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Author: Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Resulting in 7 citations.
1. Dechter, Aimee R.
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
The Changing Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing: A Comparison of Fertility and Marriage Patterns Across Cohorts
Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1990
Cohort(s): Mature Women, NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Educational Attainment; Fertility; First Birth; Marital Status; Racial Differences; Teenagers

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

Much is known about the implications of adolescent childbearing for the fertility and marital patterns of contemporary cohorts of women in the U.S., however, it is not known whether the long term implications of teenage childbearing for future family formation are persistent across successive cohorts of women. This paper focuses on differences in the implications of the timing of first birth on subsequent childbearing and on marital patterns, across several cohorts. The fertility and marital patterns are discussed within the context of social and historical changes, including the soaring rates of both high school completion and out of wedlock childbearing. The differences between adolescent mothers and others are contrasted across cohorts born in the following periods: the 1920s and 1930s; the years surrounding the Second World War; and in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The data, drawn from the Mature Women, Young Women, and Youth Cohorts of the NLS, suggest that differentials associated with the timing of first birth in the risks of out of wedlock childbearing, marriage, and divorce have increased and differentials in subsequent fertility have converged across the cohorts. Futhermore, racial differences in the differentials associated with adolescent childbearing have increased with respect to the marriage indicators and decreased with respect to children ever born.
Bibliography Citation
Dechter, Aimee R., Frank F. Jr. Furstenberg and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "The Changing Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing: A Comparison of Fertility and Marriage Patterns Across Cohorts." Presented: Washington, DC, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1990.
2. Guo, Guang
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Persistent Economic Deprivation and Grade Retention among Urban Black Children
Working Paper, Chapel Hill NC, Carolina Population Center, January 1993
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Carolina Population Center (CPC)
Keyword(s): Black Studies; Black Youth; Urbanization/Urban Living

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

Earlier version presented: American Sociological Association Meetings, Pittsburgh, May 1992.
Bibliography Citation
Guo, Guang, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "Persistent Economic Deprivation and Grade Retention among Urban Black Children." Working Paper, Chapel Hill NC, Carolina Population Center, January 1993.
3. Guo, Guang
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
The Mechanisms Mediating the Effects of Poverty on Children's Intellectual Development
Demography 37,4 (November 2000): 431-447.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/c08312674v02ng22/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Birthweight; Child Care; Child Health; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Parenting Skills/Styles; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Poverty; Welfare

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

Although adverse consequences of poverty for children are documented widely, little is understood about the mechanisms through which the effects of poverty disadvantage young children. In this analysis we investigate multiple mechanisms through which poverty affects a child's intellectual development. Using data from the NLSY and structural equation models, we have constructed five latent factors (cognitive stimulation, parenting style, physical environment, child's ill health at birth, and ill health in childhood) and have allowed these factors, along with child care, to mediate the effects of poverty and other exogenous variables. We produce two main findings. First, the influence of family poverty on children's intellectual development is mediated completely by the intervening mechanisms measured by our latent factors. Second, our analysis points to cognitive stimulation in the home, and (to a lesser extent) to parenting style, physical environment of the home, and poor child health at birth, as mediating factors that are affected by lack of income and that influence children's intellectual development.
Bibliography Citation
Guo, Guang and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "The Mechanisms Mediating the Effects of Poverty on Children's Intellectual Development." Demography 37,4 (November 2000): 431-447.
4. Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Guo, Guang
Marmer, Jeremy K.
Consequences of Maternal Employment and Welfare Receipt for Children in Poor Families
Presented: New Orleans, LA, Population Association of America, May 1996
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Children, Well-Being; Employment; Income; Maternal Employment; Modeling; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Poverty; Siblings; Welfare

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

This paper examines the inter-relationships among mother's work, poverty, and child well-being using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). We first trace the complex and dynamic patterns of work and welfare receipt among mothers over time since the child's birth and then examine the implications of mothers' different economic strategies for the well-being of children. One of the important contributions of our work involves the careful longitudinal modeling of the effects of work and welfare receipt and disentangling their effects from the effects of income We also examine potential selection bias of mothers' work and welfare choices by comparing OLS models with fixed effects models using child siblings as the unit of observation. Findings have important implications for welfare reform proposals calling for more stringent work obligations of welfare mothers without any understanding of the consequences for children.
Bibliography Citation
Harris, Kathleen Mullan, Guang Guo and Jeremy K. Marmer. "Consequences of Maternal Employment and Welfare Receipt for Children in Poor Families." Presented: New Orleans, LA, Population Association of America, May 1996.
5. Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Raley, R. Kelly
Rindfuss, Ronald R.
Family Configurations and Child-Care Patterns: Families with Two or More Preschool-Age Children
Social Science Quarterly 83, 2 (June 2002): 455-471.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1540-6237.00094/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Births, Repeat / Spacing; Child Care; Children, Preschool; Family Characteristics; Family Size; Family Structure; Fertility; Household Composition; Household Structure; Life Course; Maternal Employment; Preschool Children; Social Roles; Women's Roles; Work Hours/Schedule

Objectives. This article examines the extent to which mothers must find child-care arrangements for more than one preschool child, and when they do, the strategies they adopt to juggle their work and family roles. Methods. We use national data from numerous studies with information on fertility and child care among employed mothers with children. Results. We find that it is a common life-course experience for mother to need child care for two or more preschool-age children. Employed mothers' preferred strategy for child care for their multiple preschool-age children is to place all preschoolers in the same type of arrangement, choosing parental care more often and center care less often than employed mothers with one preschooler. Conclusions. Previous child-care research has ignored the complexities parents face when they must make child-care decisions about all their preschool-age children simultaneously. Child-Care decisions need to be studied within the family and household context.
Bibliography Citation
Harris, Kathleen Mullan, R. Kelly Raley and Ronald R. Rindfuss. "Family Configurations and Child-Care Patterns: Families with Two or More Preschool-Age Children." Social Science Quarterly 83, 2 (June 2002): 455-471.
6. Lee, Hedwig
Lee, Dohoon
Guo, Guang
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Trends in Body Mass Index in Adolescence and Young Adulthood in the United States: 1959–2002
Journal of Adolescent Health 49,6 (December 2011): 601-608.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X11001522
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Gender Differences; National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES); National Health Interview Survey (NHIS); National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth); Racial Differences; Weight

Purpose: This study examined trends in body mass index (BMI) during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood by gender and race, using national data from the United States spanning for >40 years from 1959 and 2002. Although past research has investigated BMI trends separately in childhood/adolescence and adulthood, this study uniquely focused on the transition to adulthood (12–26 years) to identify the emergence of the obesity epidemic during this critical life-stage.

Methods: Longitudinal and cross-sectional data were obtained from four nationally representative surveys: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, National Health Interview Survey, and National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY79 and NLSY97). The analysis tracked age trends in BMI by time, which allowed for the examination of how BMI changed during the transition to adulthood and whether the patterns of change varied by period. Data best suited for trend analysis were identified. Age trends in BMI by gender and race were graphed and regression analysis was used to test for significant differences in the trends using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Results: BMI increased sharply in the adolescent ages, beginning in the 1990s and among young adults around 2000. This age pattern of BMI increase was more dramatic among females and blacks, particularly black females.

Conclusions: BMI increased during the transition to adulthood and these increases have grown larger over time. Obesity prevention efforts should focus on this high-risk transition period, particularly among minority populations.

Bibliography Citation
Lee, Hedwig, Dohoon Lee, Guang Guo and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "Trends in Body Mass Index in Adolescence and Young Adulthood in the United States: 1959–2002." Journal of Adolescent Health 49,6 (December 2011): 601-608.
7. Raley, R. Kelly
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Rindfuss, Ronald R.
The Quality and Comparability of Child Care Data in U.S. Surveys
Social Science Research 29,3 (September 2000): 356-381.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X00906732
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Academic Press, Inc.
Keyword(s): Child Care; Data Quality/Consistency; National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH); Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

This paper examines the quality and comparability of child care data obtained from eight waves of data from four nationally representative data sources: the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1986 and 1988), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (1986, 1987, 1988, and 1990), the National Child Care Survey, and the National Survey of Families and Households. We examine whether different study designs and survey techniques for asking questions about child care produce similar results on both the levels and determinants of child care. We identified four main sources of difference in the data sets that could impact the quality and comparability of child care research: when the interview is conducted; screening questions used to determine who is asked about child care; the population of parents and children represented in the survey; and the way child care questions are asked. Our findings indicate that summer interviews and screening on mother's work status produce the largest differences in the levels and effects of child care across these studies. Even after removing the effects of summer interviews and screening questions, however, substantial differences exist across the studies.
Bibliography Citation
Raley, R. Kelly, Kathleen Mullan Harris and Ronald R. Rindfuss. "The Quality and Comparability of Child Care Data in U.S. Surveys." Social Science Research 29,3 (September 2000): 356-381.