Attributes of Bi-Racial Adolescents

J. Richard Udry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jan Hendrickson-Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Add Health provides a data set of adolescents who identified themselves as one race or more than one race. How are adolescents who chose one race different from those who chose two? We compared Black/White with Blacks and Whites, White/Asians with Whites and Asians, etc. on vocabulary (PPVT), school achievement (GPA), college educated parents vs. not, and two bioparent households vs. not. We chose these variables because they are more or less objective measures, not voluntary behaviors or perceptions. Those claiming two races really are "in between" their two race choices on GPA and PPVT. Education of parents and family structure show more complicated results that indicate selection effects.