| Brian Powell
Indiana University
Parental involvement, educational investment, and school outcomes of young children from biracial families
FINAL REPORT:
The addition of new racial categories in the Census 2000 has triggered a great deal of public attention regarding the multiracial population. From 1970 to 2000, the population of multiracial children has grown sixfoldÑmaking it the most rapidly increasing racial group in the United States. For educational scholars, the emergence of this new racial group suggests a new research direction. To the extent that race matters, as suggested by educational scholars, children from multiracial families offer quite different but important challenges for our understanding of parental involvement/investments and their links to children's schooling. Within these families, parental decisions and behaviors may be made through a negotiation of at least two sets of values, experiences, and traditions, which may be further complicated by the sex/race composition of the family. The dynamics of a white-father/black-mother household, for example, may deviate from those of a black-father/white-mother household.
In this research project, we examine one arena in which children from biracial families may be advantaged (or disadvantaged) over their peers from monoracial families. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), we assess the extent to which biracial families differ from monoracial familes in their transmission or allocation of resources, very broadly defined, to young children. In these analyses, we demonstrate the utility of distinguishing not only between white-biracial and non-white biracial families but also between even more refined measures of biracial families. Using 240 statistical models of ten categories of biracial families and twelve sets of economic, cultural, and social/interactional resources, we find that biracial families' provision of resourcesÑespecially economic and cultural one--typically is at least on par and often greater than that of their monoracial counterparts. These general patterns remain even after sociodemographic factors are taken into consideration. Additional analyses indicate not only that these resources play an integral roles in the educational profile of youths (regardless of their racial background) but that racial differences in parental investments are an important factor in racial differences in children's educational performance. We offer and assess two explanations for these patterns: (1) a selectivity explanation that suggests that individuals who enter interracial marriages are qualitatively different than those who enter monoracial marriages; and (2) a "compensatory" explanation in which parents from biracial households, cognizant of the disadvantages or marginality of their children, provide more resources to their children in order to compensate for their children's putative disadvantage.
This study makes two important contributions. First, our focus on children of multiracial backgrounds fills a critical gap in the educational literature and will provide a reference of educators in dealing with the potential unique schooling experiences encountered by this understudied group. Second, our comprehensive examination of a wide range of educational investments and various school outcomes will help policy makers identify the aspects that may more effectively promote the educational performances of children from bi/multiracial families, as well as families from other racial/ethnic backgrounds.
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