Family background, parenting practices, and child outcomes: Chinese migrants' offspring in Hong Kong

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  • 1 Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    2 Division of Social Science and Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

Online published: 2019-07-01

Supported by

The work described in this paper was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Early Career Scheme 21402914 [to Zhang] and General Research Fund 16600218 [to Xu]). Xu also acknowledges financial support from the Institute for Advanced Study, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Abstract

Using data from the 2011 population census and the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics, this paper examines the academic performance and non-cognitive skills of the children of Chinese migrants in Hong Kong aged 14 and below. Our analyses show that the poorer academic performance of Chinese migrants' children results mainly from disadvantageous family background and parenting practices. Children of crossborder and migrant families do not differ from children of natives in Chinese, mathematics, or English, once parental education and parent-child communication about school life are controlled for. Children from migrant families have significantly higher levels of non-cognitive ability than children of natives. Our analyses also show that parental education is positively associated with Chinese and English performances; parents talking with children about school life significantly improves children's performance in Chinese, mathematics, and English; and parental migrant status and parenting practices have positive effects on non-cognitive skills.

Cite this article

Zhuoni Zhang, Tianzhu Nie and Duoduo Xu . Family background, parenting practices, and child outcomes: Chinese migrants' offspring in Hong Kong[J]. Chinese journal of sociology, 2019 , 5(3) : 263 -282 . DOI: 10.1177/0018726718823149

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