Parental Human Capital and Adolescents' Executive Function: Immigrants' Diminished Returns

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• Racial minorities, especially non-Hispanic Blacks, experience weaker socioeconomic position (SEP) effects on outcomes (Minorities' Diminished Returns - MDRs).
• MDRs are observed in immigrant adolescents' school performance, leading to worse-than-expected cognitive outcomes.
• The role of executive function in explaining MDRs for family SEP is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate racial differences in parental human capital's effect on adolescents' executive function.
• To compare non-Hispanic White non-immigrant and immigrant adolescents regarding parental human capital and executive function.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional analysis of 2,723 non-twin non-Hispanic White adolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
• Parental educational attainment (human capital) as the independent variable.
• Adolescents' executive function measured by the stop-signal task (SST).

Main Results:

• Higher parental human capital was associated with better executive function.
• Immigration status interacted with parental human capital, showing smaller gains in executive function for immigrants.
• The positive effect of parental human capital on executive function is diminished for immigrant adolescents.

Conclusions:

• Immigrant adolescents experience diminished returns of parental human capital on executive function compared to non-immigrants.
• Policies must address structural barriers (e.g., racism, discrimination) to equalize resource utilization and outcomes.
• Achieving equitable outcomes requires equalizing not just SEP but also the marginal returns of existing SEP for all families.