Individual and systemic/structural bias in child welfare decision making: Implications for children and families of color

The factors contributing to observed racial disproportionality and disparity in the child welfare system have been the subject of national discourse for decades. This qualitative study used focus groups to engage child welfare and collaborating system decision makers, community partners, and families in a subjective interpretive analysis of racial disproportionality and disparity that had been demonstrated by a previous quantitative analysis of Oregon's child welfare system. Thematic analysis yielded eleven themes from the participant focus groups, four of which clustered around individual and structural/systemic bias and are examined in this paper: visibility bias; cultural bias and insensitivity; personal influences on determination of minimally adequate care; and foster and adoptive parent recruitment and licensing practices. Participants offered recommendations to improve outcomes for children and families of color in light of these observations: increase awareness of bias, create checks and balances in decision-making, contract with and hire culturally and racially diverse professionals, and increase funding for training.     

Inhabiting her space

Reflecting on interview-narratives and exilic poetry, this article is focused on the lived experiences of Iranian-American women in the context of migration and exile after the incursion of the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian women in the USA have experienced the challenging geo-cultural journey that eventually, and at times significantly, distanced them from the culture of their place of birth and prepared them to embrace new multi-layered and composite spaces of identity and belonging. The article is based on in-depth interviews with twenty-five Iranian women immigrants. The focus of the inquiry is on developing a theoretical framework to understand the physical, psychological and emotional challenges of exile and displacement for this population, grounded in the exilic narratives of the women interviewed, as well as in the expression of three Iranian-American women poets. The analysis emphasizes the narrative and poetic passages as repositories of identity and belonging, and deconstructs these texts as epitomes of in-betweenness in the light of post-colonial and feminist theories.     

Maternal Tactile Stimulation and the Neurodevelopment of Low Birth Weight Infants

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of early maternal touch to the neurodevelopmental status of low birth weight (LBW) infants. One hundred and eight LBW infants and their mothers were videotaped during a typical feeding when the infant was 3 months old. This tape was used to analyze both the mother's touch and other facets of caregiving behavior using standardized coding systems. Data on perinatal medical risk were also acquired through chart review, and neurodevelopmental tests were administered to the infants at age 1 year. Results indicate that infants whose mothers used more stimulating touch during caregiving had better visual‐motor skills at 1 year of age. In addition, infants of mothers who touched them frequently had more advanced gross motor development. Findings suggest that stimulating and frequent touch may help to compensate for early neurosensory deficits and promote neurodevelopment for LBW infants. Infant birth weight made the strongest contribution to all measures of infant neurodevelopmental status at age 1 year.     

Immigration Policy and Employment Conditions of US Immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic1

Prior studies suggest that the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986 signalled a deterioration in the labour market conditions of Mexican migrants. In this paper, we examine whether and how labour market conditions worsened for Dominicans and Nicaraguans after 1986, and the extent to which these shifts were comparable to those experienced by Mexicans. Our analysis relies on a new source of data that offers comparable data across the three national origins. We estimate multivariate models that capture the effects of demographic attributes, human and social capital, migration‐specific human and social capital, legal status, period of trip, national origin, and other controls on the hourly wages earned by household heads and whether they received cash wages on their last US trip. Models with interaction terms reveal significant pre‐ and post‐1986 wage effects, but few differences in these effects between Mexicans and Dominicans or Nicaraguans. In contrast, group differences appear in the risk of cash receipt of wages. Dominicans and Nicaraguans experienced a greater increase in this risk relative to Mexicans pre‐ and post‐1986. Together, these findings depict a broader, negative impact of IRCA on Latino migrant wages than has been documented elsewhere.     

Integrating Census Data to Support a Motion for Change of Venue

This applied demography case study illustrates the practical application of demographic concepts and methods to an issue facing the court. We show how census data can be used to support a legal motion for a change of venue. “Change of venue,” the legal term for moving a trial to a new location, usually is sought to avoid prejudice against one of the parties to a lawsuit. The case study will interest demographic practitioners, and it can be used as an instructional case in teaching applied demography: students can replicate it using data for any particular pair of populous metropolitan communities. By doing so, students would gain proficiency working with Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) household records—and the person records within household records—to identify and categorize family and nonfamily relationships among household members, and practical experience translating legal issues into questions that can be answered empirically using American Community Survey (ACS) data.     

Assessing the Need for a New Medical School: A Case Study in Applied Demography

This case study illustrates how applied demographers operate in a politically charged context of competing interests—here, justifying the decision to locate a new public medical school in one medically underserved region rather than another. We show how to use demographic and other data to gauge the magnitude of future demand for physicians; formulate demographic assumptions about the future to serve decisionmakers’ needs; and frame information to help improve decision making through objective analysis. We detail the steps in projecting future physicians per capita using a method based on the economic concept of physician demand rather than the social concept of need. Our method is computationally simple, intuitive, and easily understood by policymakers. Our case study offers applied demographers a practical approach to physician workforce planning and can be used as an instructional exercise for students, assigned to replicate these projections elsewhere and distill their implications.