This paper examines the contribution of neighborhood and maternal characteristics to birthweight differentials among infants born to non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Mexican-origin Hispanic mothers (of any race). Linear... more
This paper examines the contribution of neighborhood and maternal characteristics to birthweight differentials among infants born to non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Mexican-origin Hispanic mothers (of any race). Linear regression models with neighborhood fixed effects were estimated using birth certificate records for all births in Chicago from 1990. About 30 percent of the black/white disparity and about 14 percent of
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We investigated understudied biomarker-based diabetes among young US adults, traditionally characterized by low cardiovascular disease risk. We examined 15,701 participants aged 24 to 32 years at Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study... more
We investigated understudied biomarker-based diabetes among young US adults, traditionally characterized by low cardiovascular disease risk. We examined 15,701 participants aged 24 to 32 years at Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health, 2008). The study used innovative and relatively noninvasive methods to collect capillary whole blood via finger prick at in-home examinations in all 50 states. Assays of dried blood spots produced reliable and accurate values of HbA1c. Reliability was lower for fasting glucose and lowest for random glucose. Mean (SD) HbA1c was 5.6% (0.8%). More than a quarter (27.4%) had HbA1c-defined prediabetes. HbA1c was highest in the black, non-Hispanic race/ethnic group, inversely associated with education, and more common among the overweight/obese and physically inactive. The prevalence of diabetes defined by previous diagnosis or use of antidiabetic medication was 2.9%. Further incorporating HbA1c and glucose values, the p...
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Research Interests: Engineering, Sociology, Physics, Chemistry, Anthropology, and 28 moreDeath, Biology, Forecasting, Suicide, Risk Taking, Adolescent, Medicine, Social Class, Multidisciplinary, Social Science & Medicine, Social behavior, Humans, United States, Female, Male, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Follow-up studies, Life Expectancy, PLoS one, Longitudinal Studies, Adult, Public health systems and services research, Retrospective Studies, Health surveys, Social Behavior, Adolescent Behavior, Logistic Models, and Substance-Related Disorders(Death, Biology, Forecasting, Suicide, Risk Taking, Adolescent, Medicine, Social Class, Multidisciplinary, Social Science & Medicine, Social behavior, Humans, United States, Female, Male, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Follow-up studies, Life Expectancy, PLoS one, Longitudinal Studies, Adult, Public health systems and services research, Retrospective Studies, Health surveys, Social Behavior, Adolescent Behavior, Logistic Models, and Substance-Related Disorders)
(Death, Biology, Forecasting, Suicide, Risk Taking, Adolescent, Medicine, Social Class, Multidisciplinary, Social Science & Medicine, Social behavior, Humans, United States, Female, Male, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Follow-up studies, Life Expectancy, PLoS one, Longitudinal Studies, Adult, Public health systems and services research, Retrospective Studies, Health surveys, Social Behavior, Adolescent Behavior, Logistic Models, and Substance-Related Disorders)
Given the threat posed by STDs in young adulthood, identifying early predictors of STD risk is a priority. Exposure to childhood maltreatment has been linked to sexual risk behaviors, but its association with STDs is unclear. Associations... more
Given the threat posed by STDs in young adulthood, identifying early predictors of STD risk is a priority. Exposure to childhood maltreatment has been linked to sexual risk behaviors, but its association with STDs is unclear. Associations between maltreatment by parents or other adult caregivers during childhood and adolescence and STD outcomes in young adulthood were examined using data on 8,922 respondents to Waves 1, 3 and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Four types of maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, supervision neglect and physical neglect) and two STD outcomes (self-reported recent and test-identified current STD) were assessed. Multivariate logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex, tested for moderators and mediators. Among females, even after adjustment for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, self-report of a recent STD was positively associated with sexual abuse (odds ratio, 1.8), physical abuse (1.7), physical neglect (2.1) and supervision neglect (1.6). Additionally, a positive association between physical neglect and having a test-identified STD remained significant after further adjustments for exposure to other types of maltreatment and sexual risk behaviors (1.8). Among males, the only association (observed only in an unadjusted model) was between physical neglect and test-identified STD (1.6). Young women who experienced physical neglect as children are at increased risk of test-identified STDs in young adulthood, and exposure to any type of maltreatment is associated with an elevated likelihood of self-reported STDs. Further research is needed to understand the behavioral mechanisms and sexual network characteristics that underlie these associations.
Research Interests: Demography, Risk Taking, Adolescent, Humans, Child, and 15 moreChild Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Female, Male, Young Adult, Risk factors, Longitudinal Studies, Adult, Sex Factors, Risk Factors, Self report, Parent‐child Relations, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Logistic Models, and Socioeconomic Factors
Research Interests: Adolescent Health, Acculturation, Adolescent, Drug Use, Humans, and 13 moreSubstance Use, United States, Female, Male, Sexual Behavior, Cluster Analysis, Immigrant, Asian Americans, Public health systems and services research, Longitudinal Study, Risk Behavior, Multinomial Logistic Regression, and Substance-Related Disorders
Investigated how maternal depression influenced the relation between mothers' perceptions of the quality of... more
Investigated how maternal depression influenced the relation between mothers' perceptions of the quality of their partner interactions and behavior problems among their preschool children. Participants included 194 low-income families from 4 sites. Approximately three fourths of the mothers (72%, n = 139) identified a male partner and comprised the analysis sample. Mothers were adolescents (< or = age 19) at delivery, and data were gathered when children were 4 to 5 years of age. In this high-risk sample, 42.4% of the children had been maltreated, 36% had externalizing scores in the clinical range, and 10.8% had internalizing scores in the clinical range. Multiple regression analyses revealed (a) maternal perceptions of negative partner interactions were associated with more internalizing behavior problems among the children, adjusting for the effects of maltreatment; (b) maternal depression mediated the relation between the maternal perceptions of the quality of partner interactions and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; and (c) maternal perceptions of positive partner interactions did not protect children from internalizing or externalizing behavior problems associated with maltreatment. Programs for adolescent mothers should provide screening and treatment for depressive symptoms and help partners negotiate caregiving roles and mutually satisfying relationships.
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Adolescent, Marriage, Pregnancy, and 15 moreHumans, Child Abuse, Personality Development, Female, Clinical, Male, Infant, Depressive Disorder, Risk factors, Newborn Infant, Longitudinal Studies, Behavior Problems, Preschool Children, Risk Factors, and Maternal Depression
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace provide a novel method for tracing subjects in longitudinal research studies. This article describes how the southern site of the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect... more
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace provide a novel method for tracing subjects in longitudinal research studies. This article describes how the southern site of the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) consortium used Facebook and MySpace to follow-up subjects inaccessible to traditional means of contact. A search conducted on both sites for the profiles of 151 subjects not located by traditional means yielded profiles belonging to 35 users, 7 of whom responded to our communication by agreeing to remain in the study, reducing the number of attritted subjects by 4.6%. The results suggest that Facebook and MySpace do carry potential as platforms for confidential tracing processes, although they may provide limited success when applied to a study’s most hard-to-locate subjects.
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The influence of genetic factors on health and behavior is conditioned by social, cultural, institutional, and physical environments in which individuals live, work, and play. We encourage studies supporting multilevel integrative... more
The influence of genetic factors on health and behavior is conditioned by social, cultural, institutional, and physical environments in which individuals live, work, and play. We encourage studies supporting multilevel integrative approaches to understanding these contributions to health, and describe the Add Health study as an exemplar. Add Health is a large sample of US adolescents in grades 7 to 12 in 1994-1995 followed into adulthood with 4 in-home interviews and biomarker collections, including DNA. In addition to sampling multiple environments and measuring diverse social and health behavior, Add Health features a fully articulated behavioral genetic sample (3000 pairs) and ongoing genotyping of 12,000 archived samples. We illustrate approaches to understanding health through investigation of the interplay among biological, psychosocial, and physical, contextual, or cultural experiences.