The Development and Home Environments of Low-Income Hispanic Children: Kindergarten to Third Grade

Individual and family-level factors are linked to the healthy development of Hispanic^a children.^11-14 At the individual level, children who succeed academically and have strong interpersonal skills tend to fare well across the course of their lives.^1,9,10 Importantly, these successes and skills are shaped by the family or home environments in which children grow up—both by family resources (e.g., family structure and parental education)^2,16,19 and by engagement in cognitively stimulating activities (e.g., reading, counting games)^15-18. It is often challenging to disentangle individual from family-level factors, but examining both simultaneously can help stakeholders—including teachers, policymakers, and parents—determine how to strategically allocate often limited resources aimed at supporting Hispanic children and families.

This brief used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011) to describe the academic achievement, social skills, and family environment of low-income^b Hispanic children from kindergarten through third grade, as compared to their white and black peers. Specifically, this brief addresses the following questions:

• How do low-income Hispanic children’s academic and social skills from kindergarten entry through third grade compare to those of their non-Hispanic white and black peers
• How do low-income Latino children’s family resources (i.e., family structure, parental education) and engagement in cognitively stimulating activities (e.g., reading, counting games) compare to those of their white and black peers?