Search Results
Author: Colen, Cynthia G.
Resulting in 12 citations.
| 1. |
Colen, Cynthia G. |
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Socioeconomic Mobility and Reproductive Outcomes Among African American and White Women in the United States Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2005. DAI-B 66/02, p. 843, Aug 2005 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Birthweight; Black Studies; Census of Population; Childbearing; Children, Well-Being; Family Income; Income Level; Infants; Mobility, Economic; Mobility, Social; Poverty; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Factors; Women Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This dissertation examines the extent to which African American and White women in the United States who have experienced upward socioeconomic mobility are able to translate their achieved social class status into favorable maternal and infant health outcomes. It is comprised of three essays, each designed to investigate how changes in lifetime maternal socioeconomic position impact infant wellbeing. In Chapter 2, I argue that upwardly mobile Black women will face similar risks of giving birth to a low birthweight baby compared to chronically poor Black women due to three overarching factors: (1) pervasive structural-level racial inequalities; (2) individual-level responses to race-based discrimination; and (3) delayed childbearing. In Chapter 3, I employ data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the 1970 U.S. Census of Population and Housing to estimate the likelihood that African American and White women who were raised in or near poverty but achieved middle-class status in adulthood will give birth to a low birthweight baby. Results from a series of logistic regression analyses illustrate that for White women who grew up in families with limited financial resources, increases in family income during adulthood are associated with a lower probability of giving birth to a low birthweight baby. However, for their African American counterparts, the relationship between adult socioeconomic position and the risk of low birthweight, although also negative, is substantially weaker and fails to reach statistical significance. In Chapter 4, I utilize birth certificate and census data from a thirty-year time period, in order to estimate the extent to which Black and White women aged 10 to 29 alter the timing of their first and second births in response to fluctuating job availability. Results from fixed-effect Poisson regression models suggest that during the 1990s--a decade of considerable economic growth--young African American women, especially those aged 18 to 19, were likely to postpone childbearing in order to take advantage of improved occupational opportunities. Furthermore, the association between employment possibilities and age-, race-, and state-specific rates of first and second births cannot be explained by concurrent changes in welfare policy, incarceration rates, or abortion availability. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G. Socioeconomic Mobility and Reproductive Outcomes Among African American and White Women in the United States. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2005. DAI-B 66/02, p. 843, Aug 2005. |
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Colen, Cynthia G. |
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The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Racial Integration, Upward Mobility, and Health Across the Life Course Presented: Albuquerque, NM, CityMatCH Urban MCH Leadership Conference, September 2008. Also: http://www.citymatch.org/Conf2008/presentations/0922/breakoutsB/B1.ppt Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: CityMatCH at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Birthweight; Child Health; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Life Course; Mobility, Social; Poverty; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Description: Differences in adult health are thought to be partially rooted in the early conditions of life, and class disparities. How do models of the life-course perspective help us explain the long-term impacts of poverty, stress, and discrimination? How do structural level inequalities impact upward mobility? How can local health departments take current research findings and create programs that address these inequalities? Objectives: 1. Describe three models of life-course processes typically used to explain population-level health trends in the U.S. 2. Critically assess both the strengths and weaknesses of these three life-course perspectives in their ability to explain racial disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes. 3. Explain how race and SES interact to affect health outcomes over the life-course. 4. Discuss how structural level racial inequalities (residential segregation, wealth accumulation patterns, labor market segmentation, etc.) impact the ability of African American women to benefit, in terms of their health and that of their children, from upward mobility. 5. List three ways that public health programs and policy initiatives can incorporate new information about SES, race, and the life-course perspective. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G. "The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Racial Integration, Upward Mobility, and Health Across the Life Course." Presented: Albuquerque, NM, CityMatCH Urban MCH Leadership Conference, September 2008. |
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Colen, Cynthia G. Geronimus, Arline T. Bound, John James, Sherman A. |
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Facing the Realities of the American Dream: Upward Maternal Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, December 10-14, 2005. Also: http://apha.confex.com/apha/133am/techprogram/paper_115060.htm Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Public Health Association Keyword(s): Birthweight; Black Studies; Census of Population; Childbearing; Children, Well-Being; Family Income; Income Level; Infants; Mobility, Economic; Mobility, Social; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Factors; Variables, Independent - Covariate; Women Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. I utilize data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the 1970 U.S. Census of Population and Housing to determine the extent to which upward maternal socioeconomic mobility reduces the probability of giving birth to a low birthweight (LBW) baby among Black and White women in the United States. Multivariate analyses are restricted to female respondents who were living in households at age 14 for which the income to needs ratio (INR) did not exceed 200% of the national poverty threshold. I estimate a series of logistic regression models to determine whether or not increases in family income during the year in which the respondent became pregnant are associated with the risk of low birthweight. Among White women who grew up in or near poverty, the probability of giving birth to a LBW baby decreases by 48% for every one unit increase in the natural logarithm of adult family income once the effects of all other covariates are taken into account. Among African American women who grew up in or near poverty, the relationship between adult family income and low birthweight is also negative; however, the coefficient on the independent variable of interest fails to reach statistical significance at the 0.05 level. Furthermore, maternal health behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, delayed prenatal care, and inadequate weight gain, appear to have a minimal impact on the association between upward socioeconomic mobility and the risk of low birthweight for both Blacks and Whites. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., Arline T. Geronimus, John Bound and Sherman A. James. "Facing the Realities of the American Dream: Upward Maternal Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight." Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, December 10-14, 2005. |
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Colen, Cynthia G. Geronimus, Arline T. Bound, John James, Sherman A. |
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Maternal Upward Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight American Journal of Public Health 96,11 (November 2006): 1-11. Also: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/96/11/2032 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Public Health Association Keyword(s): Birth Outcomes; Birthweight; Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Family Income; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mobility, Economic; Mobility, Social; Poverty; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Pregnancy, Adolescent; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Objectives. We estimate the extent to which upward socioeconomic mobility limits the probability that Black and White women who spent their childhoods in or near poverty will give birth to a low-birthweight baby. Methods. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the 1970 US Census were used to complete a series of logistic regression models. We restricted multivariate analyses to female survey respondents who, at 14 years of age, were living in households in which the income-to-needs ratio did not exceed 200% of poverty. Results. For White women, the probability of giving birth to a low-birthweight baby decreases by 48% for every 1 unit increase in the natural logarithm of adult family income, once the effects of all other covariates are taken into account. For Black women, the relation between adult family income and the probability of low birthweight is also negative; however, this association fails to reach statistical significance. Conclusions. Upward socioeconomic mobility contributes to improved birth outcomes among infants born to White women who were poor as children, but the same does not hold true for their Black counterparts. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., Arline T. Geronimus, John Bound and Sherman A. James. "Maternal Upward Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight." American Journal of Public Health 96,11 (November 2006): 1-11.
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Colen, Cynthia G. Li, Qi Reczek, Corinne |
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The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mother's Health at Midlife Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Discrimination; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mothers, Health; Racial Equality/Inequality Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., Qi Li and Corinne Reczek. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mother's Health at Midlife." Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019. |
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Colen, Cynthia G. Li, Qi Reczek, Corinne Williams, David R. |
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The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers' Health at Midlife Journal of Health and Social Behavior 60,4 (December 2019): 474-492. Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022146519887347 Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Discrimination; Ethnic Differences; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mothers, Health; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. A growing body of research suggests that maternal exposure to discrimination helps to explain racial disparities in children's health. However, no study has considered if the intergenerational health effects of unfair treatment operate in the opposite direction--from child to mother. To this end, we use data from mother-child pairs in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to determine whether adolescent and young adult children's experiences of discrimination influence their mother's health across midlife. We find that children who report more frequent instances of discrimination have mothers whose self-rated health declines more rapidly between ages 40 and 50 years. Furthermore, racial disparities in exposure to discrimination among children explains almost 10% of the black-white gap but little of the Hispanic-white gap in self-rated health among these mothers. We conclude that the negative health impacts of discrimination are likely to operate in a bidirectional fashion across key family relationships. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., Qi Li, Corinne Reczek and David R. Williams. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children's Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers' Health at Midlife ." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 60,4 (December 2019): 474-492.
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Colen, Cynthia G. Ramey, David |
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Breast Is Best: Estimating the Long-term Consequences of Breastfeeding for Childhood Wellbeing Using Sister Comparisons Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2012 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Breastfeeding; CESD (Depression Scale); Child Health; Depression (see also CESD); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pre/post Natal Behavior; Siblings; Sisters Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Since the 1970s, breastfeeding has witnessed a resurgence. Besides being economical, it is thought that breast milk contributes to beneficial health outcomes during the perinatal period and for many years to come. However, empirical evidence concerning long-term effects of breastfeeding on childhood wellbeing remains unclear. This is primarily a function of the fact that, on average, breastfed children are different from their bottle-fed counterparts along several demographic dimensions. The overarching objective of this study is to estimate the extent to which breastfeeding influences the health trajectories of children in the United States. We rely on a multipronged analytic strategy that includes growth curve models, propensity score matching, and sibling comparisons. Each approach offers a more rigorous test of the hypothesis that breastfeeding contributes to enduring positive childhood outcomes by more closely approximating the counterfactual question – what would the health of this infant be like if he/she had not been breastfed. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G. and David Ramey. "Breast Is Best: Estimating the Long-term Consequences of Breastfeeding for Childhood Wellbeing Using Sister Comparisons." Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2012. |
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Colen, Cynthia G. Ramey, David |
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Is Breast Truly Best? Estimating the Effects of Breastfeeding on Long-term Child Health and Wellbeing in the United States Using Sibling Comparisons Social Science and Medicine 109 (May 2014): 55-65. Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614000549 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Asthma; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Body Mass Index (BMI); Breastfeeding; CESD (Depression Scale); Child Health; Depression (see also CESD); Digit Span (also see Memory for Digit Span - WISC); Infants; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Obesity; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC); Siblings; Temperament; Weight Breastfeeding rates in the U.S. are socially patterned. Previous research has documented startling racial and socioeconomic disparities in infant feeding practices. However, much of the empirical evidence regarding the effects of breastfeeding on long-term child health and wellbeing does not adequately address the high degree of selection into breastfeeding. To address this important shortcoming, we employ sibling comparisons in conjunction with 25 years of panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to approximate a natural experiment and more accurately estimate what a particular child’s outcome would be if he/she had been differently fed during infancy. Results from standard multiple regression models suggest that children aged 4 to 14 who were breast- as opposed to bottle-fed did significantly better on 10 of the 11 outcomes studied. Once we restrict analyses to siblings and incorporate within-family fixed effects, estimates of the association between breastfeeding and all but one indicator of child health and wellbeing dramatically decrease and fail to maintain statistical significance. Our results suggest that much of the beneficial long-term effects typically attributed to breastfeeding, per se, may primarily be due to selection pressures into infant feeding practices along key demographic characteristics such as race and socioeconomic status. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G. and David Ramey. "Is Breast Truly Best? Estimating the Effects of Breastfeeding on Long-term Child Health and Wellbeing in the United States Using Sibling Comparisons." Social Science and Medicine 109 (May 2014): 55-65.
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Colen, Cynthia G. Ramey, David Cooksey, Elizabeth C. Williams, David R. |
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Racial Disparities in Health among Nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The Role of Acute and Chronic Discrimination Social Science and Medicine 199 (February 2018): 167-180. Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617302903 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Elsevier Keyword(s): Discrimination; Ethnic Differences; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Status (SES) Racial disparities in health tend to be more pronounced at the upper ends of the socioeconomic (SES) spectrum. Despite having access to above average social and economic resources, nonpoor African Americans and Latinos report significantly worse health compared to nonpoor Whites. We combine data from the parents and children of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to address two specific research aims. First, we generate longitudinal SES trajectories over a 33-year period to estimate the extent to which socioeconomic mobility is associated with exposure to discrimination (acute and chronic) across different racial/ethnic groups (nonHispanic Whites, nonHispanic Blacks, and Hispanics). Then we determine if the disparate relationship between SES and self-rated health across these groups can be accounted for by more frequent exposure to unfair treatment. For Whites, moderate income gains over time result in significantly less exposure to both acute and chronic discrimination. Upwardly mobile African Americans and Hispanics, however, were significantly more likely to experience acute and chronic discrimination, respectively, than their socioeconomically stable counterparts. We also find that differential exposure to unfair treatment explains a substantial proportion of the Black/White, but not the Hispanic/White, gap in self-rated health among this nationally representative sample of upwardly mobile young adults. The current study adds to the debate that the shape of the SES/health gradient differs, in important ways, across race and provides empirical support for the diminishing health returns hypothesis for racial/ethnic minorities. |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., David Ramey, Elizabeth C. Cooksey and David R. Williams. "Racial Disparities in Health among Nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The Role of Acute and Chronic Discrimination." Social Science and Medicine 199 (February 2018): 167-180.
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Colen, Cynthia G. Reczek, Corinne Zhang, Zhe |
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Grandparents Know Best: Multigenerational Coresidence and Psychological Distress During Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Coresidence; Depression (see also CESD); Family Structure; Grandparents; Household Composition Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Despite the noteworthy proportion of children who reside in multigenerational households, relatively little is known about how this family structure influences child and adolescent wellbeing. We use 18 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) in conjunction with latent growth curve regression models to assess the extent to which multigenerational coresidence during childhood impacts psychological distress through adolescence and young adulthood. Moreover, we investigate whether this effect depends on the duration or timing of multigenerational coresidence. Although adolescents who lived with a grandparent during childhood have higher initial depression (CES-D) scores, the rate at which these scores decline is significantly faster than adolescents who never lived with a grandparent. Children who were exposed to multigenerational coresidence during their first year of life experienced particularly rapid increases in psychological functioning, suggesting this period of the lifecourse is critical when considering the effects of family structure on wellbeing. Also presented at Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016 |
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Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., Corinne Reczek and Zhe Zhang. "Grandparents Know Best: Multigenerational Coresidence and Psychological Distress During Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood." Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016. |
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Zhang, Zhe Reczek, Corinne Colen, Cynthia G. |
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Boomerang Kids and Mother's Health: Do Young Adult Residential Patterns Predict Maternal BMI Trajectories during Midlife? Presented: Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Modeling, Growth Curve/Latent Trajectory Analysis; Mothers; Residence, Return to Parental Home/Delayed Homeleaving; Transition, Adulthood; Weight Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Using data from NLSY79 and growth curve models, this paper examines how young adult's residential biography in their transition to adulthood matters for mothers' BMI trajectories in midlife. Compared to mothers whose children followed a "normative" leaving home pattern (left and never returned), we find that mothers of the boomerang kids had higher body weight primarily due to their lower sociodemographic status. Mothers to the young adults who never left home had very high baseline body weight but their weight seems to decrease at a faster rate than mothers of the boomerang kids. |
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Bibliography Citation
Zhang, Zhe, Corinne Reczek and Cynthia G. Colen. "Boomerang Kids and Mother's Health: Do Young Adult Residential Patterns Predict Maternal BMI Trajectories during Midlife?" Presented: Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016. |
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Zhang, Zhe Reczek, Corinne Colen, Cynthia G. |
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Intergenerational Coresidence and Mothers' Body Weight at Midlife Population Research and Policy Review 39 (2020): 1051-1085. Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-020-09567-x Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Springer Keyword(s): Coresidence; Mothers, Health; Obesity; Residence, Return to Parental Home/Delayed Homeleaving; Weight Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Midlife mothers report their children returning to the maternal home after departing (i.e., boomerang children) and remaining in the maternal home longer (i.e., never-left children) than the past half century. Over the same time period, the percent of Americans considered overweight and obese have increased. Yet, we know very little about how such delays affect the body weight of mothers. The current study uses the National Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and its corresponding young adult sample (NLSY79-YA) across 20 consecutive years (N = 7197) to determine if extended coresidence with an adult child is associated with midlife mothers' body weight changes. Results from multilevel regression models show that compared to mothers whose young adult children left home and never returned (“gone-for-good”), mothers of the "never-left" had higher body weight at 40, but similar body weight at 50. Mothers of the boomerangers had higher body weight relative to mothers of the "gone-for-good" across midlife. Mothers of the boomerangers and mothers of the "never-left" had similar weight at age 40, but the former group had more weight gain across midlife. These findings lend new insight into how different patterns of mother-young adult coresidence likely affect the health of mothers and suggest that the effects of recent demographic trends such as "failure to launch" on family formation and functioning should be viewed holistically with a more inclusive sociological lens. |
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Bibliography Citation
Zhang, Zhe, Corinne Reczek and Cynthia G. Colen. "Intergenerational Coresidence and Mothers' Body Weight at Midlife." Population Research and Policy Review 39 (2020): 1051-1085.
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