Parental Job Loss and Children's Educational Attainment in Black and White Middle-Class Families
Parental Job Loss and Children's Educational Attainment in Black and White Middle-Class Families
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1540-6237.2011.00757.x
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发表时间：
2011-03-01
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Wightman, Patrick
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kalil, Ariel;Wightman, Patrick
目标我们的目标是了解为什么黑人比白人更不可能在几代人之间保持他们的中产阶级地位。为此，我们专注于黑人和白人中产阶级家庭父母失业和年轻人教育程度之间潜在的不同关联。方法我们使用收入动态小组研究(PSID)的数据，跟踪调查中在1968年至1979年期间出生的孩子，并跟踪调查到21岁。我们进行了多元回归分析，以检验父母在童年时期失去工作与21岁之前年轻人的教育程度之间的联系。结果我们发现，父母失去工作与所有子女接受高等教育的可能性较小相关，但与黑人的相关性几乎是前者的三倍。失业对黑人和白人中产阶级青年的不同影响有很大一部分是由家庭财富的种族差异、家庭收入的长期衡量标准，特别是父母长期失业的经历来解释的。结论这些发现突显了黑人中产阶级脆弱的经济基础，并表明这一群体中阶级地位的代际持续可能高度依赖于避免共同的经济冲击。
ObjectivesWe aim to understand why blacks are significantly less likely than whites to perpetuate their middle-class status across generations. To do so, we focus on the potentially different associations between parental job loss and youth's educational attainment in black and white middle-class families.MethodsWe use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), following those children "born" into the survey between 1968 and 1979 and followed through age 21. We conduct multivariate regression analyses to test the association between parental job loss during childhood and youth's educational attainment by age 21.ResultsWe find that parental job loss is associated with a lesser likelihood of obtaining any postsecondary education for all offspring, but that the association for blacks is almost three times as strong. A substantial share of the differential impact of job loss on black and white middle-class youth is explained by race differences in household wealth, long-run measures of family income, and, especially, parental experience of long-term unemployment.ConclusionsThese findings highlight the fragile economic foundation of the black middle class and suggest that intergenerational persistence of class status in this population may be highly dependent on the avoidance of common economic shocks.