Sibling and family environment correlates of children's achievement: ethnic group differences

Abstract

SummaryRegression surface analysis was used to examine relationships between sibling variables and measures of cognitive performance at different levels of family environment measures, for children from different Australian ethnic groups. Included in the sample were 460 Anglo-Australian, 170 Greek, and 120 Southern Italian families. Each family had an 11-year-old child and interviews with parents related to those children. There were no associations between the sibling variables and intellectual ability scores. For word-test scores the findings provided some tentative support for an admixture explanation of sibling correlates of children's cognitive performance. Generally, the study revealed that at different levels of family environment dimensions, sibling variables had few associations with various cognitive measures for children from different ethnic groups.