From Dr. Fomby:
US men’s military service has mixed effects on their own later status attainment. We consider whether and how Black and white men’s military service contributes to their children’s status attainment as measured by college completion. Our empirical models evaluate status attainment transmission pathways that we expect will be shaped by men’s military service and that may operate differently for Black and white men. We use data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics and apply propensity score matching methods to compare second-generation outcomes among men with vs. without military service experience.
Dr. Paula Fomby is a sociologist and family demographer. She studies how families and social institutions interact to shape children’s well-being and life chances, with particular attention to economic and racialized inequalities. Much of her work focuses on children’s family composition – that is, the network of relationships among people who constitute a child’s family system. She also has extensive experience in the design, collection, and public release of population-representative national survey data on children and families.
