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Author: Skalamera, Julie
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Cavanagh, Shannon
Skalamera, Julie
Crosnoe, Robert
Health Behaviors and the Transition to Adulthood During the Great Recession
Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Alcohol Use; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Economic Changes/Recession; Geocoded Data; Sleep; Transition, Adulthood; Unemployment Rate

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

As youth transition to adulthood—facing new social expectations, traversing new contexts, and establishing independence—their health behaviors tend to become less healthy. Recently, this transition has collided with a challenging historic context, the Great Recession. Using data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort Child and Young Adult Sample (n = 3,096), we embed health behavior trajectories across the transition to adulthood in the context of the Great Recession. We examine multi-year trajectories of smoking, drinking, and sleep among young adults during the Great Recession but who differ in the extent their communities have been affected. Our findings suggest that, in hardest hit local economies, young adults experienced sleeping penalties and, among younger youth, drinking increases, relative to youth in less acutely affected communities. The collision of the transition to adulthood with the Great Recession may therefore have long-term implications for inequalities in health behaviors.
Bibliography Citation
Cavanagh, Shannon, Julie Skalamera and Robert Crosnoe. "Health Behaviors and the Transition to Adulthood During the Great Recession." Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016.
2. Skalamera, Julie
Hummer, Robert A.
Walsemann, Katrina Michelle
Humphries, Melissa
Highest Earned Degree, Education in Years, and Health Behavior among U.S. Young Adults
Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); College Degree; Educational Attainment; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Socioeconomic Status (SES); Substance Use

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

Highly educated U.S. adults have better health and this relationship has strengthened among recent cohorts. One key pathway relating education to health is health behavior. This study describes the relationships between highest degree obtained, years of education, and health behavior among young adults; examines whether socioeconomic attainment mediates the relationships; and tests whether these relationships vary by gender. We focus on whether years of education, educational degrees, or both matter for more favorable health behavior. We use NLSY-97 data, which includes both quantity and credential education measures. Findings reveal that higher educational degrees are associated with more positive health behavior, while increasing years of education also matters net of degree attainment. Some differences across behaviors exist. Socioeconomic status mediates these relationships, but the effects are weak. Findings also show no notable gender differences. This research shows that both educational quantity and credentials matter quite strongly for favorable health behavior.
Bibliography Citation
Skalamera, Julie, Robert A. Hummer, Katrina Michelle Walsemann and Melissa Humphries. "Highest Earned Degree, Education in Years, and Health Behavior among U.S. Young Adults." Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014.