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

Shervin Assari, Shanika Boyce, Mohsen Bazargan, Ron Mincy and Cleopatra H. Caldwell
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Shervin Assari: Department of Family Medicine, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA
Shanika Boyce: Department of Pediatrics, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA
Mohsen Bazargan: Department of Family Medicine, Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA
Ron Mincy: Center for Research on Fathers, Children, and Family Well-Being, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027-5927, USA
Cleopatra H. Caldwell: Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health (CRECH), School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-14

Abstract: 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 parental 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.

Keywords: population groups; race; whites; blacks; African-Americans; socioeconomic position; socioeconomic status; education; obesity; body mass index (BMI) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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