It includes data on individuals ages 15 and older, so Ramey concentrated her analysis on the time use of high school students, college students and parents.Īsian high-school students spend significantly more time studying and doing homework, Ramey found, than any other ethnic or racial group. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the survey measures the time use of thousands of individuals from 2003 to 2009 based on time diaries. To begin to answer the question of whether Asian parents and children were behaving differently, Ramey analyzed the American Time Use Survey.

Census figures show that Asians as a group are much more likely to have college degrees and also have much higher household incomes. The income gap between college and high school graduates, Ramey added, has been widening since the 1980s, and the latest U.S. In California, Asians represent 12 percent of high school graduates, but one-third of admissions to the University of California and almost half of all undergraduate admissions to UC San Diego.Īnd why does this matter? Doing better in school, Ramey said, still leads to better financial outcomes over the long haul: High school performance is an important determinant in admission to college, and going to college significantly raises one's income. The most recent academic test scores from the Program for International Student Assessment show that four of the world's five top-scoring countries are Asian countries.

The hullaballoo prompted Valerie Ramey, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, to ask: What did the data have to say?Ĭhua's book, said Ramey, struck a nerve in part because of the stereotype of Asian academic success. Columnist David Brooks of The New York Times called her a 'wimp.' Controversy over Chua's extreme parenting even reached as far as the Davos summit, where former Harvard president Larry Summers commented on the debate. In early January, Yale law professor Amy Chua published a critique of coddling Western-style parenting in The Wall Street Journal, 'Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.' The essay, summarizing her book 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother' - in which she details, among other things, how she raised her daughters in the 'traditional Chinese' way, with strict discipline and an emphasis on academic success and music lessons above all else, prohibiting TV, computer games, play dates and sleepovers - set off a media maelstrom.

A tiger mother