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While much research explores how skin tone alongside race/ethnicity and gender intersect to pattern the health of U.S. citizens, less research has examined these processes among U.S. immigrants. We employed ordered and logistic regression to model mental and self-rated health among multiple racial/ethnic immigrant groups using data from two waves of the New Immigrant Survey (N = 2358). Models suggested darker skin shades were associated with higher likelihood of mental health challenges regardless of gender or racial/ethnic identity, though a multiplicative analysis suggested a pronounced gender difference among Black immigrants. In addition, women reported worse self-rated health relative to men; however, the difference for Asian women was smaller than for Black or White women, and Latina women had slightly better self-rated health than Latino men. Indicators of health were not uniform among immigrants of color, illustrating the importance of an intersectional framework that includes skin tone alongside the traditional racial/ethnic binary categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity is a persistent problem in the United States and is disproportionately distributed across racial/ethnic groups, with some evidence that non-Latino blacks and Latinos experience higher rates than non-Latino whites. But no nationally-representative study examines how race/ethnicity affects food insecurity for immigrants in the United States. Using new assimilation theory and the 1999-2010 waves ( N = 32,464) of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), this study investigated the relationship between food insecurity and both race/ethnicity and nativity status. Results, when socioeconomic status is held constant, provide evidence for a nonwhite/white divide in food insecurity for both immigrants and the native-born. That is, blacks and Latinos - regardless of nativity status - are significantly more food insecure than both foreign- and native-born whites. These results provide insight into a continuing pattern of racial/ethnic inequality in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used over 20 years of data to estimate differences in mothers' wealth across marital biography, following a marital first birth. Our study is the first to account for the selection of mothers into divorce or remarriage when estimating the role that marital history plays in wealth accumulation. Mothers who remained stably married to the biological father of their firstborn child reported greater wealth in their forties than mothers who divorced and did not remarry. Those who married at younger ages, women of color, and women from lower-income families were less likely to remain stably married. Net of selection, mothers who remained remarried had the same wealth as continuously married mothers. Thus the characteristics that predispose mothers to divorce, and not divorce per se, are linked to lower wealth. Once these selection effects were accounted for, we concluded that divorce was not necessarily detrimental to mothers' economic security, a new finding that contradicts past studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends research on the relationship between wealth accumulation and union experiences, such as marriage and cohabitation. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we explore the wealth trajectories of married individuals in light of their premarital cohabitation histories. Over time, marriage positively correlates with wealth accumulation. Most married persons with a premarital cohabitation history have wealth trajectories that are indistinguishable from those without cohabitation experience, with one exception: individuals who marry their one and only cohabiting partner experience a wealth premium that is twice as large as that for married individuals who never cohabited prior to marrying. Results remain robust over time despite cohabiters' selection out of marriage, yet vary by race/ethnicity. We conclude that relationship history may shape long-term wealth accumulation, and contrary to existing literature, individuals who marry their only cohabiting partners experience a beneficial marital outcome. It is therefore important to understand the diversity of cohabitation experiences among the married. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wealth is a strong indicator of immigrant integration in U.S. society. Drawing on new assimilation theory, we highlight the importance of racial/ethnic group boundaries and propose different paths of wealth integration among U.S. immigrants. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and quantile regression, we show that race/ethnicity shapes immigrant wealth inequality across the entire distribution of net worth, along with immigrants' U.S. experience, such as immigrant status, U.S. education, English language proficiency, and time spent in the United States. Our results document consistent racial/ethnic inequality among immigrants, also evidenced among the U.S. born, revealing that even when accounting for key aspects of U.S. experience, wealth inequality with whites for Latino and black immigrants is strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use more than 20 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to examine wealth trajectories among mothers following a nonmarital first birth. We compare wealth according to union type and union stability, and we distinguish partners by biological parentage of the firstborn child. Net of controls for education, race/ethnicity, and family background, single mothers who enter into stable marriages with either a biological father or stepfather experience significant wealth advantages over time (more than $2,500 per year) relative to those who marry and divorce, cohabit, or remain unpartnered. Sensitivity analyses adjusting for unequal selection into marriage support these findings and demonstrate that race (but not ethnicity) and age at first birth structure mothers' access to later marriage. We conclude that not all single mothers have equal access to marriage; however, marriage, union stability, and paternity have distinct roles for wealth accumulation following a nonmarital birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses wealth attainment as an indicator of economic integration and assesses how educational-occupational mismatch (i.e., over/underqualification) and race/ethnicity affect the wealth attainment of a sample of legal permanent residents in the USA. Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, this paper finds that overqualification is positively associated with wealth attainment, but below the rate for adequately qualified workers in the same occupation. Underqualified immigrants are associated with a pattern of wealth attainment that is equivalent to the adequately qualified. Racial/ethnic wealth inequality among legal permanent residents generally reflects the well-documented pattern among the U.S. native-born. This paper concludes with a discussion that places these results alongside previous research that examines the relationship between educational-occupational mismatch and income among immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has found that married individuals who cohabited only once before marriage with their future spouse (i.e., 'spousal cohabiters') have a distinctive financial advantage: they accumulate more wealth over time than individuals who married without ever cohabiting (i.e., 'directly married'). Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and growth curve models, the present study attempts to identify the source of spousal cohabiters' wealth advantage. We find that marriage is associated with gains for financial and nonfinancial wealth, increasing home equity, and decreasing debt over time. Spousal cohabiters begin marriage with more debt than the directly married. Conditional on education, income, and other key factors, spousal cohabiters pay down their debt faster and generate greater home equity over time thereby accumulating more wealth than the directly married. This pattern of financial behavior among spousal cohabiters explains some, but not all, of their financial advantage over married persons who never cohabited prior to marrying. Given the increasing prevalence of cohabitation among young adults, these results offer important insights into the long-term economic outcomes associated with premarital cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]