Drinking and Learning While Black: The Effect of Family Alcoholism on Educational Attainment

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 12. RGC, Children, and the Family

Abstract

I utilize data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth young adult sample (N=1,512) to investigate the relationship between having a family history of alcoholism and educational attainment and whether that relationship varies by race. The results indicate that though there is no main effect between having a family history of alcoholism and educational attainment, further analysis demonstrates that African Americans experience positive effects on educational attainment. Under the family stress and resiliency frameworks, these results call into question the generalizability of stressors and the labeling of groups of children who experience these stressors as “at risk.” Furthermore, this study indicates that there may be characteristics of students upon which parents and schools can capitalize to foster resiliency in children who are truly “at risk.”

Author

• Stacey Houston, Vanderbilt University