Childhood Wealth Inequality in the United States: Implications for Social Stratification and Well-Being

Abstract

1. Authors' calculations from the Survey of Consumer Finances. See table 3 for data on wealth percentiles and figure 2 for data on median math levels by race-ethnicity.

All Wealth Is Not Created Equal: Race, Parental Net Worth, and Children’s Achievement

“…Household wealth is correlated with children's academic, behavioral, health, and other outcomes (Destin 2013;Hällsten and Pfeffer 2017;Shanks 2007; see also, from this issue, Boen, Keister, and Graetz 2021;Gibson-Davis and Hill 2021;Nepomnyaschy et al 2021;Miller et al 2021). As Christina Gibson-Davis and Heather Hill outline in the introduction to this issue, wealth provides child households with resources, security, and class status.…”

Wealth and Child Development: Differences in Associations by Family Income and Developmental Stage

“…fr aMe Works for unDers ta nDing the role of W e a lth in ChilDren 's De V elopMent Wealth, defined here as net worth (that is, assets minus debts) but operationalized in various ways as Christina Gibson-Davis and Heather Hill (2021) describe in the introduction to this issue, may affect children in a variety of ways. Drawing from fields of psychology, sociology, and economics, we rely on three theoretical frameworks for helping us conceptualize the role that wealth may play in shaping child development: resource and investment, family stress, and social or cultural capital.…”

“…First, resource and investment perspectives posit that economic resources dictate families' abilities to invest in materials and experiences that produce better child outcomes, like educational activities, adequate health services, and good neighborhoods and schools (Becker 1991). As discussed in the introduction to this volume, wealth is an important economic resource that families use to invest in their children (Gibson-Davis and Hill 2021). It can be accessed to provide cash resources or used as collateral for securing loans.…”

Connecting the biology of stress, allostatic load and epigenetics to social structures and processes

“…Wealth is often measured as net worth and provides an important indicator of how available assets – above and beyond current income -- affect meeting basic needs and shaping life choices. The extent of household wealth affects the sense of economic security and well-being, capacity to invest in children, and the level of parental stress ( Gibson-Davis and Hill, 2021 ). Availability of savings or of equity in house or investments provides a buffer against variations in income.…”

“…Inequalities in wealth are even more pronounced in the United States than income inequality. Profound wealth differentials are found by race and ethnicity where White children reside in households with assets that average 14 times the assets of households of Black children and six times the assets of Hispanic children ( Gibson-Davis and Hill 2021 ). These inequalities affect child development ( Shanks 2008 ) and school achievement, at least marginally ( Conwell and Ye 2020 ).…”