Search Results

Author: Ramey, David
Resulting in 10 citations.
1. Colen, Cynthia G.
Ramey, David
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.
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.
2. Colen, Cynthia G.
Ramey, David
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.
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.
3. Colen, Cynthia G.
Ramey, David
Cooksey, Elizabeth C.
Williams, David R.
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.
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.
4. Ramey, David
Punitive versus Medicalized Responses to Childhood Behavior Problems and High School Graduation
Sociological Perspectives 63,2 (April 2020): 201-227.
Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0731121419849094
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Pacific Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Health; High School Completion/Graduates; School Suspension/Expulsion; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

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

There are significant racial and socioeconomic disparities in the use of suspensions and therapy/medication for childhood behavior problems. These disparities exacerbate inequalities elsewhere, including academic achievement. In addition, the unequal distribution of child social control also raises the question of whether unobserved heterogeneity between suspended and medicated children may explain the benefits of therapy/medication as an approach to child social control. In this study, I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Child and Young Adult Survey to examine the relationship between early suspension or therapy/medication and high school graduation. Results of logistic regression models show that suspended children have lower odds of graduation than non-suspended/non-medicated children and children who only received therapy/medication. However, results of sibling comparison models that better condition on unobserved factors associated with child social control and academic achievement yield no significant differences in the odds of high school graduation across medicated and suspended siblings.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. "Punitive versus Medicalized Responses to Childhood Behavior Problems and High School Graduation." Sociological Perspectives 63,2 (April 2020): 201-227.
5. Ramey, David
Punitive versus Medicalized Responses to Childhood Behavior Problems and Well-Being in Young Adulthood
Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Children, Adjustment Problems; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Grade Point Average (GPA)/Grades; Head Start; Health, Mental/Psychological; High School Completion/Graduates; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Psychological Effects; Racial Differences; Regions; Risk-Taking; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); School Suspension/Expulsion; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

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

Scholars have documented two contemporary trends involving misbehavior in public schools in the United States - a growing reliance on suspension and expulsion as punishment and medicalization, or the use of medical diagnoses and treatment. Despite these trends, we know little about how punishment and medicalization influence long-term social and economic well-being. W are unclear about how the social construction of child behavior contributes to involvement in the school to prison pipeline, a process in which children with behavior problems are pushed out of school and into crime and incarceration. This paper begins to consider the relationship between childhood social control and school performance within the context of the school to prison pipeline. I argue that school punishment may push kids out of school and potentially into the criminal justice system. On the other hand, medicalizing behavior problems may keep kids in school and out of the criminal justice system.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. "Punitive versus Medicalized Responses to Childhood Behavior Problems and Well-Being in Young Adulthood." Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015.
6. Ramey, David
The Influence of Early School Punishment and Therapy/Medication on Social Control Experiences during Young Adulthood
Criminology 54,1 (February 2016): 113-141.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1745-9125.12095/abstract
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: American Society of Criminology
Keyword(s): Behavioral Problems; Children, Mental Health; Criminal Justice System; Depression (see also CESD); Pearlin Mastery Scale; Racial Differences; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); School Suspension/Expulsion

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

The use of suspensions and expulsions by American public school administrators has increased dramatically over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, a growing number of childhood misbehaviors have been diagnosed by doctors as medical conditions and are being treated with therapy or medication. As these trends develop at different rates for boys of different racial and ethnic groups, the connection between childhood and adult social control remains untested empirically. By using a prospective panel of 3,274 White, Black, and Hispanic males (15,675 person-years) and multilevel logistic models, I examine whether and how school punishment and/or the use of therapy or medication during childhood contributes to involvement in the criminal justice or mental health systems during young adulthood. The findings suggest that school punishment is associated with greater odds of involvement in the criminal justice system but not the mental health system. The use of therapy and/or medication during childhood is associated with higher odds of involvement in the mental health system but not the criminal justice system. Finally, although the relationship between school punishment and involvement with the criminal justice system is similar for White, Black, and Hispanic men, the relationship between medicalized social control during childhood and young adulthood is stronger for Whites than for non-Whites.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. "The Influence of Early School Punishment and Therapy/Medication on Social Control Experiences during Young Adulthood." Criminology 54,1 (February 2016): 113-141.
7. Ramey, David
The Influence of Social Status and Social Control on the Health Behaviors of Young Adults
Presented: Denver CO, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2012
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Income; Life Course; Marital Status; Obesity; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Socioeconomic Background; Wealth; Weight

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

Scholars have long demonstrated racial and socioeconomic disparities in health behaviors. However, we know little about when such disparities emerge or when they begin to influence larger gaps in health and well-being in the US. This paper analyzes three health behaviors, smoking, drinking, and poor weight management, during young adulthood, a significant period of development in the life-course. Results suggest that, as a time of experimentation and development, racial and socioeconomic disparities during young adulthood are not as prevalent as during other times in the life course. Furthermore, life-course events during adolescence and young adulthood significantly influence the odds of poor health behavior during this period. Results suggest that addressing health disparities through behavioral means alone may be insufficient. Rather, structural barriers to life chances, including education and marriage, are likely more important in explaining health disparities.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. "The Influence of Social Status and Social Control on the Health Behaviors of Young Adults." Presented: Denver CO, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2012.
8. Ramey, David
The Roles of Race and Behavior as Determinants of Punishment versus Diagnosis of Childhood Behavior Problems
Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Health Care; Racial Equality/Inequality; School Suspension/Expulsion

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

For some time, scholars have documented racial disparities in both school punishment, school suspensions and expulsions, and the medical diagnosis and treatment of behavioral problems in children and adolescents. Until recently, however, these findings were relegated to separate literatures and isolated from one another. Thus, despite shared theoretical and conceptual histories, investigation of these trends has typically been relegated to separate literatures. This project takes a step toward bridging this gap by considering punishment and treatment as alternative responses to similar childhood behavioral problems. I use data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child Survey (NLSY-C) and logistic growth-curve models to present evidence that White children with antisocial and oppositional behavior problems are more likely to be treated with therapy or psychotropic medication than African-American children while African-American children with similar behavioral problems are more likely to receive school suspensions or expulsions than White children.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. "The Roles of Race and Behavior as Determinants of Punishment versus Diagnosis of Childhood Behavior Problems." Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014.
9. Ramey, David
The Social Construction of Child Social Control via Criminalization and Medicalization: Why Race Matters
Sociological Forum 33,1 (March 2018): 139-164.
Also: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/socf.12403
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Adjustment Problems; Ethnic Differences; Racial Differences; School Suspension/Expulsion; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

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

Scholars point to two trends in the social construction of child social control: criminalization and medicalization. To control child behavior, schools and parents turn to strategies motivated by both the criminal justice and mental health systems. For example, school suspension and expulsion rates in the United States have increased alongside the use of therapy or medication for children diagnosed with behavior disorders. Despite these concurrent trends, research rarely considers how criminalization and medicalization operate as opposing or collaborative approaches to child misbehavior. In this article, I take advantage of a prospective longitudinal panel study to examine patterns of school punishment and/or the medicalization in a sample of children between the ages of 5 and 14 over 25 years. Findings demonstrate that black children have higher odds of experiencing punishment than white children, but Hispanic children do not. Additionally, black and Hispanic children have lower odds of receiving therapy or medication than white children. Furthermore, racial/ethnic disparities in punishment or therapy/medication use vary across children with higher or lower behavior problem scores.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. "The Social Construction of Child Social Control via Criminalization and Medicalization: Why Race Matters." Sociological Forum 33,1 (March 2018): 139-164.
10. Ramey, David
The Social Control of Childhood Behavior via Criminalization or Medicalization: Why Race Matters
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 2014
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Children, Adjustment Problems; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Discipline; Family Size; Head Start; Health, Mental/Psychological; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Insurance, Health; Modeling, MIxture Models/Finite Mixture Models; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Psychological Effects; Racial Differences; Regions; Risk-Taking; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); School Progress; School Suspension/Expulsion; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

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

Both rates of school suspension and expulsion and the use of therapy or stimulant drugs as treatment for a growing number of behavioral problems among children have increased steadily over the past twenty-five years. Using two different nationally representative data sources, this dissertation examines how behavior problems in African American and White children, particularly young males, are differentially socially constructed along racial lines. Findings from the first paper suggest that over the previous two decades, White boys are being medicalized through the use of therapy or medication, while African-American boys are being criminalized through school suspensions and expulsions. More importantly, this disparity cannot be explained by differences in the frequency of observed misbehavior or other socioeconomic characteristics. Results from the second paper reveal that racial disparities in the labeling of childhood misbehavior significantly contribute to racial disparities in trajectories of social control throughout adolescence and young adulthood. White males use medicalization to avoid long-term involvement with the criminal justice system, while their African Americans counterparts are unable to do so. In the third paper, I find that the school-level association between racial composition and criminalized or medicalized school discipline is highly dependent on the proportion of African American students in the surrounding school district. Moreover, the moderating influence of district level racial concentration appears to work in opposite directions for punishment as opposed to medical approaches.
Bibliography Citation
Ramey, David. The Social Control of Childhood Behavior via Criminalization or Medicalization: Why Race Matters. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 2014.