Original ArticlePhysical and Mental Health Disparities among Young Children of Asian Immigrants
Section snippets
Methods
Data were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) of 1998-1999 base-year public use data file. The ECLS-K study is a longitudinal study sponsored by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. The study followed a nationally representative cohort of children from kindergarten through grade 5, using a multistage probability sample design to select a nationally representative sample of children attending kindergarten in
Group Differences in Financial, Social, and Human Capital
Table II (available at www.jpeds.com) presents group comparison results. In general, compared with the US-born white reference group, Asian families had relatively low financial capital. Asian families were more likely to be poor and to use social services, with these differences mostly accounted for by the south Asian and southeast Asian groups. In contrast, east Asian, US-born Asian, and mixed Asian families were not significantly different than US-born white families on most indicators of
Discussion
This study examined the physical and mental health of young Asian children to identify areas of disparities, while taking into account the financial, social, and human capital of families. In the domain of mental health, Asian children had greater self-control and were less likely to have externalizing problems at school compared with US-born white children. Given their cultural values of respect and social harmony,30 it is possible that Asian parents socialize their children with a greater
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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.