Poverty
in the Family:
Siblings of the Black and White Middle Class
Mary
Pattillo-McCoy and Colleen M. Heflin
Abstract
This article is motivated by qualitative findings
of class diversity in the family networks of middle class African
Americans. To test the generalizeability of the qualitative data,
we use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to assess
the socio-economic characteristics of siblings of middle class blacks
and whites. We draw three middle class samples based on income,
occupation and education. Bivariate analyses of the three samples
show race differences in the income, poverty status, public assistance
receipt, employment, family composition, and educational attainment
of siblings. In the multivariate analysis, we find that having been
poor as an adolescent reduces the effect of being African American
on having a poor sibling and on having a sibling receiving AFDC,
capturing the intergenerational component of poverty, as well as
the recency of the black middle class. We argue that the disparate
family contexts in which middle class blacks and whites are embedded
have ramifications for their relative well-being, and contribute
to the fragility of the former.
Mary Pattillo-McCoy, Departments
of African-American Studies and Sociology, Northwestern Unviersity Colleen M. Heflin, Department of Sociology, University
of Michigan
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