Gendered Diverging Destinies: Changing Family Structures and the Reproduction of Educational Inequalities Among Sons and Daughters in the United States

The prevalence of nontraditional family structures has increased over time, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Because children's socioeconomic attainments are positively associated with growing up in a two-parent household, changing family structures are considered to have strengthened the reproduction of social inequalities across generations. However, several studies have shown that childhood family structure relates differently to educational outcomes for sons than for daughters. Therefore, we ask whether there are gender differences in the extent to which changing family structures have contributed to the college attainment gap between children from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts to estimate extended Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition models that take into account cross-cohort changes in the prevalence of family structures and heterogeneity in the effects of childhood family structure on college attainment. We find that the argument that changes in family structures contributed to diverging destinies in college attainment holds for daughters but not for sons. This result is due to the different changes over time in the effects of childhood family structure by gender and socioeconomic background.

Not by g alone: The benefits of a college education among individuals with low levels of general cognitive ability

In a longitudinal sample of 2593 individuals, we investigated the frequency individuals with IQs ≤ 90 completed college and whether these individuals experienced the same social and economic benefits higher-IQ college graduates did. Although the majority of individuals with IQs ≤ 90 did not have a college degree, approximately one in three women and one in five men did. The magnitude of the college effect on occupational status, income, financial independence and law abidingness was independent of IQ level, a finding replicated using the longitudinal NLSY97 sample. Additional analyses suggested the association of college with occupational status was causal and that the educational success of individuals with low average IQs may depend on personality factors, family socioeconomic status and genetic endowment. We discuss our finding in the context of the recent expansion in college attainment as well as the dearth of research on individuals with low average IQs.

Risk, the College Premium, and Aggregate Human Capital Investment

Despite increases in the college earnings premium to persistently high levels, investment in college education remains low. We can understand this apparent puzzle by considering the risk of attending college and, in particular, the possibility of failing to graduate. Students with a reasonable probability of completing college already enroll, and for those who do not enroll, the low chance of completion blunts the impact of the rising college premium. In the absence of improved college readiness, our quantitative results suggest that continuing long-standing trends in skill-biased technological change can be expected primarily to increase earnings inequality rather than college attainment. (JEL E24, I22, I23, J24, J31, O33)

Black–White Differences in the Link Between Offspring College Attainment and Parents’ Depressive Symptom Trajectories

This study examines whether the relationship between children’s college attainment and their parents’ mental health differs for Black and White parents as they age. Data come from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and multilevel growth curve models are used to assess parents’ depressive symptom trajectories. Results indicated that parents over age 50 whose children all completed college had significantly lower initial levels of depressive symptoms than those with no college-educated children. The initial benefit was stronger for Blacks than Whites. Results stratified further by parents’ education show that Black parents at nearly all levels of schooling experienced stronger returns to their mental health from children’s college completion compared to White parents, for whom only those with a high school education showed an inverse association between offspring education and depression symptoms. The findings underscore how offspring education is a potential resource for reducing disparities in health across families.

Experimentally Estimated Impacts of School Vouchers on Educational Attainments of Moderately and Severely Disadvantaged Students

For decades, social theorists have posited—and descriptive accounts have shown—that students isolated by both social class and ethnicity suffer extreme deprivations that limit the effectiveness of equal-opportunity interventions. Even educational programs that yield positive results for moderately disadvantaged students may not prove beneficial for those who possess less of the economic, social, and cultural capital that play a critical role in improving educational outcomes. Yet evaluations of school choice and other educational interventions seldom estimate programmatic effects on severely disadvantaged students who are isolated by both ethnicity and social class. We experimentally estimate differential effects of a 1997 New York City school voucher intervention on college attainment for minority students by household income and mother’s education. Postsecondary outcomes as of 2017 come from the National Student Clearinghouse. The severely deprived did not benefit from the intervention despite substantial positive effects on college enrollments and degree attainment for the moderately disadvantaged. School choice programs and other interventions or public policies may need to pay greater attention to ensuring that families possess the requisite forms of capital—human, economic, social, and cultural—to realize their intended benefits.

Broke and Book-Bound

Education has been historically branded as a tool to transcend conditions that have aided and abetted systems of generational and societal inequities. During a global pandemic, there has been no greater challenge to this view than considering the impact of life-altering events and their implications on higher education, success, and thriving. Specifically, the COVID-19 crisis has put this health-based issue on an international stage, but more specifically, spotlighting how it has exacerbated issues such as poverty, hunger, homelessness, and educational attainment. This chapter will examine the existing literature around the issue of global pandemics on college attainment for college students who are resource and access-gapped and best practices to consider to support holistic success during a global pandemic.

Geographic Disparities in Access to Specialized Dementia Care

With novel, previously undescribed data on the availability of dementia-specific assisted living communities (ALs), we analyzed variation among counties in the availability of this important service for persons with dementia. In twenty-one states, we identified 6,961 ALs (16%) with a dementia-specific license/certification. Counties with at least one AL providing dementia-specific care had substantially higher college attainment versus counties that had at least one AL, but no dementia-specific beds: 25% versus 18% (p<0.01). Counties with dementia care also had significantly greater median incomes ($54,000 vs. $46,400), and home values ($159,000 vs. $113,000), lower poverty rates (13.7 percent vs. 16.3 percent), and lower proportions of Black residents (7.8 percent vs. 8.7 percent). Our findings are suggestive of a mismatch in need and availability of residential care options for older adults with ADRD that are also low-income or racial/ethnic minorities. Part of a symposium sponsored by Assisted Living Interest Group.

The Effects of the State Prepaid Tuition Program on College Attainment

By locking in today’s tuition rate for future college attendance, the prepaid tuition program (PTP) is designed to encourage parents to invest in their children’s human capital. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the state PTP on college attainment by using data from the 2011–2013 American Community Survey. By exploiting cross-state variation in the timing of the implementation of the state PTP, I found that the program adoption was associated with a 0.7–1.0 percentage point increase in college enrollment rates and a 0.5–0.7 percentage point increase in college completion rates.