Assari Shervin
Department of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
World J Educ Res. 2020;7(3):1-18. doi: 10.22158/wjer.v7n3p1. Epub 2020 Jun 28.
Based on the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework, indicators of high socioeconomic status (SES), such as high maternal educational attainment, show weaker protective effects on various developmental, behavioral, and health outcomes for Black than White families. As a result of these MDRs, families and individuals with high educational attainment still report high levels of depression, smoking, obesity, and chronic disease. Limited knowledge exists on MDRs of maternal education on indicators of wealth such as home ownership and home value.
Built on the MDRs framework, we tested the hypothesis of whether the effects of maternal educational attainment at birth on home ownership and home value, as proxies of wealth, vary between Black and White families. We hypothesized that: 1) high maternal education would be associated with more wealth 15 years later, and 2) compared to Whites, Blacks would be less likely to accumulate wealth (own a house) across all educational levels, given a weaker boosting effect of maternal educational attainment on wealth for Black than White families.
The Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, is a 15-year follow up study of a random sample of births in cities larger than 200,000 population in the US. A total number of 2004 White or Black youth were included and were followed from birth to the age of 15. The predictor of interest was maternal educational attainment at birth, treated as a categorical variable (college graduation). The outcomes were home ownership and home value (worth - owed) 15 years later, as proxies of wealth. Logistic and linear regression were used for data analysis.
High maternal education at birth was associated with home ownership and higher value of owned home at age 15. We also found that maternal educational attainment at birth and race interact with each other, suggesting that the effects of high maternal educational attainment at birth on home ownership/value at age 15 were weaker for Black than White families.
Diminished returns of maternal educational attainment at birth on wealth accumulation in Black families may be a mechanism that contributes to racial health disparities in high socioeconomic status and also poor outcomes of high SES Black families. That is, a smaller effect of maternal educational attainment on changing the real lives of Black than White youth may be one of the mechanisms by which health remains worse than expected in high SES Black families. Not all of the health, behavioral, and developmental disparities are due to the racial gap in SES but also diminishing returns of socioeconomic status indicators such as maternal educational attainment for racial minorities. Research should study how social stratification, discriminatory mortgage and banking, residential segregation, family formation, employment, and occupational prestige reduce Black families' ability to mobilize their human capital and secure tangible economic and non-economic outcomes.
基于少数族裔回报递减（MDRs）框架，高社会经济地位（SES）指标，如母亲高教育程度，对黑人家庭各种发育、行为和健康结果的保护作用比对白人家庭弱。由于这些MDRs，高教育程度的家庭和个人仍报告有高水平的抑郁、吸烟、肥胖和慢性病。关于母亲教育程度对房屋所有权和房屋价值等财富指标的MDRs的了解有限。
基于MDRs框架，我们检验了出生时母亲教育程度对房屋所有权和房屋价值（作为财富代理指标）的影响在黑人和白人家庭中是否存在差异的假设。我们假设：1）母亲高教育程度与15年后更多财富相关；2）与白人相比，黑人在所有教育水平上积累财富（拥有房屋）的可能性较小，因为母亲教育程度对黑人家庭财富的促进作用比对白人家庭弱。
脆弱家庭与儿童福祉研究是一项对美国人口超过20万的城市中随机抽取的出生样本进行的15年随访研究。共纳入2004名白人或黑人青年，从出生到15岁进行跟踪。感兴趣的预测因素是出生时母亲的教育程度，作为分类变量（大学毕业）。结果是15年后的房屋所有权和房屋价值（净值），作为财富代理指标。采用逻辑回归和线性回归进行数据分析。
出生时母亲高教育程度与15岁时的房屋所有权和自有房屋更高价值相关。我们还发现出生时母亲的教育程度和种族相互作用，这表明出生时母亲高教育程度对15岁时房屋所有权/价值的影响对黑人家庭比对白人家庭弱。
出生时母亲教育程度对黑人家庭财富积累的回报递减可能是导致高社会经济地位下种族健康差距以及高SES黑人家庭不良结果的一种机制。也就是说，母亲教育程度对改变黑人青年现实生活的影响比对白人青年小，这可能是高SES黑人家庭健康状况仍比预期差的机制之一。并非所有的健康、行为和发育差距都归因于SES的种族差距，但社会经济地位指标（如母亲教育程度）对少数族裔的回报也在递减。研究应探讨社会分层、歧视性的抵押贷款和银行业务、居住隔离、家庭形成、就业和职业声望如何降低黑人家庭调动其人力资本并获得切实经济和非经济成果的能力。
