Raising
Is There a Foster Care-To-Prison Pipeline? Evidence from Quasi-Randomly Assigned Investigators
Jason Baron & Max Gross
NBER Working Paper, April 2022
Abstract:
Foster care placement is strongly associated with crime -- for example, close to one fifth of the prison population in the United States is comprised of former foster children -- yet there is little evidence on whether this relationship is causal. Leveraging the quasi-random assignment of child welfare investigators and administrative data from Michigan, we show that foster care placement substantially reduced the chances of adult arrests, convictions, and incarceration for children at the margin. Exploring mechanisms, we find that foster care also improved a range of children's safety, academic, and behavioral intermediate outcomes. A likely reason for children's improvements is that their birth parents made positive changes, as most children in our setting reunified with their parents after a short stay in foster care. In light of recent historic federal policy which prioritizes keeping children with their families, our analysis indicates that safely reducing foster care caseloads will require improving efforts to ensure child wellbeing in the home.
Young people’s perceptions of their parents’ expectations and criticism are increasing over time: Implications for perfectionism
Thomas Curran & Andrew Hill
Psychological Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent evidence demonstrates rising self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism among young people from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada (Curran & Hill, 2019). One reason why perfectionism is increasing may be that rising competitiveness and individualism are requiring parents to engage in anxious, overly involved, and/or overly controlling forms of parenting. Yet, data to support this claim are limited and contested. In two meta-analyses, we expanded upon and tested this claim by examining whether excessive parental expectations and harsh parental criticism are correlated with perfectionism (Study 1) and whether these perceived practices are changing over time among American, Canadian, and British college students (Study 2). In Study 1, meta-analyses found small-to-moderate positive mean weighted effects of parental expectations and parental criticism on self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism, and large positive mean weighted effects of parental expectations and parental criticism on socially prescribed perfectionism. In Study 2, using cross-temporal meta-analysis, we found that mean levels of parental expectations and parental criticism had linearly increased between 1989 and 2019 among college students. With rising competitiveness, individualism, economic inequality, and pressure to excel at school and college as the societal background, increases in parental expectations and parental criticism offer the most plausible explanation for rising perfectionism to date.
Gendered Housework: Spousal Relative Income, Parenthood and Traditional Gender Identity Norms
Joanna Syrda
Work, Employment and Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite women’s increased market employment and earnings, the gender housework gap persists. Drawing on US data from 1999 to 2017 waves of Panel Study of Income Dynamics (6643 dual-earner heterosexual couples, 19,602 couple-year observations) and using couples fixed effects, this study examines the impact of having children on the relationship between partners’ housework time and spousal relative income. While parenthood could theoretically incentivize a more efficient division of labour, I find it has a traditionalizing effect and parents’ housework exhibits significant gender deviance neutralization, while housework division of childless couples is independent of relative income. In fact, these effects are so sizeable, that parents’ gender gap in the division of domestic labour increases in the higher range of women’s relative income. As the gender earnings gap closes and women’s relative income increases, the gender housework gap opens. Additionally, the traditionalizing parenthood effect is identified only among married and not cohabiting parents.
Domestic Violence and Income: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit
Resul Cesur et al.
NBER Working Paper, April 2022
Abstract:
Using Difference-in-Differences models, we estimate the impact of an exogenous increase in income on the incidence and intensity of intimate partner violence (IPV). Using National Crime Victimization Survey data from 1992 to 2000, we exploit time and family-size variation in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The OBRA-93 expansion caused statistically significant decreases in both reports of any physical or sexual assault and counts of physical or sexual assaults per 100 women surveyed with the effects being strongest for those groups more likely to both experience IPV and be eligible for EITC: unmarried women and black women. If increased income (rather than changes in employment) is the only channel by which the EITC decreases domestic violence, an additional $1,000 of after-tax income decreases the incidence of physical and sexual violence of unmarried low-educated women by 9.73% and the intensity of physical and sexual violence by 21%. We explore potential mechanisms behind these findings. After ruling out a decrease in time exposure to a partner (due to more time spent at work than at home) or increases in cash on hand with tax returns, we find evidence in support of EITC allowing for changes in living conditions during the summer.
An investigation of a novel broad autism phenotype: Increased facial masculinity among parents of children on the autism spectrum
Diana Weiting Tan et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 30 March 2022
Abstract:
The broad autism phenotype commonly refers to sub-clinical levels of autistic-like behaviour and cognition presented in biological relatives of autistic people. In a recent study, we reported findings suggesting that the broad autism phenotype may also be expressed in facial morphology, specifically increased facial masculinity. Increased facial masculinity has been reported among autistic children, as well as their non-autistic siblings. The present study builds on our previous findings by investigating the presence of increased facial masculinity among non-autistic parents of autistic children. Using a previously established method, a ‘facial masculinity score’ and several facial distances were calculated for each three-dimensional facial image of 192 parents of autistic children (58 males, 134 females) and 163 age-matched parents of non-autistic children (50 males, 113 females). While controlling for facial area and age, significantly higher masculinity scores and larger (more masculine) facial distances were observed in parents of autistic children relative to the comparison group, with effect sizes ranging from small to medium (0.16 ≤ d ≤ .41), regardless of sex. These findings add to an accumulating evidence base that the broad autism phenotype is expressed in physical characteristics and suggest that both maternal and paternal pathways are implicated in masculinized facial morphology.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Across Birth Generation and LGBTQ+ Identity, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2019
Phillip Hughes et al.
American Journal of Public Health, April 2022, Pages 662-670
Methods:
Using data from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we examined the odds of experiencing 4 or more ACEs for Generation X, millennials, and Generation Z relative to baby boomers (n = 56 262). We also explored differences between generations based on LGBTQ+ identity.
Results:
The odds of experiencing 4 or more ACEs were higher for Generation X (odds ratio [OR] = 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.52, 1.83), millennials (OR = 2.12; 95% CI = 1.92, 2.35), and Generation Z (OR = 2.12; 95% CI = 1.79, 2.52) than for baby boomers. This disparity was amplified by LGBTQ+ identity (P = .016). The frequency of individual ACEs also varied by generation.