Community Influences on the Relation of Family Statuses to Adolescent School Performance: Differences between African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites

Parental education and family structure are less predictive of high school grades for African Americans than for whites. Community socioeconomic status predicts grades for both groups. The failure of family statuses to predict grades for African Americans appears related to the ethnic mix, and not socioeconomic status, in the residential community. Living in a census tract with a substantial proportion of minority residents affects whites as well as African Americans, reducing the influence of family statuses. That most African Americans live in such census tracts and fewer whites do explains the ethnic difference in the influence of family statuses on adolescent grades.