The authors note that Asian immigrants are a self-selecting group that may be more optimistic and motivated to accept challenges and view education as the key to social and economic mobility. But they also said that Asian and Asian-American parents were more authoritarian and less permissive than white American families. ||||| Asian-American schoolchildren tend to outperform their white counterparts in school because they try harder, according to a US study out Monday Asian-American schoolchildren tend to outperform their white counterparts in school because they try harder, according to a US study out Monday. 
 
 The findings were based on an analysis of records from two separate surveys tracking several thousand whites and Asians in the United States from kindergarten through high school. 
 
 Scientists at Queens College of New York, the University of Michigan and Peking University in Beijing looked at grades, test scores, teacher ratings, family income and education level, immigration status and other factors. 
 
 "Asian-Americans enter school with no discernible academic advantage over whites," said the study, noting that "advantage grows over time." 
 
 By fifth grade, or age 10-11, Asian-Americans "significantly outperform whites," and the peak difference is reached by grade 10, or age 15-16. 
 
 "Overall, these results suggest that the growing achievement gap can be attributed to a widening gap in academic effort rather than to differences in cognitive ability." 
 
 Asian-Americans tend to be motivated by cultural teachings that instill the notion that effort is more important than inborn ability, researchers said. 
 
 They also endure "greater parental pressures to succeed than in the case of comparable white peers." 
 
 The notion of a hard-working Asian student who is destined to succeed may be a stereotype, but it may actually work to the benefit of Asian-American youths, the researchers said. 
 
 "These positive stereotypes may help bolster Asian-American achievement just as negative stereotypes have been shown to hinder the achievement of African-American youth," said the article. 
 
 Asian-Americans' higher degree of success comes at a price, however. 
 
 Whether their family lineage traces back to the Philippines, South Asia, Southeast Asia or East Asia, these children report fewer positive feelings about themselves and say they spend less time with friends than whites, the study found. 
 
 "They also have more conflict with both parents than comparable white peers," it said. 
 
 The research was published in the May 5 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal. 
 
 Explore further: Research exposes racial discrimination against Asian-American men in job market 
 
 More information: "Explaining Asian Americans' academic advantage over whites," by Amy Hsin and Yu Xie, PNAS, 2014. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1406402111 
 

– Researchers in the US and China are investigating the roots of a school-age stereotype: Why are Asian-American students more successful than their white peers? It's not a matter of innate cognitive ability, the experts find. Instead, Asian-American students often simply try harder, the study says, via Phys.org. That effort is fueled in part by "cultural beliefs" valuing hard work: "Studies show that Asian and Asian-American students tend to view cognitive abilities as qualities that can be developed through effort, whereas white Americans tend to view cognitive abilities as qualities that are inborn." What's more, Asian-American students may have "greater parental pressures to succeed than in the case of comparable white peers." As for the stereotype itself, it may actually "bolster Asian-American achievement just as negative stereotypes have been shown to hinder the achievement of African-American youth," researchers say. But the researchers suggest that Asian-American students also have less positive views of themselves and are less "socially engaged in school than their white peers." Researchers reached their conclusions through two national studies following thousands of students over several years, the Los Angeles Times reports.