Racial and ethnic differences in socioeconomic status are reflected in the characteristics of DoD parents, as well as in CPS comparison data.  Both Hispanics and Blacks show lower socioeconomic status than Whites using several measures.  However, racial and ethnic differences among recruits are less than the comparable differences in the civilian population, as the following discussion illustrates.

Table 7.6 shows the number of parents in the family for White, Black, and Hispanic recruits, and gives comparable percentages for the civilian population.  Black youth are much less likely to live with both parents than are White youth.  In the civilian population, fewer than half (44 percent) of Black youth live with two parents, while more than three-quarters (77 percent) of White youth and two-thirds of Hispanic youth (67 percent) do.  Both White and Hispanic recruits are similar to their CPS counterparts in this respect.  Black recruits are more likely than Black CPS youth to live with both parents (52 percent vs. 44 percent), although they are still less likely than either White or Hispanic recruits to live with two parents (75 percent and 66 percent, respectively).

Table 7.6.  Parents in Family of FY 1999 Recruits, by Race/Ethnicity, with Civilian Comparison Group (Percent)
Adults at Home	DoD				CPS
	White	Black	Hispanic	Total	White	Black	Hispanic	Total
Father, Stepfather, or Male Guardian	7.4	6.3	7.3	7.2	5.2	5.7	5.0	5.2
Mother, Stepmother, or Female Guardian	17.9	41.2	27.1	24.3	17.7	50.2	28.2	23.5
Both	74.7	52.4	65.5	68.5	77.1	44.2	66.8	71.3
Source:  Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 1998–September 1999

Other measures also indicate the relative disadvantage of minority families within the civilian population, although the patterns vary (Table 7.7).  Within the CPS data, 52 percent of Hispanic fathers and 51 percent of Hispanic mothers completed high school compared to the overall average of 86 percent for fathers and 85 percent for mothers.  Similarly, White fathers and mothers are more likely to own their home (90 percent and 85 percent, respectively) than are either Black (74 percent and 55 percent, respectively) or Hispanic (65 percent and 57 percent, respectively) parents.  Differences in employment rates are smaller, but indicate greater employment for White parents.  Overall differences within the civilian population are summarized by the median TSEI scores, which are highest for White parents and lowest for Hispanic parents, with Black parents obtaining intermediate values.

Table 7.7.  Selected Characteristics of Parents of FY 1999 NPS Recruits, by Race/Ethnicity, with Civilian Comparison Group
Highest Level of Education	DoD				CPS
	White	Black	Hispanic	Total	White	Black	Hispanic	Total
FATHERS
High School Graduate of More	87.7%	85.0%	63.0%	83.9%	91.7%	82.5%	52.2%	86.0%
Own Their Home	81.5%	69.2%	71.3%	77.9%	89.6%	73.9%	64.6%	84.3%
Currently Employed	91.7%	86.4%	87.9%	90.1%	91.2%	79.7%	84.5%	88.9%
Median TSEI	36.7	34.9	31.4	36.1	38.5	29.8	26.0	37.9
MOTHERS
High School Graduate of More	88.7%	85.7%	64.9%	84.4%	92.7%	80.0%	50.5%	85.1%
Own Their Home	77.5%	60.3%	66.0%	72.6%	85.0%	54.7%	56.6%	76.5%
Currently Employed	80.7%	78.0%	70.9%	78.7%	76.9%	72.2%	61.5%	74.1%
Median TSEI	33.8	30.3	29.7	31.3	36.0	29.7	25.5	33.1
Source:  Civilian data from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 1998–September 1999.

The disparity in socioeconomic status among CPS parents is represented at a reduced level among DoD parents.  In general, White DoD parents have lower values on several different socioeconomic measures than their CPS counterparts, while minority parents of recruits have higher values than do minority CPS parents.  As shown in Table 7.7, there is a relatively small range (4 points) in the median TSEI among DoD mothers, while there is a 10-point range among CPS mothers.  Similarly, the difference in TSEI scores among DoD fathers across racial and ethnic groups is approximately 5 points, compared to a nearly 13-point difference among CPS fathers.  Overall, racial and ethnic differences in socioeconomic status among recruit parents reflect differences in the population as a whole, but at a reduced level.