Professor Tony Brown et al.’s article, “Imprisoned by Empathy: Familial Incarceration and Psychological Distress among African American Men in the National Survey of American Life,” is co-winner of the 2018 American Sociological Association’s Mental Health section Best Publication award.

Congratulations to our 2018 PhD graduates, Mackenzie Brewer, Lynn Fahey, and Alexa Solazzo.  We are so proud!  Find out where they’re headed on our placements page.

Ashley Kranjac, Rachel Kimbro, Justin Denney, and former post-doc Kristin Osiecki had an article entitled “Comprehensive Neighborhood Portraits and Child Asthma Disparities” accepted for publication in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. See the abstract below.

Objectives: Previous research has established links between child, family, and neighborhood disadvantages and child asthma. We add to this literature by first characterizing neighborhoods in Houston, TX by demographic, economic, and air quality characteristics to establish differences in pediatric asthma diagnoses across neighborhoods. Second, we identify the relative risk of social, economic, and environmental risk factors for child asthma diagnoses. Methods: We geocoded and linked electronic pediatric medical records to neighborhood-level social and economic indicators. Using latent profile modeling techniques, we identified Advantaged, Middleclass, and Disadvantaged neighborhoods. We then used a modified version of the Blinder-Oaxaca regression decomposition method to examine differences in asthma diagnoses across children in these different neighborhoods. Results: Both compositional (the characteristics of the children and the ambient air quality in the neighborhood) and associational (the relationship between child and air quality characteristics and asthma) differences within the distinctive neighborhood contexts influence asthma outcomes. For example, unequal exposure to PM2.5 and O3 among children in Disadvantaged and Middle-class neighborhoods contribute to asthma diagnosis disparities within these contexts. For children in Disadvantaged and Advantaged neighborhoods, associational differences between racial/ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics and asthma diagnoses explain a significant proportion of the gap. Conclusions for Practice: Our results provide evidence that differential exposure to pollution and protective factors associated with non-Hispanic White children and children from affluent families contribute to asthma disparities between neighborhoods. Future researchers should consider social and racial inequalities as more proximate drivers, not merely as associated, with asthma disparities in children.

Rachel Kimbro had a paper accepted at Sociological Science with Christine Percheski, entitled “Deciding to Wait: Partnership Status, Economic Conditions, and Pregnancy During the Great Recession.”

Abstract
The Great Recession was associated with reduced fertility in the United States. Many questions about the dynamics underlying this reduction remain unanswered, however, including whether reduced fertility rates were driven by decreases in intended or unplanned pregnancies. Using restricted data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth (N=4630), we exploit variation in state economic indicators to assess the impact of economic conditions on the likelihood of an intended pregnancy, an unplanned pregnancy, or no pregnancy for adult women without a college education. We focus on variations by partnership and marital status. Overall, we find that worse economic conditions were predictive of a lower risk of unplanned pregnancy. Women’s odds of intended pregnancy did not, however, respond uniformly to economic conditions but varied by marital status. When economic conditions were poor, married women had lower odds of intended pregnancy, whereas cohabiting women had greater odds of intended pregnancy.

Mackenzie Brewer, Rachel Kimbro, Justin Denney, and former post-doc Kristin Osiecki had a paper accepted at Health & Place entitled “Does neighborhood social and environmental context impact race/ethnic disparities in childhood asthma?”

Abstract
Utilizing over 140,000 geocoded medical records for a diverse sample of children ages 2-12 living in Houston, Texas, we examine whether a comprehensive set of neighborhood social and environmental characteristics explain racial and ethnic disparities in childhood asthma. Adjusting for all individual risk factors, as well as neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, particulate matter, ozone concentration, and race/ethnic composition, reduced but did not fully attenuate the higher odds of asthma diagnosis among black (OR= 2.59, 95% CI= 2.39, 2.80), Hispanic (OR= 1.22, 95% CI= 1.14, 1.32) and Asian (OR= 1.18, 95% CI= 1.04, 1.33) children relative to whites.

Alexa Solazzo, Bridget Gorman, and Justin Denney had an article entitled “Cancer Screening Utilization among U.S. Women: How Mammogram and Pap Test Use Varies Among Heterosexual, Lesbian, and Bisexual Women” accepted for publication at Population Research and Policy Review. See the abstract below.

Existing research on cancer screening utilization among sexual minority women in the U.S. has mostly relied on non-random samples that combine lesbian and bisexual women into a single group. We respond to these limitations by examining the relationship between sexual orientation and cancer screening among a sample of U.S. women from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Our analytic sample includes 2,273 lesbian, 1,689 bisexual, and 174,839 heterosexual women interviewed in 15 U.S. states between 2000 and 2010. We examine two cancer screening measures: timely mammogram and pap tests, defined as having had a mammogram in the past two years for women aged 40 and older, and having had a pap test in the past three years for women aged 21 to 65. For mammogram, results showed that rates of timely use did not significantly differ by sexual orientation. However, lesbian and bisexual women report significantly lower rates of timely pap testing than heterosexual women. Logistic regression results on timely pap testing showed that lower pap test use for bisexual women is primarily driven by their poorer socioeconomic status relative to heterosexual women while the significantly lower odds of timely pap testing for lesbian women were unaffected by control measures. Better understanding of cancer screening utilization disparities among lesbian and bisexual women is necessary to address morbidity and mortality disparities by sexual orientation.

Patricia Morton received the Student Dissertation Research Award from the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Behavioral and Social Sciences Section (BSS) for her paper entitled “The Inflammatory Sequelae of Childhood Misfortune.”

Former postbaccs Sarita Panchang and Hilary Dowdy published a paper with Rachel Kimbro and Bridget Gorman, entitled, “Self-Rated Health, Gender, and Acculturative Stress among Immigrants in the U.S.: New Roles for Social Support.”

Utilizing the 2002-2003 National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), the paper examines relationships between acculturative stress and self-rated physical and mental health, as well as the potential role of social support factors, with a primary focus on gender.  Among Latino immigrants acculturative stress has no association with health, and for Asian immigrants there is an association with physical health among women and mental health among men – but only the latter persisted after adjusting for controls. In addition, among Latino men and women, acculturative stress is health-damaging when specific types of social support are low but can even be health promoting at higher support levels.

Justin Denney is the lead author on a new publication in Social Problems, with Rachel Kimbro and former STAPH postdoc Gregory Sharp, entitled “Neighborhoods and Food Insecurity in Young Children: A Disadvantage Paradox?”  Utilizing the ECLS-K: 2010-2011 data, the paper demonstrates that neighborhood concentrated disadvantage increases the risk of food insecurity – but mostly for non-poor children living in neighborhoods with higher concentrated disadvantage.

Rachel Kimbro (PI), Justin Denney (Co-PI), and Mackenzie Brewer (Co-Investigator) were awarded a grant for $30,000 from the University of Kentucky’s Center for Poverty Research.  Their project, “Counties of Risk:  Assessing Family Resilience and Vulnerability to Food Insecurity” will connect county-level food insecurity estimates to the 2010-2011 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to assess how county context influences individual children’s risk of food insecurity.