Assari Shervin, Sonnega Amanda, Najand Babak, Zare Hossein
Department of Internal Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Department of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
J Biomed Life Sci. 2025;5(1):14-29. doi: 10.31586/jbls.2025.1145. Epub 2025 Feb 10.
While educational attainment is generally associated with reduced reliance on Social Security and disability benefits, Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) theory suggests that the socioeconomic benefits of educational attainment are not equally distributed across racial groups and are weaker for minoritized populations. This study explores the association between educational attainment and reliance on Social Security and disability benefits among Black and White adults in the United States.
Building on the MDRs framework, we analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2023 to examine how educational attainment impacts reliance on Social Security disability income, disability benefits, and public assistance for Black and White adults.
We used a nationally representative sample of Black and White adults from the NHIS 2023 dataset. The outcomes assessed were reliance on three income sources: (1) Social Security disability income, (2) disability benefit income, and (3) public assistance disability income. Educational attainment was classified into three levels: less than high school (reference), high school diploma to some college, and college graduate or more. Logistic regression models assessed the relationship between educational attainment and reliance on each income source, with separate analyses for Black and White adults to evaluate differential effects.
Higher levels of educational attainment (high school diploma to some college and college graduate or more) were associated with lower odds of relying on Social Security disability, disability benefits, and public assistance. However, the protective effects of educational attainment were notably stronger for White adults than for Black adults. Among Black adults, even high educational attainment showed limited effectiveness in reducing reliance on these income sources, underscoring the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) phenomenon.
Although educational attainment reduces reliance on Social Security and disability-related income sources, these protective effects are less pronounced for Black adults compared to White adults. The findings reveal persistent racial disparities in the economic returns of education, suggesting that structural factors may undermine the socioeconomic and health benefits of educational achievement for Black Americans. Targeted policy interventions may be needed to improve economic stability for Black adults, including those with higher educational credentials.
虽然受教育程度通常与减少对社会保障和残疾福利的依赖有关，但少数族裔回报递减（MDRs）理论表明，受教育程度带来的社会经济利益在不同种族群体中分配不均，对少数族裔群体来说更为微弱。本研究探讨了美国黑人和白人成年人的受教育程度与对社会保障和残疾福利的依赖之间的关联。
基于少数族裔回报递减框架，我们分析了2023年国家健康访谈调查（NHIS）的数据，以研究受教育程度如何影响黑人和白人成年人对社会保障残疾收入、残疾福利和公共援助的依赖。
我们使用了NHIS 2023数据集里具有全国代表性的黑人和白人成年人样本。评估的结果是对三种收入来源的依赖：（1）社会保障残疾收入，（2）残疾福利收入，以及（3）公共援助残疾收入。受教育程度分为三个水平：高中以下（参照组）、高中文凭至部分大学学历、大学毕业及以上。逻辑回归模型评估了受教育程度与对每种收入来源的依赖之间的关系，并分别对黑人和白人成年人进行分析以评估差异效应。
较高的受教育程度（高中文凭至部分大学学历以及大学毕业及以上）与依赖社会保障残疾、残疾福利和公共援助的较低几率相关。然而，受教育程度的保护作用对白人成年人的显著强于黑人成年人。在黑人成年人中，即使是高受教育程度在减少对这些收入来源的依赖方面也显示出有限的效果，突出了少数族裔回报递减现象。
虽然受教育程度会减少对社会保障和与残疾相关收入来源的依赖，但与白人成年人相比，这些保护作用对黑人成年人来说不那么明显。研究结果揭示了教育经济回报方面持续存在的种族差异，表明结构性因素可能会削弱美国黑人教育成就带来的社会经济和健康益处。可能需要有针对性的政策干预措施来改善黑人成年人的经济稳定性，包括那些具有较高教育资历的人。
