Latino Kindergartners' Social Skills Found Strong

A majority of Latino children enter kindergarten with the same social skills as middle-class white children, while low-income Latinos demonstrate stronger social skills than low-income African-American kindergartners at the start of school, says a study published in the May issue of Developmental Psychology .

The article is one of seven focusing on factors leading to the success or lack of success of Latinos in school published this month in both the print and online editions of the journal. The studies show that, overall, Latino children tend to start school with some strong assets, but those early gains are likely to soon disappear if they attend low-quality schools and live in low-income neighborhoods.

“We need to get beyond this myth that low-income parents always raise disadvantaged children,” said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, who co-edited the articles and was a researcher for the study looking at kindergarteners’ skills. Latinos appear to have some cultural practices that make their children ready to learn, he said. “We were surprised by how strong these...