title: Death of family members as an overlooked source of racial disadvantage in the United States.
abstract: Long-standing racial differences in US life expectancy suggest that black Americans would be exposed to significantly more family member deaths than white Americans from childhood through adulthood, which, given the health risks posed by grief and bereavement, would add to the disadvantages that they face. We analyze nationally representative US data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (n = 7,617) and the Health and Retirement Study (n = 34,757) to estimate racial differences in exposure to the death of family members at different ages, beginning in childhood. Results indicate that blacks are significantly more likely than whites to have experienced the death of a mother, a father, and a sibling from childhood through midlife. From young adulthood through later life, blacks are also more likely than whites to have experienced the death of a child and of a spouse. These results reveal an underappreciated layer of racial inequality in the United States, one that could contribute to the intergenerational transmission of health disadvantage. By calling attention to this heightened vulnerability of black Americans, our findings underscore the need to address the potential impact of more frequent and earlier exposure to family member deaths in the process of cumulative disadvantage.
authors.affiliation: Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; umberson@prc.utexas.edu.|Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
authors.forename: Debra
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1317-3934
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Umberson
authors.affiliation: Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.|Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
authors.forename: Julie Skalamera
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.|Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crosnoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.|Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
authors.forename: Tetyana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pudrovska
authors.affiliation: Population Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.|Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Donnelly
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003643:Death; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044469:Racial Groups; D012306:Risk; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: bereavement; disparities; family; life expectancy; race