- ethnic differences in intelligence, IQ, black-white disparities, economic hardship, family environment, maternal education, maternal characteristics, family structure, family resources, low birth weight, premature children, neighborhood poverty, early childhood, preschool children, Infant Health and Development Program
- MeSH terms
- Black or African American, Child, Preschool, Cultural Deprivation, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Housing, Humans, Infant, Low Birth Weight, Infant, Newborn, Infant, Premature, Intelligence, Male, Mothers, Poverty, Regression Analysis, Wechsler Scales, White People
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