Researchers have sought to understand why cognitive skill disparities between black and white children persist in American society, but the most thorough examinations study school-aged children during a period when the black/white skill gap is already well established. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort of 2001, we find trivial black/white differences in cognitive skills at 10 months of age but large disparities at 24 and 48 months, suggesting that the gap emerges in force between 10 months and age four. Although black/white differences in parenting are a powerful predictor, these variations are driven by socioeconomic and related factors that directly and indirectly shape cognitive development gaps between black and white children.
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