Higher Education and Stress: Implications for Black-White Disparities in Pregnancy

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. RGC and Health Inequality

Abstract

Scholars investigating potentially modifiable factors that may improve pregnancy outcomes have long noted the association between higher maternal education and decreased risk for low birthweight infants. However, this relationship is not typically found among black women, resulting in what some have considered to be a paradoxical relationship, as highly-educated black women most often have higher risk of negative outcomes. Previous literature suggests that college-educated black women may face higher exposure to stress, which burdens them in ways that vary from both their highly-educated white counterparts and black women with less education. This study is the first to evaluate this hypothesis empirically, investigating whether race differences in the protectiveness of education are substantially attributable to differences in stress exposure. Using nationally-representative data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), this study finds dramatic racial disparities in pregnancy outcomes, with black women more likely to have low birthweight (LBW) or very low birthweight (VLBW) infants. Further, I find evidence suggesting that higher levels of education actually increase black women’s odds of having poor pregnancy outcomes, and that stress contributes to their increased risk for LBW and VLBW. Results from this study illustrate the complexities of pregnancy disparities and underscore the need for further research on stress and birth outcomes.

Author

• Courtney Sinclair Thomas, Vanderbilt University