ABSTRACT

This study examines patterns of and explanations for racial/ethnic-education disparities in infant mortality in the United States. Using linked birth and death data (2007–2010), we find that while education-specific infant mortality rates are similar for Mexican Americans and Whites, infants of college-educated African American women experience 3.1 more deaths per 1,000 live births (Rate Ratio = 1.46) than infants of White women with a high school degree or less. The high mortality rates among infants born to African American women of all educational attainment levels are fully accounted for by shorter gestational lengths. Supplementary analyses of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health show that college-educated African American women exhibit similar socioeconomic, contextual, psychosocial, and health disadvantages as White women with a high school degree or less. Together, these results demonstrate African American-White infant mortality and socioeconomic, health, and contextual disparities within education levels, suggesting the role of life course socioeconomic disadvantage and stress processes in the poorer infant health outcomes of African Americans relative to Whites.

 抽象的

本研究探讨了美国婴儿死亡率的种族/民族教育差异的模式和解释。使用关联的出生和死亡数据（2007-2010），我们发现虽然墨西哥裔美国人和白人的教育特定婴儿死亡率相似，但受过大学教育的非裔美国女性的婴儿每 1,000 名活产婴儿的死亡人数要高出 3.1 人（比率 = 1.46）高于高中或以下学历的白人女性的婴儿。各种受教育程度的非裔美国妇女所生婴儿的高死亡率完全是由于孕期较短所致。对国家青少年至成人健康纵向研究数据的补充分析表明，受过大学教育的非裔美国女性与高中或以下学历的白人女性表现出相似的社会经济、背景、心理和健康劣势。总之，这些结果证明了非裔美国人-白人婴儿死亡率以及教育水平内的社会经济、健康和背景差异，表明生命历程中的社会经济劣势和压力过程在非裔美国人相对于白人的婴儿健康结果较差的过程中发挥了作用。