Parent Education and Future Transition to Cigarette Smoking: Latinos' Diminished Returns

Abstract

Background: High parent education is protective against youth health risk behaviors such as tobacco use. According to the Minorities' Diminished Returns theory, however, higher parent education seems to exert less protection for the ethnic minority relative to the majority groups. Objectives: To explore ethnic differences in the effects of parent education on the transition to cigarette smoking in a national sample of American never-smoker adolescents. Methods: This longitudinal study used data of waves 1 and 4 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH 2013-2018). This analysis included 5,021 American youth who were never smokers at baseline (2013) and were followed for 4 years. Transition to cigarette smoking was the dependent variable. Parent education was the independent variable. Youth age, youth gender, and family structure were the covariates. Ethnicity was the moderating variable. Results: From the 5,021 American youth who were never smokers at baseline (2013), 89.4% continued as never smokers, and 10.6% became ever-smokers. Overall, 4.0% were current smokers at wave 4. Overall, a higher parent education was associated with lower odds of transitioning to ever and current cigarette smoker at the end of the 4th year. Parent education, however, showed significant interaction with Latino ethnicity on both outcomes suggesting smaller protective effects of high parent education against transitioning to tobacco use for Latino than for non-Latino youth. Conclusions: In the U.S., ethnicity alters the magnitude of the protective effect of parent education against youth transition to tobacco use. While high parent education is protective against transitioning to become a cigarette smoking overall, non-Latinos (a socially privileged group) gain more and Latino youth (a socially marginalized group) gain least from such a resource. In addition to addressing the SES gap, policymakers should identify and address mechanisms by which ethnic minority youth remain at risk of tobacco use, even when they are from highly educated families.

Parental Educational Attainment, the Superior Temporal Cortical Surface Area, and Reading Ability among American Children: A Test of Marginalization-Related Diminished Returns

“…In addition to the ABCD study data [ 102 ], similar MDRs are shown in several national studies, such as the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) [ 69 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 ], Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) [ 47 , 112 , 113 , 114 ], Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) [ 115 ], Monitoring the Future (MTF) [ 53 ], and National Survey of American Life (NSAL) [ 50 ], all showing weaker effects of SES indicators on outcomes for black children compared to white children. For example, in the PATH data, SES effects on future tobacco use [ 47 ], in the FFCWS study, SES effects on ADHD, impulsivity, obesity, and self-rated health [ 69 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 ], in ELS, SES effects on school quality [ 115 ], and in MTF, SES effects on school performance were all weaker for black than white children [ 53 ]. In a longitudinal study of Flint, for MI adolescents, the effect of having married parents on subsequent anxiety symptoms was weaker for black than white children who were transitioning to young adulthood [ 116 ].…”

“…Marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs) refer to systematically weaker effects of SES resources, particularly parental education, on a wide range of health and developmental outcomes of children from marginalized families compared to privileged families [ 42 ]. As a result of such MDRs [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], black children from high SES families remain at risk of smoking [ 47 ], aggression [ 48 ], depression [ 49 ], suicide [ 50 ], internalization [ 51 , 52 ], externalization [ 51 , 52 ], and poor school functioning [ 48 ] compared to white children with identical SES. High SES black children also show worse than expected grades in reading, math, and science than their white counterparts [ 53 , 54 ].…”

Differences among factors associated with tobacco product use among Black and White adolescents: A cross-sectional analysis of wave one of the PATH study 2013–2014

“…These findings add to the growing body of research that indicates that the role of parental education differs between Black and White adolescents. However, the reasons for the difference remain unclear 17 - 19 . Assari et al 18 speculate that Black families might experience diminished gains from the sociocultural benefits of higher education due to systemic racism and discrimination: ‘Diminished gain is a phenomenon wherein the health effects of certain socioeconomic resources, and psychological assets are systematically smaller for Black individuals than White counterparts.…”

“…Similarly, higher parental socioeconomic status (SES; i.e. education and/or income), a well-established protective factor against White adolescent tobacco use, does not equally protect Black adolescents from tobacco use 17 - 20 . Moreover, recent findings indicate that Black adolescents have not shown the same overall decline in adolescent tobacco smoking from 1999 to 2018 21 .…”

Immigration Status, Socioeconomic Status, and Self-Rated Health in Europe

“…Similar patterns are shown for stress [ 42 ], trauma [ 86 , 87 ], and economic well-being. They also exist for mental [ 88 ], behavioral [ 89 , 90 ], and physical health [ 91 ], healthcare [ 92 , 93 ], and substance use [ 94 ]. While MDRs are shown for mental health [ 74 , 95 ], sleep [ 96 ], diet [ 97 ], exercise, and substance use [ 90 , 98 , 99 ], as mentioned above, these are mainly based on race in the US [ 45 , 100 ].…”