Assari Shervin, Boyce Shanika, Bazargan Mohsen, Caldwell Cleopatra H, Mincy Ron
Department of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
Department of Public Health, Charles R. Drew University, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA.
J (Basel). 2020 Sep;3(3):313-323. doi: 10.3390/j3030024. Epub 2020 Sep 16.
Based on the Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework, high socioeconomic status (SES) such as parental education shows weaker effects for Blacks than Whites. For example, high SES Black individuals report a high level of depression, anxiety, suicide, chronic disease, smoking, and mortality. Limited knowledge exists on MDRs of parental education on dietary behavior.
Built on the MDRs framework, we tested the hypothesis of whether the effect of parental education on eating breakfast differs for Black compared to White families. We hypothesized that there is an association between mothers' educational attainment and eating breakfast and compared Blacks and Whites for the effect of mothers' educational attainment on the frequency of eating breakfast.
The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is a 15-year follow up study of a random sample of births in cities larger than 200,000 population. The predictor was parental education at birth. The outcome was the frequency of eating breakfast at age 15. Linear regression was used for data analysis.
Maternal educational attainment at birth was positively associated with youth frequency of eating breakfast among Whites, not Blacks. We also found a significant interaction between maternal educational attainment at birth and race, suggesting that the association between maternal education and youth frequency of eating breakfast at age 15 was weaker for Black than White families.
Diminished returns of maternal educational attainment on healthy youth diet may contribute to the racial disparities in poor health of high SES Black families. That is, a smaller protective effect of maternal education on changing health behaviors for Black than White youth may be one of the mechanisms by which health is worse than expected in high SES Black families. The health disparities are not only due to racial differences in SES but also the diminishing returns of socioeconomic status indicators such as education for racial minorities. Research should study contextual and structural factors that reduce Black families' ability to mobilize their human capital and secure health outcomes in urban settings.
基于边缘化相关收益递减（MDRs）框架，诸如父母教育程度之类的高社会经济地位（SES）对黑人的影响比对白人的影响要弱。例如，高SES的黑人个体报告有高水平的抑郁、焦虑、自杀、慢性病、吸烟和死亡率。关于父母教育对饮食行为的MDRs的知识有限。
基于MDRs框架，我们检验了与白人家庭相比，父母教育对黑人家庭吃早餐的影响是否存在差异这一假设。我们假设母亲的教育程度与吃早餐之间存在关联，并比较了黑人和白人家庭中母亲教育程度对吃早餐频率的影响。
脆弱家庭与儿童福利研究是一项对人口超过20万的城市中出生的随机样本进行的为期15年的跟踪研究。预测因素是出生时父母的教育程度。结果是15岁时吃早餐的频率。使用线性回归进行数据分析。
出生时母亲的教育程度与白人青少年吃早餐的频率呈正相关，与黑人则不然。我们还发现出生时母亲的教育程度与种族之间存在显著交互作用，这表明在15岁时，母亲教育与青少年吃早餐频率之间的关联对黑人家庭比对白人家庭要弱。
母亲教育程度对健康青少年饮食的收益递减可能导致高SES黑人家庭健康状况的种族差异。也就是说，母亲教育对改变黑人青少年健康行为的保护作用小于白人青少年，这可能是高SES黑人家庭健康状况比预期更差的机制之一。健康差异不仅是由于SES的种族差异，还由于诸如教育等社会经济地位指标对少数族裔的收益递减。研究应探讨在城市环境中降低黑人家庭调动其人力资本并确保健康结果能力的背景和结构因素。
