Sheltered In Place
Parental Status and Biological Functioning: Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study
Reed DeAngelis & John Taylor
Population Research and Policy Review, April 2020, Pages365–373
Abstract:
Does childrearing affect the biological functioning of parents? To address this question, we analyze cross-sectional survey and biomarker data from Vanderbilt University’s Nashville Stress and Health Study, a probability sample of non-Hispanic White and Black working-age adults from Davidson County, Tennessee (2011–2014; n = 1252). Multivariable regression analyses reveal a linear dose-response relationship between the number of children living in a respondent’s home and (a) increased allostatic load, and (b) decreased leukocyte telomere length. We found no differences in biological functioning between childless respondents and empty-nest parents. These findings also withstood controls for a battery of socioeconomic factors. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Can Viagra Advertising Make More Babies? Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Public Health Outcomes
Tongil “TI” Kim & Diwas KC
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although product advertising has been widely studied and understood in relation to the consumer’s purchase decision, advertising may also have unintended but important societal and economic consequences. In this article, the authors examine a public health outcome — birth rate — associated with advertisements for erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs. Since the United States loosened regulations on direct-to-consumer television advertising for prescription drugs in 1997, ED drug makers have consistently been top spenders. By comparing advertising data with multiple birth data sets (patient-level hospital data from Massachusetts between 2001 and 2010 and micro birth certificate data from the United States between 2000 and 2004), the authors demonstrate that increased ED drug television advertising leads to a higher birth rate. Their results, which are robust with respect to different functional forms and falsification tests, show that a 1% increase in ED drug advertising contributes to an increase of .04%–.08% of total births. Their findings suggest that beyond the customer purchase decision, advertising can have important public health outcomes, with resulting implications for managerial decision making and policy formulation.
Cumulative Effects of Doubling Up in Childhood on Young Adult Outcomes
Hope Harvey
Demography, April 2020, Pages 501–528
Abstract:
Living in a doubled-up, or shared, household is a common experience. Nearly one-half of children in the United States double up at some point during childhood, yet we know little about the cumulative effects of these households on children. This study estimates the effects on young adult health and educational attainment of childhood years spent in three doubled-up household types: (1) those formed with children’s grandparent(s), (2) those formed with children’s adult sibling(s), and (3) those formed with other extended family or non-kin adults. Using marginal structural models and inverse probability of treatment weighting — methods that account for the fact that household composition is both a cause and consequence of other family characteristics — I find that doubling up shapes children’s life chances, but the effects vary depending on children’s relationships with household members. Childhood years spent living with nongrandparent extended family or non-kin adults are associated with worse young adult outcomes, but coresidence with grandparents is not significantly associated with young adult outcomes after selection into these households is accounted for, and coresidence with adult siblings may be beneficial in some domains. By studying the effects of coresidence with adults beyond the nuclear family, this research contributes to a fuller understanding of the implications of family complexity for children.
A Triadic Intervention for Adolescent Sexual Health: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos et al.
Pediatrics, May 2020
Objectives: In this study, we evaluate the efficacy of Families Talking Together (FTT), a triadic intervention to reduce adolescent sexual risk behavior.
Methods: Adolescents aged 11 to 14 and their female caregivers were recruited from a pediatric clinic; 900 families were enrolled; 84 declined. Families were randomly assigned to FTT or 1 of 2 control conditions. The FTT triadic intervention consisted of a 45-minute face-to-face session for mothers, health care provider endorsement of intervention content, printed materials for families, and a booster call for mothers. The primary outcomes were ever having had vaginal intercourse, sexual debut within the past 12 months, and condom use at last sexual intercourse. Assessments occurred at baseline, 3 months post baseline, and 12 months post baseline.
Results: Of enrolled families, 73.4% identified as Hispanic, 20.4% as African American, and 6.2% as mixed race. Mean maternal age was 38.8 years, and mean adolescent grade was seventh grade. At the 12-month follow-up, 5.2% of adolescents in the experimental group reported having had sexual intercourse, compared with 18% of adolescents in the control groups (P < .05). In the experimental group, 4.7% of adolescents reported sexual debut within the past 12 months, compared with 14.7% of adolescents in the control group (P < .05). In the experimental group, 74.2% of sexually active adolescents indicated using a condom at last sexual intercourse, compared with 49.1% of adolescents in the control group (P < .05).
California's paid family leave law improves maternal psychological health
Elizabeth Doran et al.
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Methods: We use restricted data from 11 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, from 2000 to 2010, to examine mothers with children under the age of 12 months (n = 7379). Outcomes included three measures obtained from the six-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale: an aggregated score and thresholds for mild and moderate psychological distress. For inference, we used synthetic control models, comparing mothers with infants in California to mothers with infants in the control group, prelaw and post-law.
Results: Access to paid family leave was associated with a 0.636-pointdecrease (95% CI = −1.202, −0.070) in postpartum psychological distress symptoms among mothers with infants, representing a 27.6% decrease from the pre-treatment mean. It was also associated with a 9.1 percentage point reduction (95% CI = −17.8, −0.4) in mild postpartum distress, a 38.4% reduction from the pre-treatment mean. Populations that typically lack access to paid family leave, particularly single and younger mothers, may have seen even larger effects.
Birthing Consciousness as a Case of Adaptive Altered State of Consciousness Associated With Transient Hypofrontality
Orli Dahan
Perspectives on Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this article, I present the concept of “birthing consciousness,” a psychophysical altered state of women that can occur during natural and undisturbed birth. I demonstrate that this altered state of consciousness (ASC) has phenomenological and cognitive features of hypofrontality; thus, birthing consciousness probably shares a similar brain mechanism to that postulated by the transient-hypofrontality theory (THT). I argue that until recently (with the advent of modern medical intervention), in evolutionary terms, women lacking the proclivity for this specific brain mechanism had a lower chance of reproducing successfully. Hence, I suggest a general and preliminary hypothesis concerning THT: Birthing consciousness is one example of an adaptive pain-induced ASC associated with transient hypofrontality.