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Article Open Access February 12, 2025

Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth

Shervin Assari 1, 2, 3, 4,*, Maria Jahromi 5, 6 and Hossein Zare 7, 8
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
Research School of Economics, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
6
School of Economics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
7
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
8
School of Business, University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), College Park, United States
Publihed in: Current Research in Public Health (Volume 5, Issue 1, 2025)
Page(s): 26-39
DOI: 10.31586/ojer.2025.1232
Received
December 09, 2024
Revised
January 16, 2025
Accepted
February 10, 2025
Published
February 12, 2025
Keywords
School Performance; Achievement Gap; Ethnic Groups; Social Determinants of Health
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), 2025. Published by Scientific Publications
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Cite This Article

APA Style
Assari, S. , Jahromi, M. , & Zare, H. (2025). Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth. Current Research in Public Health, 5(1), 26-39. https://doi.org/10.31586/ojer.2025.1232
ACS Style
Assari, S. ; Jahromi, M. ; Zare, H. Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth. Current Research in Public Health 2025 5(1), 26-39. https://doi.org/10.31586/ojer.2025.1232
Chicago/Turabian Style
Assari, Shervin, Maria Jahromi, and Hossein Zare. 2025. "Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth". Current Research in Public Health 5, no. 1: 26-39. https://doi.org/10.31586/ojer.2025.1232
AMA Style
Assari S, Jahromi M, Zare H. Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth. Current Research in Public Health. 2025; 5(1):26-39. https://doi.org/10.31586/ojer.2025.1232 
@Article{crph1232,
AUTHOR = {Assari, Shervin and Jahromi, Maria and Zare, Hossein},
TITLE = {Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth},
JOURNAL = {Current Research in Public Health},
VOLUME = {5},
YEAR = {2025},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {26-39},
URL = {https://www.scipublications.com/journal/index.php/OJER/article/view/1232},
ISSN = {2831-5162},
DOI = {10.31586/ojer.2025.1232},
ABSTRACT = {Background: Parental education is a key determinant of academic performance, yet its protective effects may differ by race and ethnicity. The concept of Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) highlights the weaker association between socioeconomic resources and outcomes for marginalized populations, including Black and Latino youth. Objective: To investigate whether the positive association between parental education and school performance (letter grades) is weaker for Black and Latino youth compared to non-Latino White youth. Methods: Data were drawn from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) 2023 study. The sample included Black, Latino, and non-Latino White youth. The outcome was a nine-level continuous measure of academic performance based on self-reported letter grades, with higher scores indicating better performance. Multivariate regression models tested interactions between parental education and race/ethnicity in predicting grades, adjusting for confounders such as family income, gender, and school characteristics. Results: A total number of 7584 12th graders entered the study. Parental education was positively associated with school performance across all groups, but the magnitude of this association was significantly smaller for Black and Latino youth compared to non-Latino White youth. Even after controlling for socioeconomic and contextual factors, the racial and ethnic differences in the strength of this association persisted. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence of Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) in the academic domain, with Black and Latino youth experiencing weaker benefits of parental education on school performance. These disparities suggest that structural barriers and systemic inequities undermine the translation of parental educational attainment into academic success for marginalized groups. Policy interventions must address these structural barriers to promote equity in educational outcomes.},
}
%0 Journal Article
%A Assari, Shervin
%A Jahromi, Maria
%A Zare, Hossein
%D 2025
%J Current Research in Public Health

%@ 2831-5162
%V 5
%N 1
%P 26-39

%T Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth
%M doi:10.31586/ojer.2025.1232
%U https://www.scipublications.com/journal/index.php/OJER/article/view/1232

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Assari, Shervin
AU  - Jahromi, Maria
AU  - Zare, Hossein
TI  - Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth
T2  - Current Research in Public Health
PY  - 2025
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IS  - 1
SN  - 2831-5162
SP  - 26
EP  - 39
UR  - https://www.scipublications.com/journal/index.php/OJER/article/view/1232
AB  - Background: Parental education is a key determinant of academic performance, yet its protective effects may differ by race and ethnicity. The concept of Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) highlights the weaker association between socioeconomic resources and outcomes for marginalized populations, including Black and Latino youth. Objective: To investigate whether the positive association between parental education and school performance (letter grades) is weaker for Black and Latino youth compared to non-Latino White youth. Methods: Data were drawn from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) 2023 study. The sample included Black, Latino, and non-Latino White youth. The outcome was a nine-level continuous measure of academic performance based on self-reported letter grades, with higher scores indicating better performance. Multivariate regression models tested interactions between parental education and race/ethnicity in predicting grades, adjusting for confounders such as family income, gender, and school characteristics. Results: A total number of 7584 12th graders entered the study. Parental education was positively associated with school performance across all groups, but the magnitude of this association was significantly smaller for Black and Latino youth compared to non-Latino White youth. Even after controlling for socioeconomic and contextual factors, the racial and ethnic differences in the strength of this association persisted. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence of Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) in the academic domain, with Black and Latino youth experiencing weaker benefits of parental education on school performance. These disparities suggest that structural barriers and systemic inequities undermine the translation of parental educational attainment into academic success for marginalized groups. Policy interventions must address these structural barriers to promote equity in educational outcomes.
DO  - Unequal Benefits: How Parental Education Falls Short for Black and Latino Youth
TI  - 10.31586/ojer.2025.1232
ER  -