Escaping Poverty and Securing Middle Class Status: How Race and Socioeconomic Status Shape Mobility Prospects for African Americans During the Transition to Adulthood

• NCJ Number: 226027
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 242-256
• Author(s): Cecily R. Hardaway; Vonnie C. McLoyd
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reports on a literature review of research from the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and economics in identifying links between individual, family, community, and structural factors related to African-Americans’ social mobility (where they live, their associates, and how they are impacted by racial and class-related stigma) during the transition to adulthood.

Abstract

The research shows that African-Americans who successfully enter the middle class are mostly in the lower middle class, concentrated in government employment and in jobs that provide services to low-income African-Americans. They are vulnerable to slipping back to their low-income origins, partly because they lag behind Whites on many of the major indicators of the middle class (income, wealth, homeownership, and educational attainment). Due to a lack of accumulated wealth, even middle class African-Americans may be unable to help their children obtain middle-class status. Studies have linked family wealth to years of completed schooling, college enrollment, and college completion. There are also racial disparities in inheritance, which affects the transmission of resources across generations to aid in socioeconomic mobility and status. Racial discrimination across generations limits access to the means of obtaining wealth by limiting educational and employment opportunities. Individuals who are both African-American and economically disadvantaged are doubly stigmatized based on negative perceptions of individuals in both groups. Individuals in low-status groups also have less powerful social networks and experience fewer rewards for the types of cultural capital they possess. This article examines how displays of culture and class mediate relations between race, socioeconomic status, and opportunity. Also discussed is how members of children’s social networks can help them build the type of cultural capital that is rewarded and associated with mobility in institutional settings. 142 references