Disparate Impact: Using an Intersectional Lens to Explore How Race/Ethnicity and Family Socioeconomic Status Intersect to Shape Academic Development among Children of Color

• In Event: Intersectional Identities: Exploring How the Meaning and Consequences of Social Class Vary among Children Color

Abstract

Children of color now comprise the majority of the U.S. youth population (Child Trends, 2018). As the child population grows more diverse, family inequality has intensified, with children of color enjoying fewer educational advantages and experiencing less social mobility (Chetty et al., 2018). America’s future health and prosperity are inextricably tied to the fortunes of these children; thus, these troubling patterns have large-scale ramifications. Educational inequity helps foment disparate mobility patterns between minority and White youth (Mazumder, 2008), with increasing evidence indicating higher family socioeconomic status (SES) does not confer equivalent contextual and academic advantages on children of color (Henry et al., 2020). At the intersection of race/ethnicity, immigration status, and SES, access to salutary resources and exposure to environmental stressors can differ dramatically (Henry et al., 2019), highlighting the importance of considering how social identities jointly influence academic development. Yet, few studies investigate child achievement at the nexus of race/ethnicity and SES. The current study therefore examines whether and how the academic returns to family SES differ by race/ethnicity.

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten (ECLS-K) cohorts of 1998-99 and 2010-11 (N ≈ 13,600 and N ≈ 14,000, respectively), we assess how achievement’s associations with family income and parental educational attainment differ by race/ethnicity among children from native-born and immigrant families. We standardized children’s kindergarten and 5th grade math and reading scores relative to their cohorts and merged these datasets to maximize sample size. OLS regression analyses accounted for nesting within schools.

Preliminary results indicate that parental education’s associations with kindergarten math skills are stronger for native White children than native Black and immigrant-origin Latino and Asian children, after controlling for child and family characteristics. This pattern persists in 5th grade for both immigrant-origin Latino and Asian children, when accounting for covariates and baseline scores. By 5th grade, parental education’s connection to math skills was also stronger for native White children than their native Latino peers. For reading, education’s associations with skills were stronger for native White children than immigrant-origin Latino children in kindergarten, and by 5th grade, this pattern of diminished returns to parental education held for both immigrant-origin Latino and Asian children. Fewer racial/ethnic differences emerged when considering family income’s associations with achievement. Results suggest income’s connection to kindergarten math and reading skills is stronger for immigrant-origin Asian children than native White children. Additionally, income’s links to 5th grade math and reading skills were stronger for native Black and immigrant-origin Latino children than their White counterparts, after accounting for baseline scores.

These findings suggest that family SES operates differently among children of color and White youth, revealing a pattern of diminished academic returns to parental education and enhanced returns to family income among some youth of color. Results moreover indicate that both early formative and later school experiences contribute to these patterns, illustrating the importance of attending to multiple interlocking social positions that shape developmental contexts. Future analyses will examine which factors help explain the disparate impact of family SES for children of color.

Authors

• Daphne A. Henry, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Lorraine Reese Blatt, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Betancur, Iowa State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author