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Parental Education Better Helps White than Black Families Escape Poverty: National Survey of Children’s Health

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  • Shervin Assari

    (Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
    Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

Abstract

According to the Blacks’ Diminished Return theory, the health effects of high socioeconomic status (SES) are systemically smaller for Black compared to White families. One hypothesis is that due to the existing structural racism that encompasses residential segregation, low quality of education, low paying jobs, discrimination in the labor market, and extra costs of upward social mobility for minorities, Black families face more challenges for leveraging their education to escape poverty. Aims: Using a nationally representative sample of American families with children, this study investigated racial variation in the effects of highest education of parents on family’s ability to scale poverty, defined as the household’s income-to-needs ratio. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) 2003–2004—a nationally representative telephone survey that included 86,537 parents of children 0–17 years old. The sample was composed of White ( n = 76,403, 88.29%) and Black ( n = 10,134, 11.71%) families. The independent variable was highest education of the parents. The dependent variable was household poverty status (income-to-needs ratio). Race was the focal moderator. Linear regression was used in the pooled sample, as well as by race. Results: In the pooled sample, higher education of parents in the household was associated with lower risk of poverty. Race, however, interacted with parental education attainment on household-income-to-needs ratio, indicating smaller effects for Black compared to White families. Lower number of parents and higher number of children in Black families did not explain such racial disparities. Conclusions: The economic gain of parental education on helping family escape poverty is smaller for Black than White families, and this is not as a result of a lower parent-to-child ratio in Black households. Policies should specifically address structural barriers in the lives of all minorities to minimize the diminished return of SES resources across racial minority groups. Policies should also enhance quality of education and reduce the extra cost of upward social mobility for racial minorities. As the likely causes are multilevel, the solutions should also be multilevel. Without such interventions, it may be very difficult if not impossible to eliminate the existing economic and health gap between racial groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Shervin Assari, 2018. "Parental Education Better Helps White than Black Families Escape Poverty: National Survey of Children’s Health," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-14, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:6:y:2018:i:2:p:30-:d:144897
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    Cited by:

    1. Islam, Samiha & Jaffee, Sara R., 2024. "Social mobility and mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    2. Shervin Assari & Shanika Boyce & Mohsen Bazargan & Ron Mincy & Cleopatra H. Caldwell, 2019. "Unequal Protective Effects of Parental Educational Attainment on the Body Mass Index of Black and White Youth," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-14, September.
    3. Darrell Hudson & Tina Sacks & Katie Irani & Antonia Asher, 2020. "The Price of the Ticket: Health Costs of Upward Mobility among African Americans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Aysun Gündoğan, 2022. "“Hear my Voice”: Subjective Well-Being Scale for Young Children (SWB-YC)," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 747-761, June.
    5. Shervin Assari & Jalal Haidar, 2018. "History of Non-Fatal Physical Assault Is Associated with Premature Mortality for Whites but Not Blacks," J, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-13, September.
    6. Shervin Assari & Shanika Boyce & Mohsen Bazargan & Cleopatra H. Caldwell & Ron Mincy, 2020. "Maternal Education at Birth and Youth Breakfast Consumption at Age 15: Blacks’ Diminished Returns," J, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-11, September.
    7. Hafifa Siddiq & Babak Najand, 2022. "Immigration Status, Socioeconomic Status, and Self-Rated Health in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-12, November.

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