Unequal Protective Effects of Parental Educational Attainment on the Body Mass Index of Black and White Youth

Assari, Shervin; Boyce, Shanika; Bazargan, Mohsen; Mincy, Ron; Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard

doi:10.3390/ijerph16193641

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Weaker-than-expected associations of health outcomes with socioeconomic status indicators are not limited to tobacco outcomes and have been documented for diet, 73 exercise, 74 obesity, 42,75 depression, 76 anxiety, 77 self-rated health, 19,24 and health care use, 78 and have been described in children, 70 youths, 79,80 adults, 20 and older adults. 81 Similar patterns are also shown for marginalizing social identities other than race/ethnicity, 17,19,42,71,82,83 such as sexual orientation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of Educational Attainment and Race/Ethnicity With Exposure to Tobacco Advertisement Among US Young Adults

Assari

2020

JAMA Netw Open

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IMPORTANCE Associations of educational attainment with improved health outcomes have been found to be weaker among racial/ethnic minority groups compared with those among the racial/ ethnic majority group. Recent research has also documented higher than expected prevalence of smoking in highly educated African American and Hispanic adults. OBJECTIVE To compare the association of educational attainment with exposure to tobacco advertisements among racial/ethnic groups of US young adults. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cross-sectional study included data from 6700 young adults who participated in wave 1 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, a nationally representative survey of US adults in 2013. Educational attainment was classified as less than high school diploma, high school graduate, or college graduate. Analysis was conducted between September 20 and October 4, 2019. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The independent variable was educational attainment (less than high school diploma, high school graduate, and college graduate). The dependent variable was any exposure to tobacco advertisements in the past 12 months. Race/ethnicity, age, sex, poverty status, unemployment, and region were the covariates. Binary logistic and Poisson regression were used to analyze the data. RESULTS The study included 6700 participants (3366 [50.2%] men) between ages 18 and 24 years. Most participants were non-Hispanic (5257 participants [78.9%]) and white (5394 participants [80.5%]), while 1443 participants (21.5%) were Hispanic. Educational levels included 1167 participants (17.4%) with less than a high school diploma, 4812 participants (71.8%) who were high school graduates, and 4812 participants (10.8%) who were college graduates. A total of 4728 participants (70.6%) reported exposure to tobacco advertisements in the past 12 months. Exposure to tobacco advertising was reported by 383 participants (53.1%) who were college graduates, 3453 participants (71.8%) who were high school graduates, and 892 participants (76.4%) with less than high school educational attainment. In regression analysis, high school graduation (odds ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.68-0.92) and college graduation (odds ratio, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.39-0.54) were associated with lower odds of exposure to tobacco advertisements compared with young adults with lower educational attainment. Compared with non-Hispanic participants, high school education had a weaker protective association for tobacco advertisement exposure among Hispanic participants (odds ratio, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.03-2.01; P = .03), suggesting that the association of high school graduation with lower exposure to tobacco advertisement is weaker among Hispanic young adults than non-Hispanic young adults. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This study found that high school graduation had a weaker inverse association with tobacco advertisement exposure among Hispanic than non-Hispanic young (continued)

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association of Educational Attainment and Race/Ethnicity With Exposure to Tobacco Advertisement Among US Young Adults

Assari

2020

JAMA Netw Open

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“…For example, high family SES showed a smaller effect as a preventive factor on impulsivity [59], depression [62], anxiety [64], aggression [58], grade point average (GPA) [58,65,66], and substance use [58] for AA than Caucasian children. Similarly, high SES AA youth are found to be at high risk of ADHD [67] and obesity [68]. Given the existing MDRs, it would be too optimistic and unrealistic to expect racial inequities to disappear if we could fully eliminate SES inequalities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

African American Children’s Diminished Returns of Subjective Family Socioeconomic Status on Fun Seeking

et al. 2020

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Background: Reward sensitivity (fun-seeking) is a risk factor for a wide range of high-risk behaviors. While high socioeconomic status (SES) is known to reduce reward sensitivity and associated high-risk behaviors, less is known about the differential effects of SES on reward sensitivity. It is plausible to expect weaker protective effects of family SES on reward sensitivity in racial minorities, a pattern called Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs). Aim: We compared Caucasian and African American (AA) children for the effects of subjective family SES on children’s fun-seeking. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of 7061 children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. The independent variable was subjective family SES. The main outcome was children’s fun-seeking measured by the behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral avoidance system (BIS). Age, gender, marital status, and household size were the covariates. Results: In the overall sample, high subjective family SES was associated with lower levels of fun-seeking. We also found a statistically significant interaction between race and subjective family SES on children’s fun-seeking in the overall sample, suggesting that high subjective family SES is associated with a weaker effect on reducing fun-seeking among AA than Caucasian children. In race-stratified models, high subjective family SES was protective against fun-seeking of Caucasian but not AA children. Conclusion: Subjective family SES reduces the fun-seeking for Caucasian but not AA children.

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“…In line with the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs), (6,7) refer to "less than expected" health effects of family socioeconomic status, particularly parent education in ethnic minority groups compared to ethnic majority youth (8)(9)(10)(11). These patterns are persistent across SES resources and outcomes 12.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extensive research has suggested that MDRs also apply to youth. MDRs for youth are not specific to tobacco use, as they hold for a wide range of outcomes (8)(9)(10)(11). Parental education is associated with lower obesity (11,33), chronic disease (24,(34)(35)(36), aggression (24), tobacco use (24), and impulsivity (9) for Whites than for African Americans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent Education and Future Transition to Cigarette Smoking: Latinos' Diminished Returns

et al. 2020

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Background: High parent education is protective against youth health risk behaviors such as tobacco use. According to the Minorities' Diminished Returns theory, however, higher parent education seems to exert less protection for the ethnic minority relative to the majority groups. Objectives: To explore ethnic differences in the effects of parent education on the transition to cigarette smoking in a national sample of American never-smoker adolescents. Methods: This longitudinal study used data of waves 1 and 4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH 2013-2018). This analysis included 5,021 American youth who were never smokers at baseline (2013) and were followed for 4 years. Transition to cigarette smoking was the dependent variable. Parent education was the independent variable. Youth age, youth gender, and family structure were the covariates. Ethnicity was the moderating variable. Results: From the 5,021 American youth who were never smokers at baseline (2013), 89.4% continued as never smokers, and 10.6% became ever-smokers. Overall, 4.0% were current smokers at wave 4. Overall, a higher parent education was associated with lower odds of transitioning to ever and current cigarette smoker at the end of the 4th year. Parent education, however, showed significant interaction with Latino ethnicity on both outcomes suggesting smaller protective effects of high parent education against transitioning to tobacco use for Latino than for non-Latino youth. Conclusions: In the U.S., ethnicity alters the magnitude of the protective effect of parent education against youth transition to tobacco use. While high parent education is protective against transitioning to become a cigarette smoking overall, non-Latinos (a socially privileged group) gain more and Latino youth (a socially marginalized group) gain least from such a resource. In addition to addressing the SES gap, policymakers should identify and address mechanisms by which ethnic minority youth remain at risk of tobacco use, even when they are from highly educated families.

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Unequal Protective Effects of Parental Educational Attainment on the Body Mass Index of Black and White Youth

Cited by 25 publications

References 97 publications

Association of Educational Attainment and Race/Ethnicity With Exposure to Tobacco Advertisement Among US Young Adults

Association of Educational Attainment and Race/Ethnicity With Exposure to Tobacco Advertisement Among US Young Adults

African American Children’s Diminished Returns of Subjective Family Socioeconomic Status on Fun Seeking

Parent Education and Future Transition to Cigarette Smoking: Latinos' Diminished Returns

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