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Racial Stratification in the Second Demographic Transition and Its Implications for Child Development

Sun, August 11, 12:30 to 2:10pm, Sheraton New York, Floor: Lower Level, Union Square

Abstract

Drawing on a Du Boisian motivation for the study of Black families, Black children, and the comparative analysis of the social class structures among Blacks and Whites, we investigate whether Black and White women who have attained the same level of education have different family formation patterns on a range of outcomes related to the Second Demographic Transition (SDT). We also assess whether such differences are related to racial gaps, within maternal education groups, in children’s development outcomes. We use data on mothers and children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11. We find that, within each education group (less than high school, high school, some college, bachelor’s degree or higher), Black women often have significantly different family formation patterns than their White peers: on average, they have earlier ages at childbirth, are less likely to be married at childbirth and to be part of two-parent households by the time those children begin kindergarten, and their households include higher numbers of children under age 18. When we control for a small set of these measures, we fully account for significant Black-White gaps (by mother’s race) in school-entry reading achievement within maternal education groups and find a net Black advantage among children of the highest-educated mothers. Our study demonstrates that there has been racial stratification in the benefits and penalties associated with the SDT and that this variation may help perpetuate multigenerational racial inequality within socioeconomic status groups.

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