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Journal Article 1: Bryant, Z. L., Coleman, M., & Ganong, L. H. (1988). Race and family structure stereotyping: Perceptions of Black and White nuclear families and stepfamilies. The Journal of Black Psychology, 15(1), 1–16.

Abstract: Previous studies of stereotyping have established that family structure is a cue by which individuals are stereotyped. This study builds on earlier work by adding the variables of race of respondent, family race, and parents’ marital status to the analysis and by presenting family units (i.e., stepfamily, nuclear family) rather than family roles (e.g., stepmother, mother) as the trigger to elicit stereotypes. The sample consisted of 308 White and 178 Black students. Race of respondent and family structure of the stimulus families were significant; Black respondents in general rated families more positively, and the White stepfamily was rated less positively than were Black step or Black or White nuclear families. Parents' marital status and the family race of the vignette stimulus were not significant. There were also two significant two-way interactions (i.e., race of respondent by vignette family structure; and vignette family structure by vignette family race) and one significant three-way interaction (i.e., race by vignette family race by vignette family structure). Findings are discussed in terms of stereotyping theory.

Journal Article 2: Bloome, D. (2014). Racial inequality trends and the intergenerational persistence of income and family structure. American Sociological Review, 79(6), 1196–1225.

Abstract:  Racial disparity in family incomes remained remarkably stable over the past 40 years in the United States despite major legal and social reforms. Previous scholarship presents two primary explanations for persistent inequality through a period of progressive change. One highlights continuity: because socioeconomic status is transmitted from parents to children, disparities created through histories of discrimination and opportunity denial may dissipate slowly. The second highlights change: because family income results from joining individual earnings in family units, changing family compositions can offset individuals’ changing economic chances. I examine whether black-white family income inequality trends are better characterized by the persistence of existing disadvantage (continuity) or shifting forms of disadvantage (change). I combine cross-sectional and panel analysis using Current Population Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Census, and National Vital Statistics data. Results suggest that African Americans experience relatively extreme intergenerational continuity (low upward mobility) and discontinuity (high downward mobility); both helped maintain racial inequality. Yet, intergenerational discontinuities allow new forms of disadvantage to emerge. On net, racial inequality trends are better characterized by changing forms of disadvantage than by continuity. Economic trends were equalizing but demographic trends were disequalizing; as family structures shifted, family incomes did not fully reflect labor-market gains.