Search Results

Title: Facing the Realities of the American Dream: Upward Maternal Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Colen, Cynthia G.
Geronimus, Arline T.
Bound, John
James, Sherman A.
Facing the Realities of the American Dream: Upward Maternal Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight
Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, December 10-14, 2005.
Also: http://apha.confex.com/apha/133am/techprogram/paper_115060.htm
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Black Studies; Census of Population; Childbearing; Children, Well-Being; Family Income; Income Level; Infants; Mobility, Economic; Mobility, Social; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Factors; Variables, Independent - Covariate; Women

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

I utilize data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the 1970 U.S. Census of Population and Housing to determine the extent to which upward maternal socioeconomic mobility reduces the probability of giving birth to a low birthweight (LBW) baby among Black and White women in the United States. Multivariate analyses are restricted to female respondents who were living in households at age 14 for which the income to needs ratio (INR) did not exceed 200% of the national poverty threshold. I estimate a series of logistic regression models to determine whether or not increases in family income during the year in which the respondent became pregnant are associated with the risk of low birthweight. Among White women who grew up in or near poverty, the probability of giving birth to a LBW baby decreases by 48% for every one unit increase in the natural logarithm of adult family income once the effects of all other covariates are taken into account. Among African American women who grew up in or near poverty, the relationship between adult family income and low birthweight is also negative; however, the coefficient on the independent variable of interest fails to reach statistical significance at the 0.05 level. Furthermore, maternal health behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, delayed prenatal care, and inadequate weight gain, appear to have a minimal impact on the association between upward socioeconomic mobility and the risk of low birthweight for both Blacks and Whites.
Bibliography Citation
Colen, Cynthia G., Arline T. Geronimus, John Bound and Sherman A. James. "Facing the Realities of the American Dream: Upward Maternal Socioeconomic Mobility and Black-White Disparities in Infant Birthweight." Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, December 10-14, 2005.