A Different Shade of Gray: Midlife and Beyond in the Inner City, 1995-1996

The purpose of this study was to examine the life experiences of inner-city African Americans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans as they moved into mid-life and beyond. Participants were randomly selected from the Ethnic and Racial Minorities in Urban Areas Survey (ERMUAS) New York sample. The ERMUAS study was conducted as a companion study to the MacArthur Foundation Midus Survey on Successful Mid-Life Development to represent low income and ethnic and racial minority Americans in Chicago and New York. Participants ranged in age from twenty-five to seventy-four, the bulk between forty-one and sixty-eight years old. About two-thirds of the sample completed high school as their highest level of education and ten percent held bachelor's degrees. The sample consisted of one-hundred participants randomly selected from the New York sample. Participants were Dominican, Puerto Rican, and African American men and women from Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, New York City. They ranged in age from twenty-five to seventy-four, the bulk being between forty-one and sixty-eight years of age. About two-thirds of the sample completed high school as their highest level of education and ten percent held bachelor's degrees. Focused life-history interviews were administered face-to-face for a period of approximately three hours, and were tape-recorded. Topics covered included migration history; employment; education of the respondent and family members; attitudes towards welfare, opportunity and race relations; visions of middle age; and health and well-being. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing health, education, household information, neighborhood experience and services, employment history and status, network characteristics and basic demographics. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study. If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.

本研究旨在探究美国中心城区非裔美国人、波多黎各裔与多米尼加裔群体步入中年及更晚人生阶段的人生经历。研究对象从《城市地区族裔与种族少数群体调查》（Ethnic and Racial Minorities in Urban Areas Survey, ERMUAS）的纽约子样本中随机抽取。ERMUAS作为麦克阿瑟基金会《成功中年发展调研》（MacArthur Foundation Midus Survey on Successful Mid-Life Development）的配套研究，旨在代表芝加哥与纽约市的低收入少数族裔及少数种族美国人群体。研究对象年龄跨度为25至74岁，其中绝大多数介于41至68岁之间。约三分之二的受访者最高学历为高中毕业，另有10%拥有学士学位。本次纽约子样本共包含100名随机抽取的参与者，均为来自纽约市哈莱姆区、布鲁克林区及布朗克斯区的多米尼加裔、波多黎各裔与非裔美国男女群体，年龄介于25至74岁，多数处于41至68岁区间；约三分之二的受访者最高学历为高中，10%持有学士学位。研究人员采用面对面方式开展了时长约3小时的针对性人生史访谈，并进行了录音留存。访谈涵盖的主题包括移民经历、就业状况、受访者及其家庭成员的教育背景、对福利政策、社会机遇与种族关系的态度、中年愿景，以及健康与福祉状况。参与者同时填写了配套问卷，内容涵盖健康状况、教育背景、家庭信息、社区经历与公共服务获取情况、就业经历与现状、社会网络特征及基本人口学信息。默里档案库（Murray Archive）存有本研究的其余模拟实体资料。若需获取该类资料，请提交数据使用申请。