Pitt Health Page: The racial wealth gap and the COVID-19 crisis

For New Pittsburgh Courier

Wealth measures a person’s or family’s financial net worth. Wealth makes it easier for families to pay for college for their children. It also helps families put money aside for emergencies like the COVID-19 crisis we now face.

The United States suffers from a racial wealth gap. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, the typical Black family has one-tenth the wealth of a typical White one. This means that wealth is unequally spread between races and particularly between Black and White households.

“Historical policies with regard to housing and employment discrimination have caused Black families to have far less wealth than White families,” says Daniesha Hunter, MS, project coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center.

As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s stress and suffering are intensified. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and community organizations in the City of Pittsburgh have long studied wealth. One of the ways to close the racial wealth gap is to help increase wealth in Black families through financial education.

Financial education is especially important for the development of good habits in teenagers. In fact, research shows that financial education received from parents helps teens manage money better. Unfortunately, not managing money well can lead to many problems. These outcomes include poor health, behavioral issues and limited choices for education. There is a need to improve financial education for teens—specifically, Black teens.

“The Family Income Dynamics (FinD) study is a nine-month long-term study of teens, their caregivers and relationships to money,” says Ms. Hunter.

“Income dynamics” refers to two different parts of income—income level and income fluctuation. Income levels examine how much money a family has over the course of the year. Income fluctuation refers to the increase or decrease in income (typically 25%) over a period of time. Researchers tend to focus on income levels rather than income fluctuation. The FinD study is unique because it focuses on teens’ perceptions of family income dynamics and financial stress.

“Family stress really doesn’t occur at the year level. One aspect of our study is to better understand how stress affects families more closely,” says Ms. Hunter, who worked with the research study before the arrival of COVID-19. As the study moves to a virtual space and is still collecting information, its results could reveal financial and stress-level data points unique to this pandemic.

The study’s researchers hope to examine associations among household income dynamics, teen behavior and academic functioning. FinD will also consider parental stress and behaviors and their teens’ recognition of family financial stress.

“The teen years are very important,” says Ms. Hunter. “Teens are able to acknowledge and identify their own stressors as well as those of their caregivers. Teenage participation in this study is crucial. We hope to better understand teenage awareness of financial stress.”

Family structures have changed over the last few decades. Rising divorce rates and increases in single-family homes have led to family structures that rely on extended support for their children. More and more children are being raised by grandparents.

“We are very aware of the complex family arrangements teens live in, so it was important to recruit alternative caregivers to the study,” says Ms. Hunter. “This gave us an opportunity to include grandparents. Grandparents may be caregivers but aren’t typically recruited to participate in parenting research.”

The FinD study team understands the importance of sharing knowledge gained from this study with the Pittsburgh community. The team plans to work with the Pitt’s Community Research Advisory Board to identify ways to share study results with the community. Additionally, the team stays connected with community groups that have supported their work. This includes updating on their progress via newsletters.

“In the future, we would like to also provide updates to Courier readers,” says Ms. Hunter.

If you are interested in participating in this study or would like more information, please contact the project coordinator at 412-624-7925.

(ABOUT THE TOP PHOTO: Daniesha Hunter, MS)

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