Search Results

Author: Geronimus, Arline T.
Resulting in 16 citations.
1. Colen, Cynthia G.
Geronimus, Arline T.
Bound, John
James, Sherman A.
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.
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.
2. Colen, Cynthia G.
Geronimus, Arline T.
Bound, John
James, Sherman A.
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.

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.
3. Geronimus, Arline T.
Teenage Childbearing and Social and Reproductive Disadvantage: The Evolution of Complex Questions and the Demise of Simple Answers
Family Relations 40,4 (October 1991): 463-471.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/584905
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Adolescent; Health Factors

Rebuttal to Furstenbers's (1991) critique of Geronimus' research on sisters in the NLSY. Scientific progress in understanding the nature of associations between teen childbearing and social or reproductive disadvantage has increased the complexity of this knowledge offered some surprising findings and led to expectable confusion. Assessing these new research findings and incorporating them into appropriate policy debate and development is a challenge complicated by the failure of those translating them for practitioners to do so accurately. Examples of such inadequate translations are discussed in the context of recent findings raising doubts about traditional estimates of the contribution teen childbearing per se makes to social and public health problems. A call for unbiased assessment and open discussion of new research findings is made.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. "Teenage Childbearing and Social and Reproductive Disadvantage: The Evolution of Complex Questions and the Demise of Simple Answers." Family Relations 40,4 (October 1991): 463-471.
4. Geronimus, Arline T.
Teenage Childbearing and Social Disadvantage: Unprotected Discourse
Family Relations 41,2 (April 1992): 244-248.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/584840
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Adolescent; Fertility

This article is one of two that continue the dialogue begun by this publication of the Frank Furstenberg, Jr. article titled, "As the Pendulum Swings: Teenage Childbearing and Social Concern," (April) 1991, pp. 127-138, and the Arline Geronimus article titled "Teenage Childbearing and Social and Reproductive Disadvantage: The Evolution of Complex Questions and the Demise of Simple Answers," (October) 1991, pp. 463-471. Here, Geronimus replies to Furstenberg's comments.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. "Teenage Childbearing and Social Disadvantage: Unprotected Discourse." Family Relations 41,2 (April 1992): 244-248.
5. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
Maternal Youth or Family Background? On the Health Disadvantages of Infants with Teenage Mothers
American Journal of Epidemiology 137,2 (15 January 1993): 213-225.
Also: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/137/2/213.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Alcohol Use; Birthweight; First Birth; Health Factors; Household Composition; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Racial Differences; Siblings; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

The health disadvantages of infants with teenage mothers are well documented. Because poor and minority women are disproportionately represented among teen mothers, differences in infant health by maternal age may reflect family background pre-childbearing) characteristics rather than the effects of maternal age. To control for differences in family background, the authors compared birth outcomes and maternal behaviors that could affect fetal or infant health among sisters in the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-1988). They compared sisters who had first births at different ages in order to study the relation between maternal age and low birth weight, prenatal care, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy, breast feeding, and well-child visits. The authors found evidence that maternal family background accounts for many of the health-related disadvantages of the firstborn infants of teenage mothers. The findings suggest that disadvantaged black primiparous women in their twenties may be an important and possibly underemphasized target population for interventions designed to reduce excess black low birth weight and infant mortality rates.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. and Sanders D. Korenman. "Maternal Youth or Family Background? On the Health Disadvantages of Infants with Teenage Mothers." American Journal of Epidemiology 137,2 (15 January 1993): 213-225.
6. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
Maternal Youth or Family Background? Preliminary Findings on the Health Disadvantages of Infants with Teenage Mothers
Research Report No 91-204. Ann Arbor, MI: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, March 1991.
Also: http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs.shtml?ID=33489
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Birth Outcomes; Birthweight; Breastfeeding; Childbearing, Adolescent; Health Factors; Household Composition; Mothers, Behavior; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Siblings

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The health disadvantages of infants with teen mothers are well documented, but the causal mechanisms that mediate associations have not been clearly demonstrated. An important consideration is often overlooked: teenage mothers come disproportionately from disadvantaged and minority populations. Observed differences in infant health between teen mothers and women who postpone childbearing may reflect unmeasured socioeconomic background factors, factors that precede the first pregnancy, rather than the effects of maternal age. Data from the NLSY is analyzed and new estimates of the relationship between maternal age and low birth weight, preterm birth indicators of prenatal care utilization, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and well-child visits are presented. Pre-pregnancy family background differences between teen and older mothers is controlled by comparing sisters who experienced their first births at different ages. Findings suggest that family background characteristics of mothers, factors that precede their childbearing years, can account for many of the health disadvantages of infant with teenage mothers. For both blacks and whites, sisters comparisons suggested a less adverse effect of teen childbearing than suggested by cross-sectional comparisons. For all family and maternal age groups, absolute levels of poor birth outcomes and inadequate well-child visits were higher for blacks; those for unhealthy behaviors and breastfeeding were markedly lower for blacks. These findings suggest that the processes leading to poor birth outcomes for teen mothers are complex. Theoretical, clinical, programmatic and policy implications are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. and Sanders D. Korenman. Maternal Youth or Family Background? Preliminary Findings on the Health Disadvantages of Infants with Teenage Mothers. Research Report No 91-204. Ann Arbor, MI: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, March 1991..
7. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teen Childbearing Reconsidered
Quarterly Journal of Economics 107,4 (November 1992): 1187-1214.
Also: http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/4/1187.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Birthweight; Childbearing, Adolescent; Heterogeneity; Household Composition; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Siblings

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Teen childbearing is commonly believed to cause long-term socioeconomic disadvantages for mothers and their children. However, earlier cross-sectional studies may have inadequately accounted for marked differences in family background among women who have first births at different ages. We present new estimates that take into account unmeasured fa background heterogeneity by comparing sisters who timed their first births at different ages. In two of the three sets we examine, sister comparisons suggest that biases from family background heterogeneity are important, and, therefore, that earlier studies may have overstated the consequences of teen childbearing.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. and Sanders D. Korenman. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teen Childbearing Reconsidered." Quarterly Journal of Economics 107,4 (November 1992): 1187-1214.
8. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teen Childbearing Reconsidered
Research Report No. 90-190, Ann Arbor MI: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 1990.
Also: http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs/837
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Behavioral Problems; Birthweight; Childbearing, Adolescent; Family Background and Culture; Heterogeneity; Household Composition; Siblings; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Teenagers

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Teen childbearing is commonly viewed as an irrational behavior that leads to long-term socioeconomic disadvantage for mothers and their children. Cross- sectional studies that estimate relationships between maternal age at first birth and socioeconomic indicators measured later in life form the empirical basis for this view. However, these studies have failed to account adequately for differences in family background among women who time their births at different ages. The authors present new estimates of the consequences of teen childbearing that take into account observed and unobserved family background heterogeneity, comparing sisters who have timed their first births at different ages. Sibling comparisons suggest that previous estimates have overstated the consequences of early fertility.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. and Sanders D. Korenman. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teen Childbearing Reconsidered." Research Report No. 90-190, Ann Arbor MI: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 1990.
9. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
The Socioeconomic Costs of Teenage Childbearing: Evidence and Interpretation
Demography 30,2 (May 1993): 281-290.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/d1gr58p1v2u91374/
Cohort(s): NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Family Background and Culture; Fertility; First Birth; Heterogeneity; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Pregnancy, Adolescent; Siblings

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Until recently, the belief that teenage childbearing makes a substantial causal contribution to persistent socioeconomic disadvantage was pervasive. The scientific evidence used to support this interpretation was open to the criticism by failure to account for unobserved heterogeneity; fertility timing varies across populations, and early fertility is much more common in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Investigators therefore made efforts to control for background differences among mothers who had first births at different ages. We were concerned, however, that measures of family background used in these studies might have been inadequate. We undertook a sibling approach as a matched comparison group study in which the set of match characteristics is more complete than that provided by matching measured or observable family background characteristics. The recent replication of our study by Hoffman, Foster, and Furstenberg (1993) supports our principal conclusions that standard cross-sectional estimates of the consequences of teen childbearing are biased by failure to control adequately for family background differences between women who have first births as teenagers and those who have first births at later ages, and that previous estimates are likely to have exaggerated the costs of teen childbearing.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T. and Sanders D. Korenman. "The Socioeconomic Costs of Teenage Childbearing: Evidence and Interpretation." Demography 30,2 (May 1993): 281-290.
10. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
Hillemeier, Marianne M.
Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons
Research Report No 92-256. Ann Arbor, MI: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, September 1992.
Also: http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs.shtml?ID=33540
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Age at First Birth; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Bias Decomposition; Birthweight; Child Development; Child Health; Family Background and Culture; Family Influences; Fertility; First Birth; Heterogeneity; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Status; Mothers; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Siblings; Teenagers; Verbal Memory (McCarthy Scale)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979-1988 to estimate relations between maternal age at first birth and measures of early socioemotional and cognitive development of children. We compare cross-sectional estimates to estimates based on comparisons of first cousins to gauge the importance of bias from family background heterogeneity. Cross-sectional estimates suggest moderate adverse consequences of teen motherhood for child development. However, children of teen mothers appear to score no worse on measures of development than first cousins whose mothers had first births after their teen years. The evidence suggests that differences in far background of mothers (factors that precede their childbearing years) account for the low scores on measures of socioemotional and cognitive development seen in young children of teen mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T., Sanders D. Korenman and Marianne M. Hillemeier. Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons. Research Report No 92-256. Ann Arbor, MI: Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, September 1992..
11. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
Hillemeier, Marianne M.
Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons
Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; All-Volunteer Force (AVF); Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Bias Decomposition; Birthweight; Child Development; Child Health; Family Influences; Fertility; First Birth; General Assessment; Heterogeneity; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Status; Mothers; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Siblings; Teenagers; Verbal Memory (McCarthy Scale)

We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979-1988 to estimate relations between maternal age at first birth and measures of early socioemotional and cognitive development of children. We compare cross-sectional estimates to estimates based on comparisons of first cousins to gauge the importance of bias from family background heterogeneity. Cross-sectional estimates suggest moderate adverse consequences of teen motherhoo for child development. However, children of teen mothers appear to score no worse on measures of development than first cousins whose mothers had first births after their teen years. The evidence suggests that differences in far background of mothers (factors that precede their childbearing years) account for the low scores on measures of socioemotional and cognitive development seen in young children of teen mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T., Sanders D. Korenman and Marianne M. Hillemeier. "Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons." Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992.
12. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
Hillemeier, Marianne M.
Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons
Presented: Denver, CO, Population Association of America Meetings, April 1992
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Bias Decomposition; Birthweight; Child Development; Child Health; Family Background and Culture; Family Influences; First Birth; General Assessment; Heterogeneity; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Status; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Mothers; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Siblings; Teenagers; Verbal Memory (McCarthy Scale)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Data from the NLSY are used to estimate relationships between maternal age at first birth and measures of early socioemotional and cognitive development of children. The authors compare standard cross-sectional population estimates to estimates based on comparisons of first-cousins (i.e., family fixed effects estimates) in order to gauge the importance of bias from family background heterogeneity. Population estimates suggest moderate adverse consequences of teen motherhood for child development. However, children of teen mothers appear to score no worse on measures of development than their first-cousins born to women who had first births after their teen years. The estimates suggest that differences in family backgrounds of mothers (factors that preceded their childbearing years) can account for the low (measured) early socioemotional and cognitive development of children of teen mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T., Sanders D. Korenman and Marianne M. Hillemeier. "Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons." Presented: Denver, CO, Population Association of America Meetings, April 1992.
13. Geronimus, Arline T.
Korenman, Sanders D.
Hillemeier, Marianne M.
Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons in the United States
Population and Development Review 20,3 (September 1994): 585-609
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Council
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Development; Childbearing, Adolescent; Disadvantaged, Economically; General Assessment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Mothers, Adolescent; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Siblings; Socioeconomic Factors; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT; Verbal Memory (McCarthy Scale)

The construction of teenage childbearing as a public problem, and the degree to which it should be a source of social or policy concern, have been the subject of numerous empirical investigations, theoretical analyses, commentaries, and controversy. While we do not review this literature in detail here, we highlight what we believe to be the most important theoretical tension and social scientific question to emerge from it. The theoretical tension is between whether teenage mothers are best understood as teenagers or as socioeconomically disadvantaged women, given the overrepresentation of socioeconomically disadvantaged teenagers among the ranks of teenage mothers. The social scientific question is the extent to which teen childbearing contributes causally to the social problems with which it is associated. One important area of social concern is the potential consequences of teen childbearing for offspring. In this article, we focus on early childhood development. The literature on child development in the United States has documented that, on average, children of young mothers score more poorly on cognitive and socioemotional measures and are at higher risk of poor school achievement than children of older mothers. While some investigators do not control for socioeconomic status when comparing child outcomes across maternal ages, many do take socioeconomic differences into account.
Bibliography Citation
Geronimus, Arline T., Sanders D. Korenman and Marianne M. Hillemeier. "Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons in the United States." Population and Development Review 20,3 (September 1994): 585-609.
14. Walsemann, Katrina Michelle
Gee, Gilbert C.
Geronimus, Arline T.
Ethnic Differences in Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms: Disadvantage in Family Background, High School Experiences, and Adult Characteristics
Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50,1 (March 2009): 82-98.
Also: http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/50/1/82.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): CESD (Depression Scale); Depression (see also CESD); Ethnic Groups/Ethnicity; Health, Mental/Psychological; Life Course; Modeling, Random Effects; Racial Differences; Variables, Independent - Covariate

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Although research investigating ethnic differences in mental health has increased in recent years, we know relatively little about how mental health trajectories vary across ethnic groups. Do these differences occur at certain ages but not others? We investigate ethnic variation in trajectories of depressive symptoms, and we examine the extent to which disadvantages in family background, high school experiences, and adult characteristics explain these differences. Employing random-coefficient modeling using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that blacks and Hispanics experience higher symptom levels in early adulthood in comparison to whites, but equivalent levels by middle age. Ethnic differences remained in early adulthood after including all covariates, but those differences were eliminated by middle age for Hispanics after controlling for demographics only, and for blacks after accounting for the age-varying relationship between income and depressive symptoms. These results highlight the importance of integrating a life course perspective when investigating ethnic variations in mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Health & Social Behavior is the property of American Sociological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)

Bibliography Citation
Walsemann, Katrina Michelle, Gilbert C. Gee and Arline T. Geronimus. "Ethnic Differences in Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms: Disadvantage in Family Background, High School Experiences, and Adult Characteristics." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50,1 (March 2009): 82-98.
15. Walsemann, Katrina Michelle
Geronimus, Arline T.
Gee, Gilbert C.
Accumulating Disadvantage over the Life Course: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study Investigating the Relationship Between Educational Advantage in Youth and Health in Middle Age
Research on Aging 30,2 (March 2008): 169-199.
Also: http://roa.sagepub.com/content/30/2/169.abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Education; Educational Attainment; Ethnic Differences; Health Care; Life Course; Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Recent studies suggest the importance of examining cumulative risk or advantage as potential predictors of health over the life course. Researchers investigating the cumulative health effects of education, however, have mainly conceptualized education in years or degrees, often disregarding educational quality and access to educational opportunities that may place individuals on divergent academic trajectories. We investigate whether educational advantages in youth are associated with an individual's health trajectory. We develop a novel index of educational advantage and employ random-intercept modeling using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. A widening health disparity was found in adulthood between respondents with greater and those with fewer educational advantages in youth. Furthermore, among respondents with few educational advantages, Blacks experience a greater health burden as they age compared to Whites and Hispanics. These results suggest that differential access to educational advantages during youth may contribute to persisting health disparities in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research on Aging is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)

Bibliography Citation
Walsemann, Katrina Michelle, Arline T. Geronimus and Gilbert C. Gee. "Accumulating Disadvantage over the Life Course: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study Investigating the Relationship Between Educational Advantage in Youth and Health in Middle Age." Research on Aging 30,2 (March 2008): 169-199.
16. Wise, Akilah
Geronimus, Arline T.
Smock, Pamela Jane
The Best of Intentions: A Structural Analysis of the Association between Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Unintended Pregnancy in a Sample of Mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979)
Women's Health Issues 27,1 (January-February 2017): 5-13.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049386716302754
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Disadvantaged, Economically; Educational Attainment; First Birth; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Wantedness

Methods: Using multivariate regression, we analyze a sample of women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) who had their first births by 1994. We test whether an index measure of educational advantage in youth predicts unintended first birth.

Results: Unadjusted results confirm well-documented associations between educational disadvantage and greater likelihood of unintended pregnancy. However, once covariates are controlled, those with high educational advantage in youth are more likely to report their first birth as mistimed (relative risk ratio, 1.57).

Discussion: Educational advantage captures expectations about how much education a young woman will obtain before giving birth and is a structural dynamic that precedes proximate factors related to family planning access and behaviors.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to incorporate structural factors that condition perceptions of pregnancy intention in the study of unintended pregnancy and to critically reevaluate the conceptualization and interpretation of pregnancy intention measures.

Bibliography Citation
Wise, Akilah, Arline T. Geronimus and Pamela Jane Smock. "The Best of Intentions: A Structural Analysis of the Association between Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Unintended Pregnancy in a Sample of Mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979)." Women's Health Issues 27,1 (January-February 2017): 5-13.