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Title: Skin color, sex, and educational attainment in the post-civilrights era
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2013
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Abstract: We assess the relationship between skin color and educational attainment for native-bornnon-Hispanic Black and White men and women, using data from the Coronary Artery RiskDevelopment in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. CARDIA is a medical cohort study withtwenty years of social background data and a continuous measure of skin color, recordedas the percent of light reflected off skin. For Black men and women, we find a one-stan-dard-deviation increase in skin lightness to be associated with a quarter-year increase ineducational attainment. For White women, we find an association approximately equalin magnitude to that found for Black respondents, and the pattern of significance acrosseducational transitions suggests that skin color for White women is not simply a proxyfor family background. For White men, any relationship between skin color and attainmentis not robust and, analyses suggest, might primarily reflect differences in family back-ground. Findings suggest that discrimination on the basis of skin color may be less specificto race than previously though
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Authors: Branigan, Amelia, R; Freese, Jeremy; Patir, Assaf
Periodical (Full): Social Science Research
Issue: 6
Volume: 42
Pages: 1659-1674
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Gender, Race and Ethnicity
Countries: United States