scholarly journals Egalitarian Australia? Associations between family wealth and outcomes in young adulthood

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Chesters
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Young Adulthood ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Occupational Prestige ◽  
Family Wealth ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
Egalitarian Society ◽  
Parental Wealth ◽  
Using Data

Despite a widely held belief that Australia is an egalitarian society where social origin is less important than in many other advanced economies, previous research shows that there is an enduring association between socioeconomic status, as measured by parental education, and child’s educational attainment. Less attention has been paid to the effects of another indicator of socioeconomic status, namely family wealth, on educational attainment. In this article, I examine associations between parental wealth and educational attainment, occupational prestige and wealth in young adulthood using data from the Housing, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) project collected in 2002 and 2014. The results show that high levels of family wealth are associated with higher levels of educational attainment, occupational prestige and individual wealth in young adulthood.

scholarly journals Cognitive and brain development is independently influenced by socioeconomic status and polygenic scores for educational attainment

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (22) ◽  
pp. 12411-12418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Judd ◽  
Bruno Sauce ◽  
John Wiedenhoeft ◽  
Jeshua Tromp ◽  
Bader Chaarani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Cortical Surface ◽  
Cortical Surface Area ◽  
Regional Association ◽  
Polygenic Scores

Genetic factors and socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities play a large role in educational attainment, and both have been associated with variations in brain structure and cognition. However, genetics and SES are correlated, and no prior study has assessed their neural associations independently. Here we used a polygenic score for educational attainment (EduYears-PGS), as well as SES, in a longitudinal study of 551 adolescents to tease apart genetic and environmental associations with brain development and cognition. Subjects received a structural MRI scan at ages 14 and 19. At both time points, they performed three working memory (WM) tasks. SES and EduYears-PGS were correlated (r= 0.27) and had both common and independent associations with brain structure and cognition. Specifically, lower SES was related to less total cortical surface area and lower WM. EduYears-PGS was also related to total cortical surface area, but in addition had a regional association with surface area in the right parietal lobe, a region related to nonverbal cognitive functions, including mathematics, spatial cognition, and WM. SES, but not EduYears-PGS, was related to a change in total cortical surface area from age 14 to 19. This study demonstrates a regional association of EduYears-PGS and the independent prediction of SES with cognitive function and brain development. It suggests that the SES inequalities, in particular parental education, are related to global aspects of cortical development, and exert a persistent influence on brain development during adolescence.

scholarly journals Family Socioeconomic Status and Exposure to Childhood Trauma: Racial Differences

Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Childhood Trauma ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Polynomial Regression ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Minorities’ diminished returns (MDRs) refer to weaker effects of socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as parental educational attainment and family income in generating tangible childhood outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities compared to the majority group, a pattern prevalent in the US. Our existing knowledge is minimal, however, about diminished returns of family SES on reducing exposure to childhood trauma. Aim: To determine if there was a difference between non-Hispanic whites (NHW) and non-Hispanic blacks (NHB) in the effect of SES on exposure to childhood trauma among children ages 8–11 years old. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed data from 4696 NHW or NHB American 8–11-year-old children who were participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The independent variables were parental educational attainment and family income. The primary outcome was exposure to 1 or 2+ childhood traumas, measured by the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS) semi-structured interview. Polynomial regression was used for data analysis. Results: Parental education and family income had statistically significant protective (negative) effects on childhood trauma, indicating children from high income and highly educated families were exposed to a lower level of childhood trauma. However, race/ethnicity showed statistically significant interactions with parental education and family income on exposure to childhood trauma, indicating weaker protective effects of parental education and family income on reducing exposure to trauma for NHB compared to NHW children. Race-specific models showed protective effects of parental education and family income on exposure to childhood trauma for NHW but not NHB children. Conclusion: The protective effects of parental education and family income against exposure to childhood trauma are systematically diminished for NHBs compared to NHWs. To minimize the racial/ethnic health gaps, diminished returns of parental education and family income should be addressed. There is a need for programs and interventions that equalize not only SES but also the marginal returns of SES for ethnic groups. Such efforts require addressing structural and societal barriers that hinder NHB families from translating their SES resources into tangible outcomes. There is a need for studies that can minimize MDRs for NHB families, such that SES can similarly secure tangible outcomes in the presence of SES resources.

Adolescent Socioeconomic Status and Parent-Child Emotional Bonds: Reexamining Gender Differences in Mental Well-being during Young Adulthood

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renae Wilkinson ◽  
Matthew A. Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adulthood ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Emotional Bonds ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
Parent Child

Links between elevated mental well-being in adulthood and higher social and economic resources growing up are well established. However, the role of gender remains unclear, especially whether gender influences how social and economic resources interact to produce disparities in mental well-being across young adulthood. Drawing on nationally representative longitudinal data, we illuminate gender differences in mental well-being, finding that young adult mental health advantages based in adolescent socioeconomic status pivot on parent-child emotional bonds for young men only. That is, for young adult men, lessened depressive symptom frequency linked to higher parental education only appears when perceived parent-child bonds are at least moderately close. This holds even after adjusting for earlier adolescent mental well-being, suggesting a stable mechanism across the transition to adulthood. Overall, our results uphold the argument that familial social and economic resources predict mental well-being during young adulthood while revealing that relevant mechanisms may differ by gender.

scholarly journals Race, Ethnicity, Family Socioeconomic Status, and Children’s Hippocampus Volume

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. p25
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Family Socioeconomic Status ◽  
White Families ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
American Children ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Hippocampus Volume ◽  
Family Ses

Introduction: The hippocampus has a significant role in memory, learning, and cognition. Although hippocampal size is highly susceptible to family socioeconomic status (SES) and associated stress, very little is known on racial and ethnic group differences in the effects of SES indicators on hippocampus volume among American children. Purpose: This study explored the multiplicative effects of race, ethnicity, and family SES on hippocampus volume among American children. Methods: Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD), we analyzed the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data of 9390 9-10 years old children. The main outcome was hippocampus volume. The predictor was parental education. Subjective family SES was the independent variable. Age, sex, and marital status were the covariates. Racial and ethnic group membership were the moderators. To analyze the data, we used regression models. Results: High subjective family SES was associated with larger hippocampus volume. This effect was significantly larger for Whites than Black families. Conclusions: The effect of subjective family SES on children’s hippocampus volume is weaker in Black than White families.

scholarly journals Parental Education and Spanking of American Children: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. p19
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Child Exposure ◽  
White Families ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Based on the Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework, high socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as parental education shows weaker protective effects against adverse experiences for Blacks than Whites. For example, Black children with highly educated parents report high levels of depression, anxiety, suicide, smoking, obesity, and chronic disease. Limited knowledge exists on MDRs of parental education on the child’s exposure to spanking by the mother. Aims: Built on the MDRs framework, we tested the hypothesis of whether the effect of parental education on the child’s exposure to spanking by the mother differs in Black and White families. We hypothesized that: 1) there is an inverse association between mothers’ educational attainment and child spanking, and 2) the effect of mothers’ educational attainment on mothers’ spanking of the child is weaker for Black than White families. Methods: We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCWS), a 9-year follow up study of a random sample of births in cities larger than 200,000 population. In this analysis, 2722 Black or White families were followed. The main predictor was parental educational attainment at birth. The outcomes were exposure to spanking at ages 3, 5, and 9.Logisticregression was used for data analysis. Results: Higher parental educational attainment at birth was inversely associated with the child’s exposure to spanking by the mother among Whites, not Blacks. We also found a significant interaction between parental educational attainment at birth and race, suggesting that the associations between parental education and child exposure to spanking by the mother at ages3, 5, and 9were weaker for Black than White families.Conclusions: Diminished returns of parental educational attainment in terms of reducing children’s exposure to trauma and stress may be a mechanism that contributes to racial health disparities, particularly poor health of children in highly educated Black families. That is a smaller protective effect of parental education on reducing undesired exposures for Black than White children may be one of the mechanisms that may explain why children develop worse than expected physical, mental, and behavioral health in high SES Black families. Not all health disparities are due to racial differences in SES, but some of them are also secondary to the diminishing returns of socioeconomic status indicators such as parental education for racial minorities. Research should study contextual, structural, family, and behavioral factors that reduce Black families’ ability to mobilize their human capital and secure health outcomes for themselves and their children.

scholarly journals Generations of Advantage. Multigenerational Correlations in Family Wealth

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian T. Pfeffer ◽  
Alexandra A. Killewald
Keyword(s):  
Panel Study ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Income Dynamics ◽  
Family Wealth ◽  
Parental Wealth ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Unique Predictor ◽  
The Life Course

Inequality in family wealth is high, yet we know little about how much and how wealth inequality is maintained across generations. We argue that a long-term perspective reflective of wealth’s cumulative nature is crucial to understand the extent and channels of wealth reproduction across generations. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics that span nearly half a century, we show that a one decile increase in parents’ wealth position is associated with an increase of about 4 percentiles in their offspring’s wealth position in adulthood. We show that grandparental wealth is a unique predictor of grandchildren’s wealth, above and beyond the role of parental wealth, suggesting that a focus on only parent-child dyads understates the importance of family wealth lineages. Second, considering five channels of wealth transmission — gifts and bequests, education, marriage, homeownership, and business ownership — we find that most of the advantages arising from family wealth begin much earlier in the life-course than the common focus on bequests implies, even when we consider the wealth of grandparents. We also document the stark disadvantage of African-American households in terms of not only their wealth attainment but also their intergenerational wealth mobility compared to whites.

Individual Correlates of the Belief in a Just World

1984 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin B. Smith ◽  
David N. Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Occupational Prestige ◽  
Just World ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Using Data

The relationships between perceived social inequality, evaluated social inequality, the work ethic, political preference, several social-identity variables, and the belief in a just world were examined using data from a sample of 233 adults drawn from a metropolitan area. All seven variables were significantly associated with the belief in a just world except sex, educational attainment, and occupational prestige.

scholarly journals Maternal Education at Birth and Youth Breakfast Consumption at Age 15: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

J ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Shanika Boyce ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell ◽  
Ron Mincy
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Maternal Education ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
White Families ◽  
Eating Breakfast ◽  
High Level

Background: 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. Aims: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.

scholarly journals Does Life Satisfaction Mediate the Association between Socioeconomic Status and Excessive Internet Use?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (20) ◽  
pp. 3914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bitto Urbanova ◽  
Jana Holubcikova ◽  
Andrea Madarasova Geckova ◽  
Sijmen A. Reijneveld ◽  
Jitse P. van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Family Wealth ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Excessive Internet Use

Excessive Internet use is becoming a rapidly increasing problem in today’s society. Our aim was to assess the association between socioeconomic status (SES) of the family and excessive Internet use (EIU), and whether life satisfaction mediates this association. We analyzed data from a representative sample of 2844 Slovak adolescents (mean age 14.34, 50.5% boys) from the 2014 Health Behavior in School aged Children (HBSC) study, based on self-report questionnaires. We assessed the association of SES, measured by several indicators, such as perceived family wealth, parental education, and (un)employment, and adolescent EIU using linear regression, adding life satisfaction as a mediator. Adolescents whose father was unemployed and whose perceived family wealth was low tended to score higher on EIU. Neither gender nor age affected this relationship. Life satisfaction mediated a part of the association between SES and EIU in the case of low perceived family wealth and father’s (un)employment. Adolescents with a low SES are more likely to become excessive Internet users, and life satisfaction mediates this association. Prevention of EIU among adolescents should be targeted at those with low SES, with life satisfaction being the topic to address.

scholarly journals The Development of Educational Aspirations and Expectations from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study of Mexican-Origin Youth

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine M. Lawson ◽  
Olivia E. Atherton ◽  
Emilio Ferrer ◽  
Richard Robins
Keyword(s):  
Young Adulthood ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Educational Aspirations ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Mexican Origin ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Mexican Origin Youth ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Spanish Language Use

Mexican-origin youth are at increased risk for school dropout and low educational attainment. High educational aspirations and expectations provide a potential source of resilience, given that they predict positive educational outcomes. Using data from a large sample of Mexican-origin youth (N=674), we examined the development of educational aspirations (how far would you like to go in school?) and expectations (how far do you actually expect to go?) from seventh grade (Mage=12.8) to two years post-high school (Mage=19.8). Results indicate that Mexican-origin youth enter adolescence with very high aspirations and expectations, and maintain them even after transitioning into young adulthood. Several demographic and cultural factors, including parental education, family income, the cultural value of familism, ethnic identity, and Spanish language use, were associated with higher aspirations and expectations.

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