Association Between Parental Educational Attainment and Youth Outcomes and Role of Race/Ethnicity

Abstract

IMPORTANCE The concept of minorities' diminished returns refers to the smaller protective effects of educational attainment for racial and ethnic minority groups compared with those for majority groups. OBJECTIVE To explore racial and ethnic differences in the associations between parental educational attainment and youth outcomes among US adolescents. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A cross-sectional study was performed of 10 619 youth aged 12 to 17 years who were participants at wave 1 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, a nationally representative survey, in 2013. Data analysis was performed from August to October 2019. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The dependent variables were youth tobacco dependence, aggression, school performance, psychological distress, and chronic medical conditions. The independent variable was parental educational attainment. Age and sex of the adolescents and marital status of the parents were the covariates. Race and ethnicity were the moderating variables. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. RESULTS Among the participants, 5412 (51.0%) were aged 12 to 15 years, and 5207 (49.0%) were aged 16 to 17 years; 5480 (51.7%) were male. For non-Hispanic white youth, as parental educational attainment increased, there were stepwise reductions in the prevalence of tobacco dependence (13.2% vs 6.9% vs 2.7%), aggression (37.9% vs 34.8% vs 26.1%), low grade point average (84.2% vs 75.6% vs 53.3%), and chronic medical conditions (51.7% vs 50.8% vs 43.9%), but there was not such a trend for psychological distress (43.7% vs 48.6% vs 41.0%). Interactions were significant between Hispanic ethnicity and parental education on tobacco dependence (OR, 3.37 [95% CI, 2.00-5.69] for

Mathematical Performance of American Youth: Diminished Returns of Educational Attainment of Asian-American Parents

“…Evidence on MDR provides an explanation for remaining inequalities that can sustain beyond the ethnic gap in SES. Due to MDR, we see worse than expected educational outcomes among Black youth that are from well-educated ethnic minority families [3][4][5][6][7]. For example, the educational attainment of parents has shown weaker effects on enhancing youth mental health [3], school performance [4,5], school attainment [6], and school bonding [7] of Blacks and Hispanics compared to Whites.…”

“…Due to MDR, we see worse than expected educational outcomes among Black youth that are from well-educated ethnic minority families [3][4][5][6][7]. For example, the educational attainment of parents has shown weaker effects on enhancing youth mental health [3], school performance [4,5], school attainment [6], and school bonding [7] of Blacks and Hispanics compared to Whites. Similar patterns (i.e., diminished returns) of parental educational attainment are reported for self-rated health [3], depression [8,9], anxiety [10], obesity [11,12], asthma [13], impulse control [14], ADHD [15], health care use [16], violence [17], and smoking [17].…”

“…Poor school performance of Black and Hispanic youth is a major concern in the United States [22]. It may be more intuitive to expect MDR for Hispanic and Black youth because they are living at a relative disadvantage compared to non-Hispanic Whites [1,2,[4][5][6]24]. Such a relative disadvantage may not exist for Asian Americans [21].…”

“…While some researchers attribute ethnic disparities in achievement to ethnic inequalities in SES [35], the MDR framework, however, has recently been challenged on this traditional assumption [36][37][38]. Recent research findings suggest that Black-White and Hispanic-non-Hispanic achievement inequalities sustain at high SES families as well [4][5][6]24]. This is particularly of interest because the differential effects of parental educational attainment have been repeatedly shown across domains and outcomes [1,2].…”

“…The common belief is that one main reason developmental youth outcomes tend to be worse for Hispanic and Black youth is lower SES in Black and Hispanic families [41]. MDR, however, goes beyond this simplistic view and explains why gaps remain when ethnic groups have similar SES, particularly parental educational attainment [4][5][6]24].…”