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Does Parent Education Moderate the Effect of Adoptive Parents’ Race on Math Ability?
Meng Hu
Published: 2023/06/01
Abstract
Few studies have examined the effect of the adoptive parents’ race on the adopted adolescent’s achievement test scores. Because there are differences in education levels across races among parents, one wonders whether parents’ race predicts the adolescent’s ability after accounting for parent education. The current study investigates the effect of adoptive parents’ race on adolescents’ math ability, separately by race of the adopted adolescents, with and without controlling for parent education levels. The findings from multiple regressions indicate that adoptive parents’ race is strongly associated with math scores, but that parent education does not moderate the large coefficient of the parents’ race variable. Possible unmeasured factors are discussed as explanations of the observed parental race effect. Keywords: Cognitive ability, Race, Parenting, Adoption
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