Jenifer L Bratter
Biographic Data
| ID | 110893 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jenifer L Bratter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jenifer L |
| FAMILY NAME | Bratter |
| SIGNATURE | BRATTER J L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rice University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3855-4124 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 440 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
On the boundaries of ethnicity
Asian Americans commonly have rates of interracial marriage that indicate flexible racial boundaries, yet significant ethnic variation exists. As intermarriage produces growing numbers of multiracial Asian Americans blurring boundaries further, a significant question emerges: do ethnic distinctions persist when these offspring select spouses? Drawing upon the American Community Survey (2015–2019), we examine marriage patterns across six major Asi…
Blurring the Marriage Market? Contemporary Patterns of Multiracial Marriage
Research on interracial marriage has only begun to incorporate the growing mixed-race population. Using the 2010–2019 pooled American Community Survey, we explore the likelihood of a range of spousal pairings relative to racial endogamy for multiracial people while accounting for group size and controls for education, age, and immigration status. A distinguishing feature of marriage for multiracial individuals is the possibility of a partial over…
Mixing races, maintaining racism? Considering the connection between interracial families, social distance, and racial inequality
Researchers often assume that close interracial relationships, especially intermarriage, simultaneously reflect and cause a weakening of racial and ethnic boundaries and inequality between groups. In fact, interracial marriage is often used as a measure of social distance. We question those assumptions, noting the salient boundaries and durable inequalities that remain despite decades of increases in interracial relationships. We begin with histo…
One drop on the move
We examine the relationship between historical anti-miscegenation laws and contemporary racial classification within Black–White households in the United States using a multi-layered approach to conceptualizing that socio-historical context. We draw our sample of married Black–White households with children under the age of 18 from the 2012–2016 American Community Survey 5-Year estimates. Consistent with previous research, results suggest that ho…
There’s Something Very Wrong with the System in This Country”
Multiracial organizing since the 1980s has centered around the need to define and make visible the term multiracial (e.g., U.S. Census). In the contemporary era when multiple race populations are a growing and institutionally recognized demographic, how do multiracial organizations characterize and seek to combat collective experiences of racial marginalization? Here, we draw on in-depth interviews with officers from diverse multiracial organizat…
Becoming Asian (American)? Inter-ethnic differences in racial, ethnic, and American identities for Asian American adults
Asian Americans’ incorporation into American society is structured by interactions with a racial hierarchy that presents greater barriers for some ethnic groups more than others. The racialized assimilation framework predicts that experiences of discrimination shape incorporation into US society. This study investigates the impact of discrimination on the importance placed on three identities—racial, ethnic, American identity—relative to indicato…
If You Don’t Know Me by Now
The racial composition of couples is a salient indicator of race’s impact on mate selection, but how well do those in intimate partnerships know the racial identities of their partners? While prior research has revealed that an individual’s race may be perceived differently than how they identify, most of what is known comes from brief interactions, with less information on established relationships. This study examines whether discrepancies in t…
The Racial Boundaries of Inequality
Many White Americans believe that individual rather than structural factors explain racial inequality, yet there is substantial variation in Whites' perceptions. Using data from the Portraits of American Life Study, we exploit this variation to provide insight into the processes driving Whites' perceptions of the causes of racial inequality. Specifically, we assess how social boundaries inform Whites' explanations for the disadvantage of two raci…
Multiracial Identification and Racial Gaps
For nearly 20 years, the U.S. Census has allowed respondents to report multiple races, offering new opportunities to assess the well-being of multiracial groups. Multiple-race reporting provides much-needed nuance for assessing the racial stratification of social outcomes as the distinctions between racial groups is less clear. Here, I explore the promises and the pitfalls of working with multiple-race data in studies of race inequality. I begin …
Ties That Bind? Comparing Kin Support Availability for Mothers of Mixed-Race and Monoracial Infants
Although interracial partnerships are increasingly common, social distance between racial groups may impact participants' ties with extended kin. One persistent yet untested premise is that mothers with a biracial baby are "cut off" from extended family members. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,147), we explore perceptions of kin support availability for mothers of infants and whether perceptions differ if the…
Living race together
Objective: Crossing racial lines provides a unique context for understanding racial patterns in smoking. This research explores whether adults whose unions cross racial lines behave more similarly to their own group or their partner's Design: Using a sample of respondents from the National Health Interview Survey (2001-2011), we compare the likelihood of current smoking and quitting smoking among adults in mixed-race unions to adults in same-race…
Framing the Faculty Gender Gap
Multiracial identities, single race history
Affirmation effects on math scores
Single mother families and employment, race, and poverty in changing economic times
Measuring the Diverging Components of Race
This special issue brings together original research that advances the emerging subfield on the measurement and analysis of varying components of race. The articles provide insight into how social scientists can tease apart the multiple components of race and leverage them to better understand how race continues to divide life chances, creatively using existing and new sources of data. The articles speak to three key themes: how we can better und…
Does a Self-Affirmation Intervention Reduce Stereotype Threat in Black and Hispanic High Schools
Community Resources in a Diverse City
Population Composition by Race and Ethnicity
From Multiracial to Transgender
In 2000, the US Census Bureau acknowledged multiracial Americans on the decennial census in an attempt to better capture racial heterogeneity and to more closely align what is publicly collected on forms with people's personal understandings of their racial identity. In this article, we start a discussion of how the census—a major source of political identity recognition and legitimation—could be more inclusive of gender variance. We ask: (1) Is …
Biracial in America
Investigating Race, Class and Context through Historical Evidence
In an era of re-segregation among school systems in the United States, we find ourselves revisiting times of forced school segregation (pre Brown v. Board) for a better understanding of explanations and potential consequences. One consequence, depressed aspirations for occupational mobility, is examined here. Using data for Mathews and Prothro's Negro Participation Survey, administered to black college students in 1961, we examine this relationsh…
Poverty at a Racial Crossroads
Although multiracial youth represent a growing segment of children in all American families, we have little information on their well-being within single-mother households. This article examines multiracial children's level of poverty within single-mother families to identify the degree to which they may stand out from their monoracial peers. Using data from the 2006-2008 American Community Survey (3-year estimates), we explore the level of racia…
Does Multiracial Matter? A Study of Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health
How do self-identified multiracial adults fit into documented patterns of racial health disparities? We assess whether the health status of adults who view themselves as multiracial is distinctive from that of adults who maintain a single-race identity, by using a seven-year (2001-2007) pooled sample of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We explore racial differences in self-rated health between whites and several single and …
Is Discrimination an Equal Opportunity Risk
Using the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we explore the relationship between racial awareness, perceived discrimination, and self-rated health among black ( n = 5,902) and white ( n = 28,451) adults. We find that adjusting for group differences in racial awareness and discrimination, in addition to socioeconomic status, explains the black-white gap in self-rated health. However, logistic regression models also find evidence for …
Will "Multiracial" Survive to the Next Generation
Will multiracial identification resonate with future generations? Using the 2000 U.S. Census, I analyze the impact of a multiracial parent on the classification of children in four types of multiracial families (e.g., white/non-white, black/non-black). Compared to families where parents are of two different single-race backgrounds, parental multiracial identity decreased the likelihood of multiracial classification due to the use of labels reflec…
What about the couple?' Interracial marriage and psychological distress
Does Multiracial Matter? A Study of Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health
How do self-identified multiracial adults fit into documented patterns of racial health disparities? We assess whether the health status of adults who view themselves as multiracial is distinctive from that of adults who maintain a single-race identity, by using a seven-year (2001-2007) pooled sample of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We explore racial differences in self-rated health between whites and several single and …
Race/Ethnic Differences in Nonspecific Psychological Distress
Objective. This article documents the patterns of white‐nonwhite differences in nonspecific psychological distress and explores how acculturation characteristics, social class, marital status, and chronic illness mediate or moderate these differences for eight racial/ethnic populations in the United States. Methods. We analyze data from a five‐year pool of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) collected between 1997 and 2001 ( N =162,032) a…
Is Discrimination an Equal Opportunity Risk
Using the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we explore the relationship between racial awareness, perceived discrimination, and self-rated health among black ( n = 5,902) and white ( n = 28,451) adults. We find that adjusting for group differences in racial awareness and discrimination, in addition to socioeconomic status, explains the black-white gap in self-rated health. However, logistic regression models also find evidence for …
A Path Toward Interracial Marriage
We examine interracial marriage as a culminating event in a sequence of intimate relationships across the life course. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, we analyze the background characteristics associated with selecting a first sex partner and first husband who differ in race/ethnicity from the respondent as well as the continuity across both outcomes. Our results show that respondents' race/ethnicity, parents' education…
Mother’s, Father’s, or Both? Parental Gender and Parent‐Child Interactions in the Racial Classification of Adolescents 1
Research on racial identification in interracial families shows that children are more likely to be labeled as minority if the father is of minority race. Yet, prior studies have not sufficiently considered the role of parent‐child relationships in shaping children’s identification with either mother’s or father’s race. We address this limitation using data on 706 adolescents in interracial families from Wave 1 of Add Health. We examine whether a…
Not Even if You Were the Last Person on Earth
Using the 1987-1988 and 1992-1994 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, the authors measure the association between Wave 1 responses to 12 questions on whom respondents would be 'most willing to marry' and the likelihood of marriage by Wave 2. Preliminary analysis indicated that some questions about partner preferences are more predictive of marriage than others. Two hypotheses are developed to explain the pattern of effects. O…
Measuring the Diverging Components of Race
This special issue brings together original research that advances the emerging subfield on the measurement and analysis of varying components of race. The articles provide insight into how social scientists can tease apart the multiple components of race and leverage them to better understand how race continues to divide life chances, creatively using existing and new sources of data. The articles speak to three key themes: how we can better und…
Single mother families and employment, race, and poverty in changing economic times
Multiracial Identification and Racial Gaps
For nearly 20 years, the U.S. Census has allowed respondents to report multiple races, offering new opportunities to assess the well-being of multiracial groups. Multiple-race reporting provides much-needed nuance for assessing the racial stratification of social outcomes as the distinctions between racial groups is less clear. Here, I explore the promises and the pitfalls of working with multiple-race data in studies of race inequality. I begin …
From Multiracial to Transgender
In 2000, the US Census Bureau acknowledged multiracial Americans on the decennial census in an attempt to better capture racial heterogeneity and to more closely align what is publicly collected on forms with people's personal understandings of their racial identity. In this article, we start a discussion of how the census—a major source of political identity recognition and legitimation—could be more inclusive of gender variance. We ask: (1) Is …
Multiracial identities, single race history
Ties That Bind? Comparing Kin Support Availability for Mothers of Mixed-Race and Monoracial Infants
Although interracial partnerships are increasingly common, social distance between racial groups may impact participants' ties with extended kin. One persistent yet untested premise is that mothers with a biracial baby are "cut off" from extended family members. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,147), we explore perceptions of kin support availability for mothers of infants and whether perceptions differ if the…
Poverty at a Racial Crossroads
Although multiracial youth represent a growing segment of children in all American families, we have little information on their well-being within single-mother households. This article examines multiracial children's level of poverty within single-mother families to identify the degree to which they may stand out from their monoracial peers. Using data from the 2006-2008 American Community Survey (3-year estimates), we explore the level of racia…
The demography of difference
The Racial Boundaries of Inequality
Many White Americans believe that individual rather than structural factors explain racial inequality, yet there is substantial variation in Whites' perceptions. Using data from the Portraits of American Life Study, we exploit this variation to provide insight into the processes driving Whites' perceptions of the causes of racial inequality. Specifically, we assess how social boundaries inform Whites' explanations for the disadvantage of two raci…
Homogamy by education and migration status in Monterrey, Mexico
Becoming Asian (American)? Inter-ethnic differences in racial, ethnic, and American identities for Asian American adults
Asian Americans’ incorporation into American society is structured by interactions with a racial hierarchy that presents greater barriers for some ethnic groups more than others. The racialized assimilation framework predicts that experiences of discrimination shape incorporation into US society. This study investigates the impact of discrimination on the importance placed on three identities—racial, ethnic, American identity—relative to indicato…
Does a Self-Affirmation Intervention Reduce Stereotype Threat in Black and Hispanic High Schools
If You Don’t Know Me by Now
The racial composition of couples is a salient indicator of race’s impact on mate selection, but how well do those in intimate partnerships know the racial identities of their partners? While prior research has revealed that an individual’s race may be perceived differently than how they identify, most of what is known comes from brief interactions, with less information on established relationships. This study examines whether discrepancies in t…
Framing the Faculty Gender Gap
Mixing races, maintaining racism? Considering the connection between interracial families, social distance, and racial inequality
Researchers often assume that close interracial relationships, especially intermarriage, simultaneously reflect and cause a weakening of racial and ethnic boundaries and inequality between groups. In fact, interracial marriage is often used as a measure of social distance. We question those assumptions, noting the salient boundaries and durable inequalities that remain despite decades of increases in interracial relationships. We begin with histo…
Affirmation effects on math scores
There’s Something Very Wrong with the System in This Country”
Multiracial organizing since the 1980s has centered around the need to define and make visible the term multiracial (e.g., U.S. Census). In the contemporary era when multiple race populations are a growing and institutionally recognized demographic, how do multiracial organizations characterize and seek to combat collective experiences of racial marginalization? Here, we draw on in-depth interviews with officers from diverse multiracial organizat…
The demography of difference
Not Even if You Were the Last Person on Earth
Using the 1987-1988 and 1992-1994 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, the authors measure the association between Wave 1 responses to 12 questions on whom respondents would be 'most willing to marry' and the likelihood of marriage by Wave 2. Preliminary analysis indicated that some questions about partner preferences are more predictive of marriage than others. Two hypotheses are developed to explain the pattern of effects. O…
Race/Ethnic Differences in Nonspecific Psychological Distress
Objective. This article documents the patterns of white‐nonwhite differences in nonspecific psychological distress and explores how acculturation characteristics, social class, marital status, and chronic illness mediate or moderate these differences for eight racial/ethnic populations in the United States. Methods. We analyze data from a five‐year pool of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) collected between 1997 and 2001 ( N =162,032) a…
Special Reviewers
What about the couple?' Interracial marriage and psychological distress
Homogamy by education and migration status in Monterrey, Mexico
Will "Multiracial" Survive to the Next Generation
Will multiracial identification resonate with future generations? Using the 2000 U.S. Census, I analyze the impact of a multiracial parent on the classification of children in four types of multiracial families (e.g., white/non-white, black/non-black). Compared to families where parents are of two different single-race backgrounds, parental multiracial identity decreased the likelihood of multiracial classification due to the use of labels reflec…
A Path Toward Interracial Marriage
We examine interracial marriage as a culminating event in a sequence of intimate relationships across the life course. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, we analyze the background characteristics associated with selecting a first sex partner and first husband who differ in race/ethnicity from the respondent as well as the continuity across both outcomes. Our results show that respondents' race/ethnicity, parents' education…
“But Will It Last?”
The literature on interracial families has examined social stigmas attached to interracial relationships but has not thoroughly documented whether crossing racial boundaries increases the risk of divorce. Using the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (Cycle VI), we compare the likelihood of divorce for interracial couples to that of same‐race couples. Comparisons across marriage cohorts reveal that, overall, interracial couples have higher rate…
Mother’s, Father’s, or Both? Parental Gender and Parent‐Child Interactions in the Racial Classification of Adolescents 1
Research on racial identification in interracial families shows that children are more likely to be labeled as minority if the father is of minority race. Yet, prior studies have not sufficiently considered the role of parent‐child relationships in shaping children’s identification with either mother’s or father’s race. We address this limitation using data on 706 adolescents in interracial families from Wave 1 of Add Health. We examine whether a…
Does Multiracial Matter? A Study of Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health
How do self-identified multiracial adults fit into documented patterns of racial health disparities? We assess whether the health status of adults who view themselves as multiracial is distinctive from that of adults who maintain a single-race identity, by using a seven-year (2001-2007) pooled sample of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We explore racial differences in self-rated health between whites and several single and …
Is Discrimination an Equal Opportunity Risk
Using the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we explore the relationship between racial awareness, perceived discrimination, and self-rated health among black ( n = 5,902) and white ( n = 28,451) adults. We find that adjusting for group differences in racial awareness and discrimination, in addition to socioeconomic status, explains the black-white gap in self-rated health. However, logistic regression models also find evidence for …
Poverty at a Racial Crossroads
Although multiracial youth represent a growing segment of children in all American families, we have little information on their well-being within single-mother households. This article examines multiracial children's level of poverty within single-mother families to identify the degree to which they may stand out from their monoracial peers. Using data from the 2006-2008 American Community Survey (3-year estimates), we explore the level of racia…
Population Composition by Race and Ethnicity
From Multiracial to Transgender
In 2000, the US Census Bureau acknowledged multiracial Americans on the decennial census in an attempt to better capture racial heterogeneity and to more closely align what is publicly collected on forms with people's personal understandings of their racial identity. In this article, we start a discussion of how the census—a major source of political identity recognition and legitimation—could be more inclusive of gender variance. We ask: (1) Is …
Biracial in America
Investigating Race, Class and Context through Historical Evidence
In an era of re-segregation among school systems in the United States, we find ourselves revisiting times of forced school segregation (pre Brown v. Board) for a better understanding of explanations and potential consequences. One consequence, depressed aspirations for occupational mobility, is examined here. Using data for Mathews and Prothro's Negro Participation Survey, administered to black college students in 1961, we examine this relationsh…
Measuring the Diverging Components of Race
This special issue brings together original research that advances the emerging subfield on the measurement and analysis of varying components of race. The articles provide insight into how social scientists can tease apart the multiple components of race and leverage them to better understand how race continues to divide life chances, creatively using existing and new sources of data. The articles speak to three key themes: how we can better und…
Does a Self-Affirmation Intervention Reduce Stereotype Threat in Black and Hispanic High Schools
Community Resources in a Diverse City
Living race together
Objective: Crossing racial lines provides a unique context for understanding racial patterns in smoking. This research explores whether adults whose unions cross racial lines behave more similarly to their own group or their partner's Design: Using a sample of respondents from the National Health Interview Survey (2001-2011), we compare the likelihood of current smoking and quitting smoking among adults in mixed-race unions to adults in same-race…
Framing the Faculty Gender Gap
Multiracial identities, single race history
Affirmation effects on math scores
Single mother families and employment, race, and poverty in changing economic times
Sociology (31 works) · Gender Studies (25 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (20 works) · Demography (19 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Race (biology (13 works) · Political science (11 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (11 works)