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“If you don’t know me by now…”: Observed and Reported Race in Fragile Families Survey

Sun, August 13, 8:30 to 10:10am, Palais des congrès de Montréal, Floor: Level 5, 516E

Abstract

Increasingly, we are aware that individual’s race may be perceived differently than how they are identified, however, most of what we know emerges from observations for generalized outsiders, with less information on how racial understandings operate in relationships between known individuals. We draw on the Fragile Families data which capturing a cohort of mothers who have recently given birth with information on their child’s biological fathers, to observe how reports of race of fathers potentially vary when provided by the mother or the father themselves. Preliminary analyses reveal that a significant portion of mothers report the race of their child’s father differently than when asked by the father himself, particularly when querying race in combination with Hispanic origin. Additionally, this pattern is most likely among cohabiters as well as other status characteristics of the father himself. This evidence strongly suggests that relationships provide meaningful contexts for the construction of race and ethnic identity.

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