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Author: Nobles, Jenna
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Diaz, Christina
Nobles, Jenna
The Intergenerational Production of the Health Gradient: Evidence among Immigrant Families
Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Meetings, March-April 2011
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Child Health; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Height; Immigrants; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Weight

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

Our project has two aims:
1. To assess how early in life socioeconomic patterns in health among second generation children begin to diverge from the socioeconomic patterns in health among their parents.
2. To test competing hypotheses about the intergenerational mechanisms that produce a health gradient among children in the absence of a similar gradient among parents. Although many aspects of health could be considered, our study will emphasize height, weight, chronic health conditions, and activity-limiting illness. These measures are collected from both parents and children in both the ECLS-B and NLSY-97 data sets.
Bibliography Citation
Diaz, Christina and Jenna Nobles. "The Intergenerational Production of the Health Gradient: Evidence among Immigrant Families." Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Meetings, March-April 2011.
2. Hamoudi, Amar
Nobles, Jenna
Do Daughters Really Cause Divorce? Stress, Pregnancy, and Family Composition
Demography 51,4 (August 2014): 1423-1449.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-014-0305-x
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Divorce; First Birth; Gender; Marital Instability; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Relationship Conflict; Stress

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

Provocative studies have reported that in the United States, marriages producing firstborn daughters are more likely to divorce than those producing firstborn sons. The findings have been interpreted as contemporary evidence of fathers’ son preference. Our study explores the potential role of another set of dynamics that may drive these patterns: namely, selection into live birth. Epidemiological evidence indicates that the characteristic female survival advantage may begin before birth. If stress accompanying unstable marriages has biological effects on fecundity, a female survival advantage could generate an association between stability and the sex composition of offspring. Combining regression and simulation techniques to analyze real-world data, we ask, How much of the observed association between sex of the firstborn child and risk of divorce could plausibly be accounted for by the joint effects of female survival advantage and reduced fecundity associated with unstable marriage? Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we find that relationship conflict predicts the sex of children born after conflict was measured; conflict also predicts subsequent divorce. Conservative specification of parameters linking pregnancy characteristics, selection into live birth, and divorce are sufficient to generate a selection-driven association between offspring sex and divorce, which is consequential in magnitude. Our findings illustrate the value of demographic accounting of processes which occur before birth—a period when many outcomes of central interest in the population sciences begin to take shape.
Bibliography Citation
Hamoudi, Amar and Jenna Nobles. "Do Daughters Really Cause Divorce? Stress, Pregnancy, and Family Composition." Demography 51,4 (August 2014): 1423-1449.
3. Hamoudi, Amar
Nobles, Jenna
Do Men Really Prefer to Live with Sons? Stress, Pregnancy and Family Composition
Presented: New Orleans LA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Children; Divorce; Gender; Marital Conflict; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Sons

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

Several studies have documented controversial but widely-reported findings linking children's gender to union stability and family living arrangements in the US. Couples with girls are more likely to divorce than couples with boys; girls are less likely than boys to coreside with their fathers. The findings are often described as contemporary evidence of fathers' son-preference. Our study considers the role of a competing hypothesis for these patterns, one that emphasizes epidemiological research on stress, miscarriage, and the production of female births. Combining analysis of vital statistics and two longitudinal studies, we demonstrate that children's gender is not exogenous to family processes. We examine the timing of pregnancies and births, relative to conflict within marriage and maternal anxiety, and relative to transitions in union status and fathers’ coresidence. The findings allow us to bound the possible causal effect of the birth of a daughter on her father's departure from the household.
Bibliography Citation
Hamoudi, Amar and Jenna Nobles. "Do Men Really Prefer to Live with Sons? Stress, Pregnancy and Family Composition." Presented: New Orleans LA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2013.