scholarly journals Parental Educational Attainment and Chronic Medical Conditions among American Youth; Minorities’ Diminished Returns

Children ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Cleopatra Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Health Disparities ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chronic Medical Conditions ◽  
Medical Conditions ◽  
White Youth ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Parental educational attainment is protective against chronic medical conditions (CMCs). According to the minorities’ diminished returns (MDRs) theory, however, the health effects of socioeconomic status (SES) indicators are smaller for socially marginalized groups such as racial and ethnic minorities rather than Whites. Aims: To explore racial and ethnic differences in the effect of parental educational attainment on CMCs in a nationally representative sample of American youth. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used baseline data of 10,701 12–17 years old youth in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH; 2013). Parental educational attainment was the independent variable. The dependent variable was the number of CMCs in youth. Age, gender, and family structure were covariates. Race and ethnicity were the focal moderators. Linear and multinomial regression were applied to analyze the data. Results: Overall, higher parental educational attainment was associated with a lower number of CMCs. Race and ethnicity, however, showed significant interactions with parental educational attainment on a number of CMCs as well as 2+ CMCs, suggesting that the effect of parenting educational attainment on CMCs is significantly smaller for Black and Hispanic than White youth. Conclusions: In the United States, race and ethnicity alter the health gains that are expected to follow parental educational attainment. While White youth who are from highly educated families are most healthy, Black and Hispanic youth from highly educated families remain at higher risk for CMCs. That means, while the most socially privileged group, Whites, gain the most health from their parental education, Blacks and Hispanics, the least privileged groups, gain the least. The result is a disproportionately high number of CMCs in middle-class Blacks and Hispanics. Economic, social, public, and health policy makers should be aware that health disparities are not all due to lower SES of the disadvantaged group but also diminished returns of SES resources for them. Youth physical health disparities due to race and ethnicity exist across all SES levels.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assari ◽  
Boyce ◽  
Bazargan ◽  
Mincy ◽  
Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
White Youth ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Parental educational attainment is shown to be protective against health problems; the Minorities’ Diminished Returns theory, however, posits that these protective effects tend to be smaller for socially marginalized groups particularly blacks than whites. Aims: To explore racial differences in the effect of parental educational attainment on body mass index (BMI) in a national sample of US adolescents. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used baseline data of 10,701 (8678 white and 2023 black) 12–17 years old adolescents in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH; 2013). Parental educational attainment was the predictor. Youth BMI (based on self-reported weight and height) was the dependent variable. Age, gender, ethnicity, and family structure were covariates. Race was the focal moderator. Results: Overall, higher parental educational attainment was associated with lower youth BMI. Race, however, moderated the effect of parental educational attainment on BMI, suggesting that the protective effect of parenting educational attainment on BMI is significantly smaller for black than white youth. Conclusions: In the United States, race alters the health gains that are expected to follow parental educational attainment. While white youth who are from highly educated families are fit, black youth have high BMI at all levels of parental educational attainment. This means, while the most socially privileged group, whites, gain the most health from their parental education, blacks, the least privileged group, gain the least. Economic, social, public, and health policymakers should be aware that health disparities are not all due to lower socioeconomic status (SES) of the disadvantaged group but also diminished returns of SES resources for them. Black–white health disparities exist across all high socioeconomic status (SES) levels.

scholarly journals Parental Education and Spanking of American Children: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. p19
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Black Families ◽  
Inverse Association ◽  
Child Exposure ◽  
White Families ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Based on the Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) framework, high socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as parental education shows weaker protective effects against adverse experiences for Blacks than Whites. For example, Black children with highly educated parents report high levels of depression, anxiety, suicide, smoking, obesity, and chronic disease. Limited knowledge exists on MDRs of parental education on the child’s exposure to spanking by the mother. Aims: Built on the MDRs framework, we tested the hypothesis of whether the effect of parental education on the child’s exposure to spanking by the mother differs in Black and White families. We hypothesized that: 1) there is an inverse association between mothers’ educational attainment and child spanking, and 2) the effect of mothers’ educational attainment on mothers’ spanking of the child is weaker for Black than White families. Methods: We used data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (FFCWS), a 9-year follow up study of a random sample of births in cities larger than 200,000 population. In this analysis, 2722 Black or White families were followed. The main predictor was parental educational attainment at birth. The outcomes were exposure to spanking at ages 3, 5, and 9.Logisticregression was used for data analysis. Results: Higher parental educational attainment at birth was inversely associated with the child’s exposure to spanking by the mother among Whites, not Blacks. We also found a significant interaction between parental educational attainment at birth and race, suggesting that the associations between parental education and child exposure to spanking by the mother at ages3, 5, and 9were weaker for Black than White families.Conclusions: Diminished returns of parental educational attainment in terms of reducing children’s exposure to trauma and stress may be a mechanism that contributes to racial health disparities, particularly poor health of children in highly educated Black families. That is a smaller protective effect of parental education on reducing undesired exposures for Black than White children may be one of the mechanisms that may explain why children develop worse than expected physical, mental, and behavioral health in high SES Black families. Not all health disparities are due to racial differences in SES, but some of them are also secondary to the diminishing returns of socioeconomic status indicators such as parental education for racial minorities. Research should study contextual, structural, family, and behavioral factors that reduce Black families’ ability to mobilize their human capital and secure health outcomes for themselves and their children.

scholarly journals Minorities’ Diminished Returns of Parental Educational Attainment on Adolescents’ Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Problems

Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Shanika Boyce ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Attention Problems ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽  
White Adolescents ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Hispanic White

Aim: To compare racial groups for the effect of parental educational attainment on adolescents’ social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 10,762 youth from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study were included. The independent variable was parental educational attainment. The main outcomes were (1) anxious and depressed mood, (2) withdrawn and depressed affect, (3) somatic complaints, (4) social and interpersonal problems, (5) thought problems, (6) rule-breaking behaviors, (7) attention problems, and (8) violent and aggressive behaviors. These scores were generated based on parent-reported behavioral problems measured using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Race and ethnicity were the moderators. Linear regression was used to analyze the ABCD data. Results: Overall, high parental educational attainment was associated with lower scores across all domains. Race and ethnicity showed statistically significant interactions with parental educational attainment on adolescents’ fewer social, emotional, and behavioral problems (all domains), net of all confounders, indicating smaller tangible gains from their parental educational attainment for Black and Hispanic compared to non-Hispanic White adolescents. Conclusions: The protective effects of parental education against social, emotional, and behavioral problems are systematically diminished for Hispanic and Black than non-Hispanic White adolescents.

scholarly journals Parental Educational Attainment Differentially Boosts School Performance of American Adolescents; Minorities’ Diminished Returns

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
White Youth ◽  
The Us ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Racial And Ethnic Minority

Objective: To explore racial and ethnic variation in the effects of parental educational attainment on students’ grade point average (GPA) in the US. As suggested by the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDR) theory, socioeconomic status (SES) systemically results in smaller outcomes for non-Whites compared to Whites. We still know very little about diminished trans-generational returns of SES resources such as parental educational attainment. For example, the differential impacts of parental educational attainment on school performance of youth from various racial and ethnic backgrounds are still unknown. Materials and methods: The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH 2013 - 2014) is a nationally representative survey in the US. The total sample was 10,701 youth (12-17 years old) were enrolled. The independent variable was parental educational attainment. The main outcome was GPA measured using self-report. Age, gender, and parental marital status were the covariates. Race and ethnicity were the effect modifiers. Linear regression models were used to analyze the data. Results: Overall, higher parental educational attainment was associated with a higher GPA, independent of all possible confounders. Race and ethnicity, however, both showed significant interaction with parental educational attainment on students’ GPA, indicating smaller positive effects of parental educational attainment on students’ GPA for Hispanic and Black compared to non-Hispanic White youth. Conclusion: The boosting effect of parental educational attainment on GPA is smaller for Black and Hispanic compared to White youth. To minimize diminished returns of parental educational attainment for Black and Hispanic families, there is a need for innovative public and social policies and programs that are not limited to equalizing SES but also address the structural barriers that disproportionately limit upward social mobility of racial and ethnic minority students and their families. The US society should reduce extra costs of upward social mobility for racial and ethnic minority families. As the underlying mechanisms are multifaceted, multi-level approach is needed to undo minorities’ diminished returns, so every individual can gain the same tangible outcome from their SES resources.

scholarly journals Diminished Returns of Own and Parental Education on Subjective Health of Immigrants in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Subjective Health ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Immigration Status ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment

Background: Educational attainment is a strong social determinant of health. Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs), however, refer to smaller health effects of socioeconomic status, particularly educational attainment for marginalized groups compared to mainstream populations. While multiple studies have documented MDRs of educational attainment for racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, there are no previous studies on MDRs of education among immigrants.Aims: To understand if the MDRs phenomenon also applies to immigrants, we compared immigrant and non-immigrant American adults for the effects of their own and parental educational attainment on subjective health.Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design and borrowed data from the General Social Survey (1972-2018). GSS is a series of nationally representative surveys in the US. Our analytical sample included 38,399 adults who were either non-immigrants (n = 34903; 90.9%) or immigrants (n = 3496; 9.1%). The main independent variables were own and parental educational attainment measured as four-level categorical variables. The dependent variable (DV) was poor subjective health, measured using a single item. Age, sex, marital status, and year of the survey were the covariates. Immigration status was the moderator.Results: Overall, individuals with higher educational attainment of own and parents reported better subjective health. We, however, found significant interactions between immigration status and both own and parental educational attainment on subjective health which was suggestive of weaker protective effects of own and parental educational attainment against poor subjective health in immigrants than non-immigrant individuals.Conclusions: In the United States, immigrant adults experience poor subjective health disproportionate to the educational attainment of their own and parents. That means we may observe worse than expected health of immigrants across all educational levels and social classes. Public policies should go beyond equal access to education by empowering marginalized people to leverage their education and secure outcomes.

scholarly journals Unequal Associations between Educational Attainment and Occupational Stress across Racial and Ethnic Groups

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Occupational Stress ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Work Related

Background: Although other mechanisms are also involved, at least one reason high educational attainment (EA) is associated with better health is lower employment stress in individuals with high EA. Minorities’ Diminished Returns, however, refer to the smaller protective health effects of EA for racial- and ethnic-minority individuals, particularly African Americans (AAs) and Hispanics, as compared to Whites. We are, however, not aware of many studies that have explored differential associations between EA and work-related stress across racial and ethnic groups. Aims: We aimed to compare racial and ethnic groups for the association between EA and occupational stress in a national sample of American adults. Methods: The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS 2015), a cross-sectional survey, included 15,726 employed adults. Educational attainment was the independent variable. Occupational stress was the outcome. Race and ethnicity were the moderators. Age, gender, number of jobs, and years in the job were the covariates. Results: Overall, higher EA was associated with lower levels of occupational stress. Race and ethnicity both interacted with EA, suggesting that the association between high EA and reduced occupational stress is systemically smaller for AAs and Hispanics than it is for Whites. Conclusions: In the United States, race and ethnicity limit the health gains that follow EA. While EA helps individuals avoid environmental risk factors, such as occupational stress, this is more valid for non-Hispanic Whites than AAs and Hispanics. The result is additional physical and mental health risks in highly educated AAs and Hispanics. The results are important, given racial and ethnic minorities are the largest growing section of the US population. We should not assume that EA is similarly protective across all racial and ethnic groups. In this context, EA may increase, rather than reduce, health disparities.

scholarly journals Depression Treatment Status of Economically Disadvantaged African American Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Sharon Cobb ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Jessica Castro Sandoval ◽  
Cheryl Wisseh ◽  
Meghan C. Evans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
African American ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Pain Intensity ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
Polynomial Regression ◽  
Chronic Medical Conditions ◽  
Medical Conditions ◽  
Treatment Status

Background: It is known that depression remains largely untreated in underserved communities. Hence, it is desirable to gain more knowledge on the prevalence and correlates of untreated depression among African-American (AA) older adults in economically disadvantaged areas. This knowledge may have the public health benefit of improving detection of AA older adults with depression who are at high risk of not receiving treatment, thereby reducing this health disparity. Objective: To study health and social correlates of untreated depression among AA older adults in economically disadvantaged areas. Methods: Between 2015 and 2018, this cross-sectional survey was conducted in South Los Angeles. Overall, 740 AA older adults who were 55+ years old entered this study. Independent variables were age, gender, living arrangement, insurance type, educational attainment, financial strain, chronic medical conditions, and pain intensity. Untreated depression was the dependent variable. Logistic and polynomial regression models were used to analyze these data. Results: According to the polynomial regression model, factors such as number of chronic medical conditions and pain intensity were higher in individuals with depression, regardless of treatment status. As our binary logistic regression showed, age, education, and number of providers were predictive of receiving treatment for depression. Conclusion: Age, educational attainment, number of providers (as a proxy of access to and use of care) may be useful to detect AA older adults with depression who are at high risk of not receiving treatment. Future research may focus on decomposition of the role of individual-level characteristics and health system-level characteristics that operate as barriers and facilitators to AA older adults receiving treatment for depression.

scholarly journals Parental Educational Attainment and Social Environment of Urban Public Schools in the U.S.: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanika Boyce ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan ◽  
Cleopatra H. Caldwell ◽  
Marc A. Zimmerman ◽  
Shervin Assari
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Urban Public Schools ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Parental Educational Attainment ◽  
Hispanic White ◽  
White Youths

Background: Recent research has documented marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) of socioeconomic status (SES), defined as weaker effects of SES indicators, such as parental educational attainment, on securing tangible outcomes for the members of socially marginalized (e.g., racial and ethnic minority) groups, compared to privileged social groups (e.g., non-Hispanic Whites). Aims: To explore race/ethnic differences between non-Hispanic Blacks vs. non-Hispanic Whites who attend urban public schools on the effect of parental education on lower school environmental risk among American high schoolers. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we borrowed the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS-2002) baseline data, a nationally representative study that enrolled 1706 10th grade youths who were attending urban public schools. From this number, 805 (47.2%) were non-Hispanic Black and 901 (52.8%) were non-Hispanic White youths. The dependent variable was the level of school social environmental risk measured using 18 items as self-reported, and was treated as a continuous variable. The independent variable was parental educational attainment, treated as a continuous measure. Gender, region, and parental marital status were the covariates. Race/ethnicity was the moderating variable. Linear regressions were applied to perform our data analysis. Results: Black students were found to attend schools with higher levels of social environmental risk. Youths with parents with a higher educational attainment were found to attend schools with a lower social environmental risk. We found a significant interaction between race (non-Hispanic Black vs. non-Hispanic White) and parental educational attainment on the level of school social environmental risk, suggesting that the protective effect of high parental education on reducing the school social environmental risk was smaller for non-Hispanic Black than for non-Hispanic White youths. Conclusions: Although high parental educational attainment is protective against social environmental risk for American youths, this protective effect is weaker for non-Hispanic Black than non-Hispanic White youths. The diminished returns of parental education in reducing school social environmental risk may explain why the effects of parental education on educational outcomes are smaller for non-Hispanic Black than non-Hispanic White youths (i.e., MDRs). The social environment indirectly generates racial youth educational disparities through deteriorating non-Hispanic Black youth educational outcomes across all SES levels. To prevent the confounding effects of private, suburban, rural, and Catholic schools, we limited this analysis to public urban schools. More research is needed on other settings.

scholarly journals Uniting the Vision for Health Equity through Partnerships: The 2nd Annual Dr. Elijah Saunders & Dr. Levi Watkins Memorial Lecture

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 193-200
Author(s):  
Eliseo J. Perez-Stable ◽  
Erik J. Rodriquez
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
American Indians ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Reference Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
United States Census

Minority health research focuses on outcomes by race and ethnicity categories used in the United States census. Overall mortality has decreased significantly for African Americans, Latinos, and Asians over the past 20 years even though it has stopped improving for poor Whites and continues to increase for American Indians/ Alaska Natives. Prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease partly account for this trend, but there is room for improvement. Health disparities research also includes persons of less privileged socioeconomic status, underserved rural residents, and sexual and gender minorities of any race and ethnicity when the outcomes are worse than a reference population. Understanding mechanisms that lead to health disparities from behavioral, biological, environmental and health care perspectives will lead to interventions that reduce these disparities and promote health equity. Experiences with racism and discrimination generate a chronic stress response with measurable effects on biological processes and study is needed to evaluate long-term effects on health outcomes. A clinical example of effective approaches to reducing disparities is management of hypertension to promote stroke reduction that requires health system changes, patient-clinician partnerships and engagement of community organiza­tions. Clinicians in health care settings have the potential to promote health equity by implementing standardized measures of social determinants, leveraging the power of health information technology, maxi­mizing cultural competence and socially precise care and engaging communities to reduce health disparities. Strategic partner­ships between health care institutions and community-based organizations need to parallel patient-clinician partnerships and are essential to promote health equity and reduce disparities. Ethn Dis. 2019;29(Suppl 1):193-200; doi:10.18865/ed.29.S1.193.

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