Search Results

Author: Rackin, Heather M.
Resulting in 10 citations.
1. Rackin, Heather M.
Comparing Veteran and Non-veteran Racial Disparities in Mid-life Health and Well-being
Population Research and Policy Review 36,3 (June 2017): 331-356.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-016-9419-8
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): CESD (Depression Scale); Health, Mental/Psychological; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Racial Differences; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); Self-Esteem; Veterans; Well-Being

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

Using National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data on mid-life physical health, mental health, and self-esteem, I examine inter- and intra-racial disparities in health and well-being among veteran and non-veteran men (N = 2440). After controlling for selectivity into the military via propensity weighting, I find that black veterans have higher self-esteem than white veterans and comparable black non-veterans, but white veterans have similar mid-life self-esteem as their non-veteran counterparts. I find no evidence of disparities in health for depressive symptoms and self-rated health after taking selection into military service into account. The results suggest that aspects of military service may increase blacks' self-esteem, possibly due to less discrimination and more opportunity.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. "Comparing Veteran and Non-veteran Racial Disparities in Mid-life Health and Well-being." Population Research and Policy Review 36,3 (June 2017): 331-356.
2. Rackin, Heather M.
Where Should Babies Come From? Measuring Schemas of Fertility and Family Formation Using Novel Theory and Methods
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Duke University, 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Attitudes; Family Formation; Fertility; Wantedness

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

In this dissertation, I explore how and why pre- and post-reports of intentions may be different using insights from the Theory of Conjunctural Action. In the second chapter, using data from the NLSY79 and log-linear models, I show that there are considerable inconsistencies between prospective and retrospective reports of fertility intentions. Specifically, nearly 6% of births (346 out of 6022) are retrospectively reported as unwanted at the time of conception by women who prospectively reported they wanted more children one or two years prior to the birth. Similarly, over 400 births are retrospectively reported as wanted by women who intended to have no more births one or two years prior (i.e., in the prior survey wave). The innovation here is to see this inconsistency, not as an error in reporting, but as different construals of a seemingly similar question. In other words, women may not be consciously intending births and then enacting these intentions; rather women may have different schemas (or meanings) of prospective and retrospective measures of fertility intentions.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. Where Should Babies Come From? Measuring Schemas of Fertility and Family Formation Using Novel Theory and Methods. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Duke University, 2013.
3. Rackin, Heather M.
Bachrach, Christine A.
Assessing the Predictive Value of Fertility Expectations Through a Cognitive–Social Model
Population Research and Policy Review 35,4 (August 2016): 527-551.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-016-9395-z
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Expectations/Intentions; Fertility; Life Course

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

his paper grounds its analysis in a novel model (Bachrach and Morgan in Popul Dev Rev, 39:459–485, 2013) that suggests that responses to questions about fertility intentions may reflect distinct phenomena at distinct points in the life course. The model suggests that women form "true" intentions when their circumstances make the issue of childbearing salient and urgent enough to draw the cognitive resources needed to make a conscious plan; before this, women report intentions based on cognitive images of family and self. We test the implications of this model for reported fertility expectations using NLSY79 data that measure expectations throughout the life course. We find that early in the life course, before marriage and parenthood, women's fertility expectations are associated with family background and cognitive images of family and future self. Later in the life course, as women experience life course transitions that confer statuses normatively associated with childbearing—such as marriage—and parenthood itself, their reported expectations are better predictors of their fertility than before they passed these life course milestones. Our empirical results provide support for a model which has important implications for both the measurement and conceptualization of women's intended and expected fertility.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. and Christine A. Bachrach. "Assessing the Predictive Value of Fertility Expectations Through a Cognitive–Social Model." Population Research and Policy Review 35,4 (August 2016): 527-551.
4. Rackin, Heather M.
Bachrach, Christine A.
Morgan, S. Philip
When Do Fertility Expectations Predict Fertility?
Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Expectations/Intentions; Fertility; Life Course

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

This paper grounds its analysis in novel theory (Bachrach and Morgan 2013) that suggests that responses to questions about fertility intentions and expectations may reflect distinct phenomena at distinct points in the life course. The theory suggests that women form ‘true’ intentions when their circumstances make the issue of childbearing salient and urgent enough to draw the cognitive resources needed to make a conscious plan. We use data from the NLSY79 that measures expectations throughout the life course to measure when fertility expectations are most predictive of final parity. We find that as women experience life course transitions that confer statuses normatively associated with childbearing – such as marriage, completion of education, and parenthood– their reported intentions are much better predictors of their fertility than women who have not passed through these life course milestones. We believe this has important implications for both the measurement and conceptualization of fertility intentions.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M., Christine A. Bachrach and S. Philip Morgan. "When Do Fertility Expectations Predict Fertility?" Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014.
5. Rackin, Heather M.
Gibson-Davis, Christina
Early-life and Recent Mortality and Fertility Timing
Presented: New York NY, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2019
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Childbearing; Childhood Adversity/Trauma; Fertility; Mortality; Trauma/Death in family

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

Demographic and sociological theory suggest that early childbearing may be an adaptive response to dangerous and high mortality environments but no research has examined the association between timing of first birth and individual-level experiences that make mortality salient. This study allows for an examination if, when, and what types of mortality are associated with increased risk of first birth. Here I examine these associations in a representative sample of young US women. Using data from women in the NLSY97 (N=3,553), I find that witnessing a shooting in early-life and experiencing the death of a mother in sibling in the past two years increases the risk of first birth. These effects persist even after controlling on a host of potential confounders (e.g., early-life socioeconomic status, personal socioeconomic status, and romantic partnerships). These findings suggest experiencing a mortality salient event or perceiving a high risk of early death are important predictors of young childbearing.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. and Christina Gibson-Davis. "Early-life and Recent Mortality and Fertility Timing." Presented: New York NY, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2019.
6. Rackin, Heather M.
Gibson-Davis, Christina
Familial Deaths and First Birth
Population and Development Review published online (15 November 2022): DOI: 10.1111/padr.12522.
Also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/padr.12522
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Council
Keyword(s): First Birth; Trauma/Death in family

Motivated by the rise in premature mortality among working-age adults, we examine the association between adult familial deaths and the transition to motherhood. Although many deaths can be disruptive, deaths that occur sooner than expected and to certain family members (e.g., mothers) may prompt changes in resources, time available for parenting, or psychological understandings in ways that change fertility behavior. Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (N = 4,008 women aged 15-34). Using fixed effects to address selection, we compare the associations between recent off-time deaths (mother, father, or sibling deaths) and on-time deaths (grandparent deaths) on fertility. Women had higher odds of first birth when they recently experienced a sibling or maternal death compared to when they had not recently experienced that type of death. Effects of maternal and sibling deaths were statistically larger than the null effect found for grandparent death. The strong effect of sibling and maternal death on hastening first birth suggest that mortality may influence a psychological reevaluation of values vis-à-vis parenting and/or decrease psychological well-being in ways that change sexual practices.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. and Christina Gibson-Davis. "Familial Deaths and First Birth." Population and Development Review published online (15 November 2022): DOI: 10.1111/padr.12522.
7. Rackin, Heather M.
Morgan, S. Philip
Prospective versus Retrospective Measurement of Unwanted Fertility: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Inconsistencies Assessed for a Cohort of US Women
Demographic Research 39 (6 July 2018): 61-94.
Also: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26585324
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Keyword(s): Fertility; Motherhood; Mothers; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Wantedness

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

METHODS: Using the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we compare retrospective and prospective reports [of fertility wantedness] for 6,495 births from 3,578 women.

RESULTS: The prospective strategy produces a higher percentage of unwanted births than the retrospective strategy. But the two reports of wantedness are strongly associated – especially for the second birth (vs. other births) and for women with stable (vs. unstable) expectation patterns. Nevertheless, discordant reports are common and are predicted by women's characteristics.

Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. and S. Philip Morgan. "Prospective versus Retrospective Measurement of Unwanted Fertility: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Inconsistencies Assessed for a Cohort of US Women." Demographic Research 39 (6 July 2018): 61-94.
8. Rackin, Heather M.
Sereny Brasher, Melanie
Is Baby a Blessing? Wantedness, Age at First Birth, and Later-Life Depression
Journal of Marriage and Family 78,5 (October 2016): 1269-1284.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12357/full
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Birth Preferences/Birth Expectations; Depression (see also CESD); Motherhood

Research has found that both unintended and nonnormatively timed births have negative consequences, yet little is known about how birth timing and intention jointly influence mothers' mental health. This study explored how the interaction between intention and age at first birth influenced depression 5 to 13 years later by analyzing the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,573). We found that mistimed births, when compared with wanted births, were associated with depression, but only for normatively timed transitions to motherhood. Surprisingly, teen mothers who had unwanted births had better later-life mental health than teens who had wanted or mistimed births. Among women with wanted or mistimed first births, increasing age at birth was associated with lower probabilities of depression. Most, but not all, of these effects were explained by selection factors and life circumstances. Results show the importance of examining joint effects of first birth wantedness and timing.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. and Melanie Sereny Brasher. "Is Baby a Blessing? Wantedness, Age at First Birth, and Later-Life Depression." Journal of Marriage and Family 78,5 (October 2016): 1269-1284.
9. Rackin, Heather M.
Sereny, Melanie
A Baby Is Always a Blessing? The Effects of Unintended Childbearing on Health Throughout the Life Course
Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Depression (see also CESD); Family Formation; Fertility; Health, Mental/Psychological; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Motherhood; Parenthood; Propensity Scores; Wantedness

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

Very limited research examines the longer-term impacts of unintended childbearing on women's physical and mental health. Our project will utilize the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine the relationship between unintended childbirth (either unwanted or mistimed) at various ages and mental and physical health outcomes in later life (near age 40). We are particularly interested in how the effects of unintended childbirth may differ by the age at which the event occurred. Our preliminary results show that younger (unintended) mothers are more likely to experience depressive symptoms at age 40 than women who never experienced an unintended birth. Similar results are found for self-rated health in older adulthood. Education may play a pivotal role in mediating the impact of an unintended birth on subsequent health. In our ongoing analysis we hope to disentangle the relationship between selection and causation for these respondents through propensity score matching.
Bibliography Citation
Rackin, Heather M. and Melanie Sereny. "A Baby Is Always a Blessing? The Effects of Unintended Childbearing on Health Throughout the Life Course." Presented: Dallas, TX, Population Association of America Meetings, April 2010.
10. Stroope, Samuel
Rackin, Heather M.
Stroope, Jessica L.
Uecker, Jeremy E.
Breastfeeding and the Role of Maternal Religion: Results From a National Prospective Cohort Study
Annals of Behavioral Medicine 52,4 (15 March 2018): 319-330.
Also: https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/52/4/319/4837292
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Keyword(s): Breastfeeding; First Birth; Religion

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

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (n = 3,719), we regressed breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration for first births on religious affiliation and religious attendance, comparing conservative Protestants with other religious groups. Sociodemographic characteristics were explored as potential mediators or moderators of relationships.
Bibliography Citation
Stroope, Samuel, Heather M. Rackin, Jessica L. Stroope and Jeremy E. Uecker. "Breastfeeding and the Role of Maternal Religion: Results From a National Prospective Cohort Study." Annals of Behavioral Medicine 52,4 (15 March 2018): 319-330.