Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Family Structure and Children’s Educational Attainment

• In Event: 3151 - Children, Youth, and Inequality

Abstract

This study examines whether racial/ethnic differences in socioeconomic stress and extended family embeddedness explain group differences in the association between family structure and children’s on-time high school completion and college enrollment for white, black, and Hispanic children. Results indicate that both socioeconomic stress and extended family embeddedness attenuate the effect of family structure on these two measures of educational attainment, though the former to a much greater extent. Differences in socioeconomic resources accounted for nearly 50% of the gap in these outcomes between whites and minorities, and extended family embeddedness explained roughly 10-15%. These findings lend support for the socioeconomic stress hypothesis, which posits that the negative effect of familial disruption may be less independently impactful for racial/ethnic groups facing many socioeconomic disadvantages to begin with. They are less consistent with the hypothesis that racial/ethnic minority children’s deeper embeddedness in their extended family network protects against the negative effects of familial disruption.

Author

• Christina Cross, University of Michigan