Ethnic and Environmental Influences on Mental Abilities

The extent to which ethnic group differences in intellectual test performance can be attributed to environmental forces remains unresolved. In this study, the relationship between a refined measure of the learning environment of the home and the levels and profiles of a set of mental ability scores of children from five Canadian ethnic groups was examined. After accounting for the "independent" influence of the environment, significant ethnic group differences persisted in the verbal, number, and reasoning ability scores, and in the profiles of the scores. Only for spatial ability were the ethnic group differences absorbed by the environmental differences.