SGER: Birth Cohort Study of the NYU Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education: Chinese Sample

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

While conducting a large-scale birth cohort study of low-income immigrant families as part of the NSF-funded Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education, Drs. Yoshikawa and Tamis-LeMonda found that Chinese immigrant parents are sending their infants back to China during the first year of life at very high rates. This pattern has been observed in other samples of Chinese immigrants in other parts of the country, but the current research, funded by NSF Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER), is the first study to explore the predictors and consequences of these parent-child separations for very young children's development. Attachment theory predicts that these children may suffer emotional difficulties due to very early separation from their parents. On the other hand, more extended social networks in their Chinese family environments may mean a richer language environment. This study will examine the circumstances surrounding infants being sent back to China -- including reasons for the sending, learning and caregiving environments while they are in China, communication of the parents with their children's caregivers while they are there, and potential consequences post-separation. This study will shed new light on an increasingly common transnational pattern among the largest Asian immigrant group to the United States, one that has never been studied in research to date. The data will contribute to knowledge about developmental and learning processes in an understudied group, and will ultimately help inform how learning in young children from immigrant families can best be facilitated, given their increasingly complex transnational movements.