Mexican-origin Participation in Pre-kindergarten Care and Education: The Role of Family Necessity

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 20. Early Education

Abstract

Children of Mexican origin exhibit gaps in academic performance with their non-Latino peers throughout the educational pipeline, with disparities emerging even prior to kindergarten. Although early formal childcare and education hold great promise in attenuating these gaps, children of Mexican origin are less likely to attend pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs than their peers. This study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to evaluate selection into formal early childcare and education among 4 year-old children from Mexican-origin, white, and black households. We evaluate how factors related to “family necessity,” including children’s need for educational enrichment and parents’ need for childcare, impact the selection of children of Mexican origin into non-parental care and formal early care and education. Results indicate that factors related to both child and parental necessity are associated with selection into non-parental care and formal care and education for children of Mexican origin, as well as for their peers. Among children in Mexican-origin, white, and black households, the likelihood of enrolling in pre-K is higher among children that have high mental skills, among children with working mothers, and among children in households where a father is absent. White and black children that have a higher number of siblings are less likely to attend pre-K, but number of siblings is not strongly related to pre-K attendance for Mexican-origin children. Even though family necessity is predictive of pre-K attendance for children of Mexican origin, these households have lower observed levels of family necessity than white households.

Authors

• Elizabeth Ackert, University of Texas at Austin

• Robert Wayne Ressler, University of Texas at Austin

• Arya Ansari, University of Texas-Austin

• Lilla Pivnick, University of Texas at Austin

• Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin