<p>Protective Effects of Parental Education Against Youth Cigarette Smoking: Diminished Returns of Blacks and Hispanics</p>

Abstract

Background: High parental educational attainment is protective against youth health risk behaviors such as tobacco use. According to the Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) theory, however, higher parental education is less protective for marginalized groups relative to non-Hispanic Whites. Objective: To explore race/ethnic differences in the effects of parental educational attainment on cigarette smoking in a national sample of American adolescents. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we used baseline data of 10,878 American youth who had participated in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH 2013). The independent variable was parental educational attainment. The dependent variables were lifetime cigarette smoking, current (past 30-day) cigarette moking, and daily cigarette smoking. Youth age, youth gender, and parental marital status were the covariates. Race/ ethnicity was the moderating variable. Logistic regression model was used for data analysis. Results: Overall, a higher parental educational attainment was associated with a lower lifetime cigarette smoking, current (past 30-day) cigarette smoking, and daily cigarette smoking. Parental educational attainment showed significant interaction with race/ethnicity suggesting smaller protective effects of parental educational attainment on youth tobacco outcomes for Black and Hispanic than for non-Hispanic White youth. Conclusion: For American youth, race/ethnicity limits the health gains that are expected to follow parental educational attainment. While high parental educational attainment is protective against smoking overall, non-Hispanic Whites (the most socially privileged group) gain most and Blacks and Hispanics (the least socially privileged groups) gain least from such resource. In addition to addressing low SES, researchers and policymakers should identify and address mechanisms by which high SES minority youth remain at risk of tobacco use.

Maternal Education at Birth and Youth Breakfast Consumption at Age 15: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

“…Not only eating breakfast (this study) but also self-rated health [19], obesity [15], ADHD [16], impulsivity [18,45], and school performance [12,46] stay poor in high SES Black families. These FFCWS results are also in line with what is known from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) [47][48][49], National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) [23], Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) [50], Flint Adolescent Study (FAS) [20], Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) [51], and Monitoring the Future (MTF) [52] studies, all showing poor health and health behaviors of high SES Black children. We are interested in comparing our results to other FFCWS studies, and our imputation and lack of imputation in other related studies may generate bias.…”

Parental Education, Household Income, and Cortical Surface Area among 9–10 Years Old Children: Minorities’ Diminished Returns

“…In a recent study using Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) data, the SES effect on amygdala size was less pronounced in Black (socially disadvantaged) than White (socially privileged) children [ 37 ]. This observation is in line with our studies showing weaker effects of parental education and household income on trauma [ 38 ], ADHD [ 39 ], suicide [ 40 ], depression [ 41 ], anxiety [ 42 ], aggression [ 43 ], tobacco use [ 43 , 44 ], impulsivity [ 45 ], school bonding [ 46 ], school performance [ 47 ], and inhibitory control [ 48 ] for Black than White children. Similar findings are shown in the ABCD [ 40 , 48 ], Add Health [ 49 ], Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) [ 39 , 45 , 46 , 50 , 51 ], Monitoring the Future (MTF) [ 47 ], National Survey of American Life (NSAL) [ 41 ], Flint Adolescents Study (FAS) [ 42 ], Early Childhood Longitudinal (ECL) study [ 52 ], and the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) [ 53 , 54 ], all suggesting that parental education and household income provide diminished protection for Black than White families.…”

“…Our second finding that education may be associated with a smaller increase in Black’s whole-brain cortical surface area than White children is an extension of the MDRs literature. Our past research shows the same results for aggression [ 43 ], tobacco use [ 44 ], school attachment [ 46 ], school performance [ 47 ], ADHD [ 39 ], impulsivity [ 45 ], stress [ 38 , 50 ], obesity [ 51 ], physical health [ 43 ], depression [ 41 ], and anxiety [ 42 ]. For all these outcomes, SES effects are weaker for Black than White children.…”

Parental Education or Household Income? Which Socioeconomic Status Indicator Can Better Reduce Body Mass Index Disparities among Latino Children?

“…The results are in line with what is already known about MDRs in HW(Assari, 2020e), African American(Assari, Mistry, Caldwell, & Bazargan, 2020), and Asian(Assari, Boyce, Bazargan, & Caldwell, 2020b) children. In the ABCD study, parental education(Assari, Boyce, Caldwell, & Bazargan, 2020) and income(Assari, 2020d) reduced the internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems in NHW better than in African American children.…”