The Influence of Ethnicity and Adverse Life Experiences During Adolescence on Young Adult Socioeconomic Attainment: The Moderating Role of Education

• Published in: Journal of youth and adolescence Vol. 41; no. 11; pp. 1472 - 1487
• Main Authors: Wickrama, K. A. S., Simons, Leslie Gordon, Baltimore, Diana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.11.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; African Americans; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child development; Children & youth; Clinical Psychology; Cultural Deprivation; Disadvantaged; Education; Educational Attainment; Educational Opportunities; Educational Quality; Educational Status; Empirical Research; Employment Experience; Ethnic Groups; Ethnicity; Family; Female; Health Psychology; History of Psychology; Humans; Income; Law and Psychology; Life Change Events; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Minority & ethnic groups; Models, Statistical; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health; Poverty; Prospective Studies; Psychology; Quality of Health Care; Race; Regression Analysis; Role of Education; Salary Wage Differentials; School dropouts; Self Report; Social Class; Social Environment; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Teenagers; United States; Young Adult; Young Adults; Youth; United States; United States > US; Early life adversity; Education; Socioeconomic attainment
• ISSN: 0047-2891; 1573-6601
• DOI: 10.1007/s10964-012-9764-9

Previous research has documented that adverse life experiences during adolescence, particularly for ethnic minorities, have a long-term influence on income and asset attainment and that this relationship is largely mediated by educational achievement. We extend prior research by investigating three research questions. First, we investigate the extent to which community disadvantage, family factors and race/ethnicity each exert an independent influence on young adult socioeconomic attainment. Second, we examine whether youths’ educational attainment mediates these independent influences on socioeconomic attainment. Third, we test whether educational attainment ameliorates the negative influences of disadvantaged community and family conditions and race/ethnicity on socioeconomic attainment. We address these questions using multilevel modeling with longitudinal, prospective data from Waves 1 and 4 of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which has a nationally representative sample of adolescents ( N  = 13, 450; 53 % females). Regarding our first research question, our results indicated that African Americans, youth from disadvantaged communities, lower SES families achieve significantly lower levels of earnings, assets, and job quality during young adulthood. Second, we found that young adults’ educational level only partially mediate the influences of family and race/ethnicity influences on young adults’ socioeconomic attainment. Third, we found that young adults’ educational level buffered the influence of early socioeconomic adversities and accentuated the positive influences of family resources. Findings highlight the importance of social context as well as educational opportunities during childhood and adolescence for economic stability in early adulthood.