謝宇最新研究揭示：亞裔美國學生為何比白人成績好？

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亞裔美國學生為何總體上要比白人學生學習成績好？就此普遍存在的現象，普林斯頓大學社會學和國際研究Bert G. Kerstetter "66大學教授、北京大學千人計劃講座教授和社會研究中心主任謝宇和密西根大學的研究生柳皚然，在7月出版的《社會科學研究》雜誌（Social Science Research）上發表了最新研究工作，並就此接受普林斯頓大學官網的採訪，深入探討了經濟因素和文化因素是如何交互作用而對亞裔學生的成績優勢產生影響。

撰文 | Michael Hotchkiss

翻譯 | 柳皚然

為什麼亞裔美國學生總體上要比白人學生學習成績好呢？

一直以來，研究人員認為亞裔美國學生比白人學生成績好主要有兩個原因：首先，美國社會中亞裔家庭大都具備更加優越的社會經濟條件；其次，從價值理念上講，亞裔家庭比起其它族裔更重視孩子們學業上的成功。

普利斯頓大學社會學系的謝宇教授和密西根大學的研究生柳皚然在他們最近的研究中更進一步探討了這些經濟因素和文化因素是如何交互作用而對亞裔學生的成績優勢產生影響的。謝宇是普林斯頓大學Bert G. Kerstetter "66 社會學和普林斯頓國際和區域研究所教授。

?家庭社會經濟狀況與學生成績差異關係的四種可能

「如果你問亞裔學生和白人學生的成績差異到底如何，實際上，如果白人學生和亞裔學生都來自具有較高社會經濟地位和家長受過較好教育的家庭，那麼他們的成績並沒有很明顯的差異。」謝宇接著說，「但是，他們如果來自貧困的家庭，或者是家長沒有接受過很高教育的家庭的話，亞裔學生和白人學生的成績差別將會是很大的。在這部分低社會經濟地位的群體中，族裔間的成績差異十分明顯。」

謝宇接著說：「所以，儘管在來自優越條件家庭的亞裔學生和白人學生之間成績差異很小，然而來自較差家庭條件的亞裔學生，比起來自同等家庭條件的白人學生而言，在學校學習方面表現更優。這一部分亞裔學生在學校學習上的成功可以歸結為他們自己和他們的家庭對於刻苦努力和教育成就的強調和重視。」

?社會心理及家庭的社會經濟狀況等因素對學生成績的影響

這個名為「為什麼亞裔學生比白人學生學習成績更高？——文化角度的重新考察」的研究詳細探討了這些差異，並發表於7月的《社會科學研究》雜誌（Social Science Research）上。

謝宇和柳皚然使用了美國教育縱貫研究調查的數據，對其中9000個美國十年級的亞裔和白人學生做了分析。這個調查是美國國家教育統計數據中心自2002年起開始所做的具有全美代表性的調查。調查中不僅收集了學生們的學習成績信息，還收集了他們的學習態度、學生自身以及家長的教育期望、學生在學校的行為等信息。

在他們的研究中，謝宇和柳皚然使用了調查中的數學測試、語文測試以及在校總平均成績（GPA）來衡量學生的教育成就。他們發現亞裔學生的家庭社會經濟條件實際上比白人學生要差，但是亞裔學生學習成績卻比白人學生更好。並且，相比起白人學生，亞裔學生在自評的努力程度以及接受優良教育的重要性這兩方面得分更高。總體上，社會經濟地位和學習成績之間的聯繫在亞裔學生中間更弱。

正如文章中所寫，研究的結果「支持了我們的論點：比起白人學生，亞裔美國學生的學習態度和行為更不易受到家庭社會經濟地位的影響。這種族裔間的差別某種程度上導致了亞裔學生在學業上的優勢，尤其是在來自低社會經濟地位家庭的這部分學生中亞裔學生的優勢。」

紐約城市大學皇后學院的社會學系助理教授Amy Hsin 說：「這個新的研究很重要。之前的研究顯示亞裔學生在學業上的成就大部分可以歸結於他們家庭優越的經濟條件，然而柳和謝的研究卻提供了有力的證據證明之前的這個論點是有問題的。如他們研究中所示，事實上，亞裔學生相對於白人學生的整體成績優勢主要源於低社會經濟水平學生群體中亞裔學生相對於白人學生的成績優勢。」Amy之前和謝宇也在這個領域有過其他的合作研究。Hsin接著說，「柳和謝的研究凸顯了社會因素對於更好地理解低社會經濟水平亞裔學生學業成功的重要性。」

謝宇說，這個研究說明學生的學業成就不一定完全歸結為學生家庭的經濟背景，「如果孩子們認為他們能通過教育擺脫貧困的束縛，這將是一個很好的事情」。

在未來的研究中，謝宇希望能夠更加細緻地研究亞裔群體的內部差異，並且希望能夠找到更好的測量變數去衡量諸如個人抱負、抗打擊力和自覺性等非智力能力。

英文原文報道

Economics, culture intersect to shape

Asian Americans" academic advantage

Michael Hotchkiss

Why do Asian American students, on average, outperform their white classmates?

Researchers have long pointed to two explanations: Asian Americans families are comparatively well-off and they place a stronger emphasis on academic success for their children.

New research by Princeton sociologist Yu Xie and University of Michigan graduate student Airan Liu paints a more complicated picture of how these economic and cultural forces interact.

"If you ask the question of how Asians differ from whites, they actually don"t differ much if they"re all from high socio-economic, well-educated families," said Xie, the Bert G. Kerstetter "66 University Professor of Sociology and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. "They differ a lot if they come from families that are poor or uneducated. For children from those families, racial differences are pronounced."

So while the gap in academic achievement between white students from well-off and well-educated families and similar Asian American students is small, Xie said, Asian American students from poor families are much more likely to perform well academically than their white counterparts. The success of these Asian American students can be traced to the premium they and their families place on hard work and academic achievement, he said.

The research is detailed in an article titled "Why do Asian Americans academically outperform Whites? — The cultural explanation revisited," published this month in the journal Social Science Research.

Xie and Liu examined data on roughly 9,000 white and Asian American 10th-grade students from the Educational Longitudinal Study, a nationally representative survey that began in 2002. The survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, collected information about the students" academic performance as well as their work ethic, the educational expectations of the students and their parents, and the students" behavior in school.

The researchers found that Asian American students had lower socio-economic status (SES) than the white students in the survey but enjoyed greater academic achievement, as measured by math scores, reading scores and GPA. Asian American students rated higher on self-reported hard work and importance placed on a good education. Overall, the link between socio-economic status and academic achievement was weaker for Asian American students than for white students.

The findings "support our argument that Asian Americans" behaviors and attitudes are less influenced by family SES than those of whites are and this difference helps generate Asians" premium in achievement — as is especially evident at lower levels of SES," the researchers write in the article.

The new research is important because some previous work has suggested that the relative wealth of Asian Americans is responsible for their academic success, said Amy Hsin, an assistant professor of sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, who collaborated with Xie on prior research in this area.

"Liu and Xie offer compelling evidence that the opposite is true, namely, that it is the success of the most disadvantaged Asian Americans that drives Asian American achievement," Hsin said. "Their findings highlight the importance of better understanding the social conditions that facilitate the academic success of disadvantaged Asian Americans."

Xie said the research offers evidence that academic success need not be linked exclusively to a student"s economic background.

"If children believe they can escape the traps of poverty by education, that"s a good thing," he said.

In future research, Xie said he hopes to examine differences among Asian American groups more closely and to find better measures of noncognitive skills — such as ambition, resilience and conscientiousness — that lead to academic success.

英文原文報道發表在普林斯頓大學網站，點擊文末「閱讀原文」可見。