Mixed Race Studies

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)

The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) consists of fifty-nine high-precision samples of the American population drawn from fifteen federal censuses, from the American Community Surveys of 2000-2007, and from the Puerto Rican Community Surveys of 2005-2007. Some of these samples have existed for years, and others were created specifically for this database. These samples collectively constitute our richest source of quantitative information on long-term changes in the American population. However, because different investigators created these samples at different times, they employed a wide variety of record layouts, coding schemes, and documentation. This has complicated efforts to use them to study change over time. The IPUMS assigns uniform codes across all the samples and brings relevant documentation into a coherent form to facilitate analysis of social and economic change.

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Determinants of Multiracial Identification and Their Effects on Poverty Estimtates among US Children

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel
San Francisco, California
2004-08-14

21 pages

Anthony Daniel Perez, Assistant Professor
Chapel Hill Department of Sociology
University of North Carolina

This project examines the role of family background on the identification of multiracial children in the U.S. and considers the impact of various classificatory schemes on child poverty estimates. I seek to resolve several questions in this analysis. First, I consider the extent to which key family background characteristics such as income, education, and race influence patterns of child race reporting (monoracial vs. multiracial) by parents in interracial unions. I then consider whether child poverty tabulations are sensitive to how and where we include multiracial children in the estimates. In undertaking this analysis, I examine the large, nationally representative 5 percent Public Use Microdata from the Census 2000 long form.

Read the entire paper here.

A Practical Approach to Using Multiple-Race Response Data: A Bridging Method for Public-Use Microdata

September 2006

Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

Andrew Halpern-Manners
Department of Sociology and Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

This project was begun while the first author was funded by “IPUMS-Redesign” (NIH GRANT R01-HD043392), Steven Ruggles, P.I. We thank John Robert Warren, Deborah D. Ingram, Elaine M. Hernandez, C. Matthew Snipp, and J. Trent Alexander for their helpful feedback and the Minnesota Population Center for its invaluable research support. Address comments to: Carolyn Liebler, Department of Sociology, 267 – 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55455; e-mail: liebler@soc.umn.edu.

Revised federal policies require that multiple-race responses be allowed in all federal data collection efforts, but many researchers find the multitude of race categories and variables very difficult to use. Important comparability issues also interfere with using multiple-race data in analyses of multiple datasets and/or multiple points in time. These difficulties have, in effect, discouraged the use of the more nuanced new data on race. We present a practical method for incorporating multiple-race respondents into analyses that use public-use Microdata. We extend prior work by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in which they use multiple-race respondents’ preferred single race and other characteristics to develop a model predicting preferred single race (if forced to choose). In this paper, we apply the NCHS-generated regression coefficients to public-use Microdata with limited geographic information. We include documentation and dissemination tools for this practical and preferable method of including multiple-race respondents in analyses.

Read the entire paper here.

Homelands and Indigenous Identities in a Multiracial Era

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting
Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriott Copley Place
Boston, Massachusetts
2008-07-31
27 pages

Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Minnesota

Although multiple-race responses are now allowed on federal forms like the census, most interracially married single-race parents report their children as single race.  I argue that homelands – physical places with cultural meaning – are an important component of the intergenerational transfer of a single-race identity in multiracial families. I make my case by focusing on families with an interracially married American Indian who was living with his or her spouse and child in 2000 (Census 2000 5% PUMS [Public Use Microdata Series]). Logistic regression reveals that there is a strong effect of living in an American Indian homeland on the child’s chances of being reported as single-race American Indian.  This effect remains even after accounting for family connections to American Indians and other groups, family and area poverty levels, geographic isolation, and the racial composition of the area.  The intergenerational transmission of strong indigenous identities can continue in this multiracial era (as it has for centuries) in the context of culturally meaningful physical places.

Read the entire paper here.