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Author: Zhang, Weihui
Resulting in 4 citations.
1. Huang, Ying
Zhang, Weihui
The Earning of Immigrant Young Adults: Analysis Within and Across Cohorts
Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Keyword(s): Earnings; Immigrants; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth)

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

In this study, we use two nationally representative cohorts--the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)--to examine the effects of generation and duration of residence on their earnings in the first few years upon their entrance of labor market. We exploit the cohort design of these two data sources to investigate the role of compositional changes (at micro-level) and structural changes (at the macro-level) play in affecting the economic achievement of immigrant youth and young adults, the second generation immigrants, and their native peers. Our approach to immigrants' economic attainment is guided by contemporary discussions of policies on immigration and immigrants in the United States. Our goal is to provide a greater understanding of how immigrant and second-generation youths progress through the initial stages of the labor market experience.
Bibliography Citation
Huang, Ying and Weihui Zhang. "The Earning of Immigrant Young Adults: Analysis Within and Across Cohorts." Presented: Washington DC, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) Annual Fall Research Conference, November 2016.
2. Zhang, Weihui
Maternal Human Capital Accumulation and Children's Well-being
Advances in Life Course Research published online (16 February 2021): 100406.
Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040260821000058
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Child Health; Cognitive Ability; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Mothers, Education; Parental Influences; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Vocational Education

Research examining the intergenerational transmission of human capital is subject to two limitations. First, for the parental generation, most studies focus on formal education but fail to consider vocational training experience, which has more variation than formal educational attainment over the life course. Second, most studies have found consistent conclusions using income and occupation for the children's outcomes but have generated mixed findings regarding health and cognitive ability. This study aims to answer whether mothers' additional vocational training beyond formal education is beneficial to children's health and cognitive ability. Applying fixed-effects regression to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child and Young Adults datasets, this study finds that mothers' human capital accumulation is positively associated with higher cognitive scores for both boys and girls, but does not significantly predict children’s illnesses or behavior problems. These findings bear implications for policy aimed at mitigating the intergenerational cycles of disadvantages.
Bibliography Citation
Zhang, Weihui. "Maternal Human Capital Accumulation and Children's Well-being." Advances in Life Course Research published online (16 February 2021): 100406.
3. Zhang, Weihui
Trajectories of Human Capital Accumulation after Women's Transition to Motherhood in the US: Determinants and Consequences
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Albany, 2021
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Child Health; Depression (see also CESD); Gender Attitudes/Roles; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Human Capital; Motherhood; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Socioeconomic Status (SES); Vocational Training

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

This dissertation intends to propose three interrelated studies that investigate the possible trajectories of human capital accumulation after women's transition to motherhood, the determinants of these trajectories, and the implications for women and their children's wellbeing. Driven by the life course perspective, the cumulative advantage and disadvantage theory, and Bourdieu's cultural framework, this dissertation uses mothers' vocational training experiences to identify distinct trajectories over time in the first study. This dissertation then investigates how mothers' cumulative training experiences affect children's well-being in the second study. Finally, the third empirical study assesses whether the latent trajectories influence women's health in later life through socioeconomic status. This dissertation project utilizes the longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Children and Young Adults (NLSYCYA). I use latent profile analysis and multi-nominal regression with multiple imputations to explore the latent trajectories and their determinants. Furthermore, to fully exploit the longitudinal nature of data, I employ individual-specific fixed-effects models to assess the impacts of mother's cumulative vocational training on children's physical health, mental health, and cognition. Regarding the long-term effect of latent trajectories on women's health in mid-to-late life, I conduct mediation analysis to examine whether women's socioeconomic status mediates the relationship between latent trajectories and health in later life. The results of this dissertation may offer insights into how women's human capital continues to develop after the transition to motherhood and shed light on how human capital erodes or perpetuates inequalities within and between generations.
Bibliography Citation
Zhang, Weihui. Trajectories of Human Capital Accumulation after Women's Transition to Motherhood in the US: Determinants and Consequences. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Albany, 2021.
4. Zhang, Weihui
Yang, Tse-Chuan
Maternal Smoking and Infant Low Birth Weight: Exploring the Biological Mechanism Through the Mother's Pre-pregnancy Weight Status
Population Research and Policy Review published online (12 October 2019): DOI: 10.1007/s11113-019-09554-x.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11113-019-09554-x
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Mothers, Health; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Weight

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

Maternal smoking has been found to adversely affect birth outcomes, such as increasing the odds of having low birth weight infants. However, the mechanisms explaining how a mother's smoking is linked to a child's low birth weight status are underexplored. This study merged two nationally representative datasets in the United States (US)--the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Child and Young Adult (NLSYCYA)--to examine whether maternal weight status before pregnancy serves as a biological mechanism. We applied a recently developed mediation analysis technique to a data sample of 6550 mother-child pairs, and we compared the estimated coefficients across nested probability models. We found that maternal body mass index (BMI) (in kg/m2), a widely used measure of weight status, reduces the odds of delivering a low birth weight infant, and this mechanism explains about 10.2% of the adverse impact of maternal smoking on having a low birth weight child. Moreover, when categorizing maternal pre-pregnancy BMI into four weight statuses (i.e., underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese), we found that, in contrast to mothers with normal weight status, underweight mothers are 70% more likely to have a low birth weight child. Our findings suggest that maternal weight status plays a role in understanding how maternal smoking affects low birth weight outcome, indicating that maintaining a proper weight status for women who plan to give birth may be a possible policy to promote infant health.
Bibliography Citation
Zhang, Weihui and Tse-Chuan Yang. "Maternal Smoking and Infant Low Birth Weight: Exploring the Biological Mechanism Through the Mother's Pre-pregnancy Weight Status." Population Research and Policy Review published online (12 October 2019): DOI: 10.1007/s11113-019-09554-x.