The impact of childhood neighborhood disadvantage on adult joblessness and income

Research on residential inequality focuses heavily on adult economic outcomes as crucial components of the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Yet, empirical evidence on whether youth neighborhoods have a lasting impact on adult economic outcomes at the national level is scarce. Further, we know little about how youth neighborhood effects on adult economic outcomes manifest. This study uses 26 years (14 waves) of restricted panel data from the NLSY79 and the NLSY Children and Young Adults cohorts – data that have never been used to analyze long-term neighborhood effects – to examine whether youth neighborhood disadvantage impacts adult economic outcomes through sensitive years in childhood, teen socialization, duration effects, or cumulative effects. Sibling fixed effects models that net out unobserved effects of shared family characteristics suggest that youth neighborhood disadvantage increases joblessness and reduces income in adulthood. However, exposure across specific developmental stages of youth does not appear to act as a significant moderator while sustained exposure yields pernicious effects on adult economic outcomes. Moreover, these results are robust to alternative variable specifications and cousin fixed effects that net out potentially unobserved confounders, such as the inheritance of neighborhood disadvantage across three generations.     

Breastfeeding,overweight status,and inflammation

Research documents a host of health benefits of breastfeeding for infants and children, including long-term health conditions arising from inflammation. Here, we provide new evidence about this association, focusing on the link between breastfeeding in infancy and inflammation in early adulthood. Our study is based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) which allows us investigate a potentially important mediating pathway – overweight status from early adolescence into young adulthood. Results from pathway analyses in a structural equation modeling framework indicate that, in addition to a direct pathway linking breastfeeding and inflammation, an indirect pathway through overweight status across adolescence into young adulthood partially explains the association between breastfeeding and inflammation. Overweight status, moreover, links breastfeeding to inflammation not only through proximal timing of overweight status, but also through an indirect cascading process of overweight status over the life course that is evident in adolescence. Overall, this study highlights the importance of considering breastfeeding, overweight status and inflammation as dynamic life course processes that contribute to development of health inequalities.     

推进脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴战略有效衔接的对策

脱贫攻坚的全面胜利,为脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴有效衔接提供了可靠保障。实施脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴的政策衔接,建立脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴的规划衔接,从机制转变上推动脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴有效衔接,这为脱贫地区通过政策、制度的支撑,实现“三农”工作重点转移奠定了基础。发挥乡村人才发展优势,创新乡村人才的发展渠道,拓宽乡村管理人才的用武之地,助推脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴的人才衔接,这为缩小乡村之间发展差距、实现城乡居民融合发展提供了智力支持。发展乡村特色产业是脱贫攻坚成果与乡村振兴有效衔接的关键点,注重地域特色、关注人文因素、推进产业集聚是乡村特色产业发展的重要组成部分,这为加快脱贫地区转型发展,提升乡村产业、产品竞争力提供了有力的帮助。     

Tract- and county-level income inequality and individual risk of obesity in the United States

ObjectivesWe tested three alternative hypotheses regarding the relationship between income inequality and individual risk of obesity at two geographical scales: U.S. Census tract and county.MethodsIncome inequality was measured by Gini coefficients, created from the 2000 U.S. Census. Obesity was clinically measured in the 2003–2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The individual measures and area measures were geo-linked to estimate three sets of multi-level models: tract only, county only, and tract and county simultaneously. Gender was tested as a moderator.ResultsAt both the tract and county levels, higher income inequality was associated with lower individual risk of obesity. The size of the coefficient was larger for county-level Gini than for tract-level Gini; and controlling income inequality at one level did not reduce the impact of income inequality at the other level. Gender was not a significant moderator for the obesity-income inequality association.ConclusionsHigher tract and county income inequality was associated with lower individual risk of obesity, indicating that at least at the tract and county levels and in the context of cross-sectional data, the public health goal of reducing the rate of obesity is in line with anti-poverty policies of addressing poverty through mixed-income development where neighborhood income inequality is likely higher than homogeneous neighborhoods.     

Diverse trajectories of cocaine use through early adulthood among rebellious and socially conforming youth

This paper tests predictions of continuity and change in antisocial behavior over time as derived from population heterogeneity and life-course perspectives. These predictions are assessed with respect to a rarely studied form of delinquent/criminal behavior, cocaine use during the late-teenage and young adult years. We first examine the extent to which differential propensities toward antisocial behavior can be detected in a nationally representative sample of youth aged 14-16 in 1979. Based on self-reported delinquent and criminal activities in late adolescense, traditional cross-sectional latent-class analysis identifies three groups of antisocial/rebellious respondents and a group of non-offenders. We then follow these groups into early adulthood, examining age trajectories of cocaine usage between 1984 and 1998. Latent-class trajectory models identify clusters of respondents who show similar age trajectories of cocaine use over time and provide parameter estimates that predict membership in those clusters. In support of the population heterogeneity perspective, we find that antisocial/rebellious youth have higher probabilities of cocaine use throughout early adulthood than non-of-fending youth. There is, however, much variation in drug use patterns among the groups as they aged. In support of a life-course perspective, we find that social ties to schools, families, religion, and the labor market help differentiate youth who refrain from, maintain, or desist from using cocaine through early adulthood.     

A lifecourse study on education and health: The relationship between childhood psychosocial resources and outcomes in adolescence and young adulthood

Lifecourse models have been popular in several disciplines as a way to study health. Such models view health as the product of long-term influences that begin in early-life and continue their direct and indirect effects over time, beginning in gestation and following through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and late-life. This paper uses a lifecourse framework to examine the effects of childhood psychosocial development on young adult health and education outcomes, with special interest paid to potential pathway effects of health and education outcomes in adolescence. Child psychosocial development is measured by constructs of locus of control and self-esteem. Both locus of control and self-esteem exhibit significant yet modest associations with young adult health, net of adolescent outcomes. Only locus of control is significantly associated with education outcomes. These results are discussed in the context of previous lifecourse research and implications for policy.     

Why does college education matter? Unveiling the contributions of selection factors

This study investigates the contributions of pre-college selection factors that may partially lead to the college degree – health link by using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) cohort. Propensity score matching method finds that the effects of college degree on various health outcomes (self-rated health, physical component summary index, health limitations, CESD scale) are reduced by 51% on average (range: 37%–70%) in the matched sample. Among these observed factors, cognitive skill is the biggest confounder, followed by pre-college health and socioeconomic characteristics (marital aspiration, years of schooling, marriage, fertility, poverty status) and non-cognitive skills (e.g., self-esteem). Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control scale is not significantly associated with all four health measures. The effects of most indicators of family background (parental education, family stability, family size, religious background) on the health of adult children are not direct but through offspring's early adulthood health and socioeconomic status.     

Family structure and the economic wellbeing of children in youth and adulthood

An extensive literature on the relationship between family structure and children’s outcomes consistently shows that living with a single parent is associated with negative outcomes. Few US studies, however, examine how a child’s family structure affects outcomes for the child once he/she reaches adulthood. We directly examine, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, whether family structure during childhood is related to the child’s economic wellbeing both during childhood as well as during adulthood. We find that living with a single parent is associated with the level of family resources available during childhood. This finding persists even when we remove time invariant factors within families. We also show that family structure is related to the child’s education, marital status, and adult family income. Once we control for the child’s demography and economic wellbeing in childhood, however, the associations into adulthood become trivial in size and statistically insignificant, suggesting that the relationship between family structure and children’s long-term, economic outcomes is due in large part to the relationship between family structure and economic wellbeing in childhood.     

The relationship between lifetime health trajectories and socioeconomic attainment in middle age

A large literature demonstrates the direct and indirect influence of health on socioeconomic attainment, and reveals the ways in which health and socioeconomic background simultaneously and dynamically affect opportunities for attainment and mobility. Despite an increasing understanding of the effects of health on social processes, research to date remains limited in its conceptualization and measurement of the temporal dimensions of health, especially in the presence of socioeconomic circumstances that covary with health over time. Guided by life course theory, we use data from the British National Child Development Study, an ongoing panel study of a cohort born in 1958, to examine the association between lifetime health trajectories and socioeconomic attainment in middle age. We apply finite mixture modeling to identify distinct trajectories of health that simultaneously account for timing, duration and stability. Moreover, we employ propensity score weighting models to account for the presence of time-varying socioeconomic factors in estimating the impact of health trajectories. We find that, when poor health is limited to the childhood years, the disadvantage in socioeconomic attainment relative to being continuously healthy is either insignificant or largely explained by time-varying socioeconomic confounders. The socioeconomic impact of continuously deteriorating health over the life course is more persistent, however. Our results suggest that accounting for the timing, duration and stability of poor health throughout both childhood and adulthood is important for understanding how health works to produce social stratification. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between confounding and mediating effects of time-varying socioeconomic circumstances.     

Understanding the links between education and smoking

This study extends the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between education and smoking by focusing on the life course links between experiences from adolescence and health outcomes in adulthood. Differences in smoking by completed education are apparent at ages 12–18, long before that education is acquired. I use characteristics from the teenage years, including social networks, future expectations, and school experiences measured before the start of smoking regularly to predict smoking in adulthood. Results show that school policies, peers, and youths’ mortality expectations predict smoking in adulthood but that college aspirations and analytical skills do not. I also show that smoking status at age 16 predicts both completed education and adult smoking, controlling for an extensive set of covariates. Overall, educational inequalities in smoking are better understood as a bundling of advantageous statuses that develops in childhood, rather than the effect of education producing better health.     

Working and disability expectancies at older ages: The role of childhood circumstances and education

The ability to work at older ages depends on health and education. Both accumulate starting very early in life. We assess how childhood disadvantages combine with education to affect working and health trajectories. Applying multistate period life tables to data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for the period 2008–2014, we estimate how the residual life expectancy at age 50 is distributed in number of years of work and disability, by number of childhood disadvantages, gender, and race/ethnicity. Our findings indicate that number of childhood disadvantages is negatively associated with work and positively with disability, irrespective of gender and race/ethnicity. Childhood disadvantages intersect with low education resulting in shorter lives, and redistributing life years from work to disability. Among the highly educated, health and work differences between groups of childhood disadvantage are small. Combining multistate models and inverse probability weighting, we show that the return of high education is greater among the most disadvantaged.     

The psychological impact of intragenerational social class mobility

This study revisits and extends a classic question in sociology and tests three competing hypotheses about the effects of intragenerational social class mobility on distress and psychological well-being at midlife. Prior research on this topic investigated the effects of intergenerational mobility, but did not look at how mobility during adulthood (intragenerational mobility) affects psychological distress and well-being. Previous literature is also limited by methodological problems that make it difficult to estimate the separate effects of prior social class, current social class, and social mobility. This study overcomes this methodological problem using a novel approach that breaks the linear dependence between prior class, current class, and intragenerational mobility. After accounting for prior and current class, I find that social mobility is not associated with psychological distress and self-acceptance. Instead, mobile individuals come to resemble their nonmobile counterparts in their current class on the outcomes of study.     

Kin connection: kin involvement while growing up and marriage in adulthood

Although previous research demonstrates the importance of the availability of marriageable men, earnings, and employment stability for racial differences in marriage, it also suggests that other factors likely contribute to this variation. This study investigates a new factor that might help to explain racial variation in marriage, the kinship group. To explore this possible connection, we examine the influence of parental kin involvement experienced during childhood and adolescence on marriage in adulthood using all three waves of the National Survey of Families and Households. While few of the measures of kin ties have significant effects on marriage, some measures were significantly related and the patterns of associations sometimes varied by race.     

Foreign-born health integration during the transition to adulthood: The case of weight

Nativity differences in youths’ health in the United States are striking—the children of foreign-born parents often have healthier outcomes than those of native-born parents. However, very little is known about how immigrant-native differences evolve within the same individuals over time, or about life cycle aspects of the health-related integration of youth with migration backgrounds. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I examine nativity differences in trajectories of weight gain during adolescence and early adulthood, as well as the degree to which temporal patterns are stratified by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. I examine whether nativity differences converge, diverge or remain stable over time, and whether patterns are socially stratified within and across nativity groups. I find that first-generation adolescents begin at a lower weight than their third generation peers and gain weight at a significantly slower pace, resulting in meaningful differences by early adulthood. More complex examination of the relationship between nativity and weight gain reveals additional differences by ethnicity: the foreign-born advantage over time does not extend as strongly to Hispanic adolescents. The findings demonstrate how the health-related integration of foreign-born youth is tied to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic circumstances, and suggest the need to examine the ways in which social circumstances and health change together.     

Reconsidering residential mobility: Differential effects on child wellbeing by race and ethnicity

Residential mobility is a common experience among Americans, especially children. Most previous research finds residential mobility has negative effects on children's educational attainment, delinquency, substance abuse, and physical and mental health. Previous research, however, does not fully explore whether the effect of mobility differs by child race/ethnicity, in part because many of the samples used for these studies were majority white or exclusively non-white or disadvantaged. In addition, previous research rarely fully accounts for factors that predict selection into mobility and that may also be related to the outcome of interest. This study simultaneously addresses both of these limitations by estimating the effect of moving homes on children's emotional and behavioral wellbeing using first difference models and a diverse longitudinal sample from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. I find that, after controlling for a wide range of individual, caregiver, household and neighborhood characteristics, the effects of moving among African American and Latino children are significantly worse than among white children.     

Does residential mobility improve educational outcomes? Evidence from the Netherlands

This paper explores the impact of residential mobility on educational outcomes. By considering a large Dutch city with substantial internal residential mobility, we examine how residential mobility influences the decision of students to drop out of school. The paper exploits a rich administrative dataset with extensive information on educational, individual, family, housing and moving characteristics of students. It combines a matching design with a multivariate regression analysis, such that the evaluation draws on a well-comparable control group for the treated students. Accounting for individual, family, educational, neighborhood and housing characteristics, as well as for school and year fixed effects, we observe that residential mobility increases the probability of school dropout in the first few years after moving. The estimated effect changes, however, to a lower risk of early school leaving after an initial period, and then changes again to a higher risk after 6 years. This effect remains, regardless the level of education the students attended, or whether the student moves to a better or a worse neighborhood.     

Spatial variation in poverty-generating processes: Child poverty in the United States

This study builds on research demonstrating that sub-regions within the United States have different processes that abet poverty and that child poverty is spatially differentiated. We focus on the social attributes of the local area to assess what the geographic place represents in terms of social characteristics, namely racial/ethnic composition and economic structure, and to resolve apparent inconsistencies in poverty research. Using spatial regime and spatial error regression techniques to analyze county census data, we examine spatial differentiation in the relationships that generate child poverty. Our approach addresses the conceptual and technical aspects of spatial inequality. Results show that local-area processes are at play with implications for more nuanced theoretical models and anti-poverty policies that consider systematic differences in factors contributing to child poverty according to the racial/ethnic and economic contexts.     

How far do children move? Spatial distances after leaving the parental home

This research used geocoded data from 11 waves (2000-2010) of the German Socio-economic Panel Study to investigate the spatial distances of young adults’ initial move-outs (N = 2113) from their parents’ homes. Linear regression models predicted moving distances by factors at individual, family, household, and community level. Overall, home leavers moved across very small distances with a median value of less than 10 km. Greater distances were found for well-educated and childless home leavers who moved out at relatively young ages from high-income households located in less-urbanized regions. In line with developmental models of migration, young adults stayed closer if the parental household was still located at their place of childhood. We conclude that considering the spatial distance of move-outs may advance our understanding of individual passages to adulthood and intergenerational relations across the life course.     

The proportional odds with partial proportionality constraints model for ordinal response variables

The proportional odds assumption in ordered logit models is a restrictive assumption that is often violated in practice. A violation of the assumption indicates that the effects of one or more independent variables significantly vary across cutpoint equations in the model. In order to relax this assumption for the cumulative odds model, researchers may use either a “partial” model that relaxes the assumption for a subset of variables or the “generalized” model that relaxes the assumption for every independent variable. In this paper, we propose a relatively new and under-utilized third alternative, the proportional odds with partial proportionality constraints (POPPC) model, which allows the effects of a subset of variables to vary across cutpoint equations by a common factor. We improve upon an earlier formulation of the POPPC model by offering an additional conceptual justification for the model and an estimation method that does not require the use of person-threshold data. We illustrate the POPPC model with two examples from the 2008 General Social Survey.