Racial inequality and college attendance: The mediating role of parental investments

Research on racial disparities in academics has focused largely on outcomes, such as retention rates, grades earned, and social adjustment to college. Much less analytic attention has centered on the origins of these racial disparities and, specifically, the mechanisms that may be playing a role. In this article, we argue that persistent gaps in college attendance warrant attention given their implications for broader patterns of racial stratification and its reproduction across generations. Using longitudinal data, we analyze disparities in family background and potentially influential investments parents make (or are constrained from making) early and late in the high school experience, and then how the patterns uncovered shape the likelihood of college attendance. Findings confirm expectations. Specifically, racial inequalities in class background shape disparities in cultural, monetary, and parental interactional investments, with strong consequences for high school attainment/achievement. Background inequalities, and their implications for early and later family investments and achievement/attainment, explain the entire black-white gap in the likelihood of college attendance. We conclude by discussing our argument and findings relative to educational research, race/class stratification theory, and existing perspectives on racial inequality and from where it emanates.