Article Open Access November 19, 2024

The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings

Shervin Assari 1, 2, 3, 4,* and Hossein Zare 5, 6
1
Department of Internal Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, United States
2
Department of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, United States
3
Department of Urban Public Health, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, United States
4
Marginalization-Related Diminished Returns (MDRs) Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
5
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
6
School of Business, University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), Adelphi, MD, United States
Page(s): 92-110
Received
July 30, 2024
Revised
September 27, 2024
Accepted
November 12, 2024
Published
November 19, 2024
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Scientific Publications
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APA Style
Assari, S. , & Zare, H. (2024). The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings. Current Research in Public Health, 4(2), 92-110. https://doi.org/10.31586/jbls.2024.1128
ACS Style
Assari, S. ; Zare, H. The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings. Current Research in Public Health 2024 4(2), 92-110. https://doi.org/10.31586/jbls.2024.1128
Chicago/Turabian Style
Assari, Shervin, and Hossein Zare. 2024. "The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings". Current Research in Public Health 4, no. 2: 92-110. https://doi.org/10.31586/jbls.2024.1128
AMA Style
Assari S, Zare H. The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings. Current Research in Public Health. 2024; 4(2):92-110. https://doi.org/10.31586/jbls.2024.1128
@Article{crph1128,
AUTHOR = {Assari, Shervin and Zare, Hossein},
TITLE = {The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings},
JOURNAL = {Current Research in Public Health},
VOLUME = {4},
YEAR = {2024},
NUMBER = {2},
PAGES = {92-110},
URL = {https://www.scipublications.com/journal/index.php/JBLS/article/view/1128},
ISSN = {2831-5162},
DOI = {10.31586/jbls.2024.1128},
ABSTRACT = {Objective: Inequalities exist in children’s educational outcomes—including reading proficiency, school discrimination, and school disciplinary actions—across zip codes with different levels of educational childhood opportunity index (COI). This study examines the interaction between race and educational environment on children’s educational outcomes. We hypothesize that race, parental education, and their interaction are associated with perceived school discrimination, which in turn reduces their cognitive, academic, and emotional wellbeing. We also hypothesize that Black children with high socioeconomic status (SES) report high perceived school discrimination in high-COI settings. Methods: Data were drawn from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which measures a wide range of educational, cognitive, and emotional outcomes. At the same time, the ABCD children are sampled across areas with vast differences in COI rankings, that can be classified into these five categories: very high, high, average, low, and very low educational COIs. Our structural equation models (SEM) tested the additive and interactive effects of race and educational attainment on perceived school discrimination, and the effects of school discrimination on various cognitive abilities (reading proficiency, picture vocabulary, and list sorting working memory), school suspension, as well as depressed mood. Our multi-group SEM assessed how these relationships vary across educational COI levels. Results: Our findings showed that high SES Black children report highest school discrimination in residential areas with highest COIs. This is based on the observation that the interaction between race and parental education on experiences of school discrimination were only significant in areas with highest COI. Across residential areas with different COI levels, students who experienced higher school discrimination had higher suspension, worse depression, and worse cognitive performance. Conclusion: While higher COIs are associated with better academic outcomes, Black-White gaps exist in the role of increased COI through increased racial bias that children perceive. These findings underscore the complexity of educational equity, suggesting that improving COI alone is insufficient for eliminating racial disparities in school experiences. Policies should be in place to reduce school-based discrimination against Black students in high COI settings.},
}
%0 Journal Article
%A Assari, Shervin
%A Zare, Hossein
%D 2024
%J Current Research in Public Health

%@ 2831-5162
%V 4
%N 2
%P 92-110

%T The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings
%M doi:10.31586/jbls.2024.1128
%U https://www.scipublications.com/journal/index.php/JBLS/article/view/1128
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Assari, Shervin
AU  - Zare, Hossein
TI  - The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings
T2  - Current Research in Public Health
PY  - 2024
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
SN  - 2831-5162
SP  - 92
EP  - 110
UR  - https://www.scipublications.com/journal/index.php/JBLS/article/view/1128
AB  - Objective: Inequalities exist in children’s educational outcomes—including reading proficiency, school discrimination, and school disciplinary actions—across zip codes with different levels of educational childhood opportunity index (COI). This study examines the interaction between race and educational environment on children’s educational outcomes. We hypothesize that race, parental education, and their interaction are associated with perceived school discrimination, which in turn reduces their cognitive, academic, and emotional wellbeing. We also hypothesize that Black children with high socioeconomic status (SES) report high perceived school discrimination in high-COI settings. Methods: Data were drawn from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which measures a wide range of educational, cognitive, and emotional outcomes. At the same time, the ABCD children are sampled across areas with vast differences in COI rankings, that can be classified into these five categories: very high, high, average, low, and very low educational COIs. Our structural equation models (SEM) tested the additive and interactive effects of race and educational attainment on perceived school discrimination, and the effects of school discrimination on various cognitive abilities (reading proficiency, picture vocabulary, and list sorting working memory), school suspension, as well as depressed mood. Our multi-group SEM assessed how these relationships vary across educational COI levels. Results: Our findings showed that high SES Black children report highest school discrimination in residential areas with highest COIs. This is based on the observation that the interaction between race and parental education on experiences of school discrimination were only significant in areas with highest COI. Across residential areas with different COI levels, students who experienced higher school discrimination had higher suspension, worse depression, and worse cognitive performance. Conclusion: While higher COIs are associated with better academic outcomes, Black-White gaps exist in the role of increased COI through increased racial bias that children perceive. These findings underscore the complexity of educational equity, suggesting that improving COI alone is insufficient for eliminating racial disparities in school experiences. Policies should be in place to reduce school-based discrimination against Black students in high COI settings.
DO  - The Cost of Opportunity: Anti-Black Discrimination in High Resource Settings
TI  - 10.31586/jbls.2024.1128
ER  -