Poverty in the Family: Siblings of the Black and White Middle Class

Mary Pattillo-McCoy and Colleen M. Heflin

IPR working papers from Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University

Abstract: This article is motivated by qualitative findings of class diversity in the family networks of middle class African Americans. To test the generalizeability of the qualitative data, we use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to assess the socio-economic characteristics of siblings of middle class blacks and whites. We draw three middle class samples based on income, occupation and education. Bivariate analyses of the three samples show race differences in the income, poverty status, public assistance receipt, employment, family composition, and educational attainment of siblings. In the multivariate analysis, we find that having been poor as an adolescent reduces the effect of being African American on having a poor sibling and on having a sibling receiving AFDC, capturing the intergenerational component of poverty, as well as the recency of the black middle class. We argue that the disparate family contexts in which middle class blacks and whites are embedded have ramifications for their relative well-being, and contribute to the fragility of the former.

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:nwuipr:98-20

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