Race, Class, and Gender Differences in High School Seniors' Values: Applying Intersection Theory in Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Objective. This article demonstrates how intersection theory can be applied in empirical studies by testing whether an individual's race, class, and gender have interactive effects. Methods. Data on high school students' ratings of the importance of equality, money, career, and family from the Monitoring the Future study are used. A stepwise regression model is employed to determine first whether additive effects exist in the data, and then whether interactions exist among race, class, and gender characteristics. Results. Previous findings of additive effects were generally confirmed in the first stage of the regressions, with some exceptions. For the money and family values, significant interactions exist between some pairs of characteristics, but three‐way interactions were not significant. For equality and career values, no significant interactions were found. Conclusions. Although there are times when additive models are sufficient to describe differences among groups, the omission of interaction terms can sometimes lead to misleading conclusions about the effects of race, class, and gender. Using intersection theory in empirical models will guard against this oversight and may lead to a broad theory of when significant race, class, and gender interactions should be expected.

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