Educational outcomes of Asian and Hispanic Americans: The significance of skin color

Existing evidence suggests that skin tone is an important determinant of one's life chances. Although social science research has a strong tradition of elucidating the link between race and educational outcomes, the effect of skin color on educational attainment has not received adequate attention. The main objective of the present investigation was, using a national representative longitudinal data, to evaluate educational attainment of Asian American and Hispanic young adults in the United States as a function of skin tone and other co-variates. Separate analyses were carried out for Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, other Hispanics, East Asian, Filipino American and other Asians. Additional analyses were conducted on a subsample of sibling pairs of Asian and Hispanic origin. Control variables included family socio-economic background, parental involvement, family social support, average school SES and others. Although we observed a certain degree of cross-ethnic heterogeneity, the results consistently point to a strong association between educational attainment and the lightness of skin tone. The findings also suggest that the aforementioned relationship is the strongest among U.S. young adults of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent.