All Wealth Is Not Created Equal: Race, Parental Net Worth, and Children’s Achievement

Abstract

Using data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, spanning 1986 to 2014, we investigated whether White, Black, and Hispanic children whose parents had the same wealth, measured as net worth, have equal math and reading achievement trajectories from age five through fourteen. Black and Hispanic children often had significantly worse scores than same-wealth Whites. We also found racial variation, to the disadvantage of Blacks and Hispanics relative to same-wealth Whites, in measures of family demographic context and financial portfolio composition, both of which research has linked to children’s achievement. Whereas previous research has found that structural racial inequality contributes to racial differences in wealth, we find evidence of similar processes in same-wealth comparisons that have potential implications for children’s academic success.

Keywords

• wealth
• race
• achievement
• assets
• debts