Amy Pienta

Women of the 1950s and the “Normative” Life Course: The Implications of Childlessness, Fertility Timing, and Marital Status for Psychological Well-Being in Late Midlife

We explore womens psychological well-being in late midlife in relation to childlessness and timing of entry into motherhood. Using two U.S. surveys, Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (1992) and National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) (Sweet, Bumpass, & Call, 1988), we assess the well-being of childless women in their 50s compared to mothers with early, delayed, or normatively timed first births. We focus on the cohorts born between 1928 and 1941, who experienced strong normative pressures during the baby boom with regard to marriage and child-bearing. We find few differences among childless women but lower well-being among early mothers, related to singlehood and poorer socioeconomic status. Unmarried mothers are significantly disadvantaged regardless of maternal timing, controlling for socioeconomic status. Current maternal demands are independently related to well-being and help to explain observed differences in family satisfaction. Overall, childlessness and off-time child-bearing are related to midlife well-being through their link with more proximate factors, particularly current marital status, health, and socioeconomic status.

Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life in Continuing Care Retirement Communities

This study examines the relationships between health-related quality of life and activity engagement among residents in two continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs). Prior research indicates that involvement in activity is an important correlate of healthy aging among other community-dwelling elders, and this finding is expected to hold in CCRCs. Time spent engaged in discretionary activities, specifically active, passive, and outside retirement community activities are expected to be associated with better health-related quality of life across multiple dimensions. Data were collected from 167 independent living and assisted living residents in two CCRCs in a large Midwestern metropolitan area. Activity engagement was measured via a self-report questionnaire. Health-related quality of life was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), which generates eight health subscales (e.g., physical functioning, social functioning, pain). Based on ordinary least squares regression models, the results indicate that discretionary activities, in particular more active types of activity, are positively associated with higher healthrelated quality of life. These findings have implications for health and activity promotion in CCRCs.

It takes two: marriage and smoking cessation in the middle years.

Objectives: In this prospective study of smoking cessation among married individuals in midlife we examine correspondence in the change of each partner’s smoking status with that of the other, independent of established psychosocial correlates of smoking cessation. Methods: Using longitudinal data from the first two waves of the Health and Retirement Study, 1992-1994, hierarchical logistic regression models were estimated for married male and female smokers separately. Results: Findings support our hypothesis of correspondence in the smoking cessation of married male and female smokers net of other sociodemographic, health, and health behavior characteristics. Discussion: These findings suggest that initiation and maintenance of this positive lifestyle change may be more easily achieved when both marital partners are given information and support to quit smoking at the same time.

The Depressive Symptomatology of Parent Care Among the Near Elderly The Influence of Multiple Role Commitments

This article investigates the independent additive and the interactive effects of being an informal caregiver of an elderly parent and three role commitments (being married, having a child or grandchild coreside, and being employed) on depressive symptomatology. For the respondents with a living mother, being a caregiver to their mother was not associated with the level of depressive symptoms. For the respondents with a living father, being a caregiver to their father was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Respondents who were caregivers to their father reported lower depressive symptom scores due to being married and due to being employed. Being married and being employed may provide an alternative source of integration and thus buffer the detrimental effects that caregiving for a father has on depressive symptomatology. The findings are discussed in the context of role strain and role enhancement perspectives.

THE INTER-UNIVERSITY CONSORTIUM FOR POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, one of the oldest and largest archives of digital social science data in the world, would like to make researchers aware of the upcoming new availability of important data in the fields of HIV/AIDS and alcohol and drug addiction. Under five subcontracts approved this spring, ICPSR will provide access to data from the following research projects through its National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP), via funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse: the Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research (CEDAR) at the University of Pittsburgh the Oregon Youth Substance Use (OYSUP) project at the Oregon Research Institute the Older Drug User Study at Kennesaw State University in Georgia the Enhanced Linkage of Drug Abusers to Primary Medical Care project at Boston Medical Center the archiving of two Chicago NIDA-funded epidemiological surveys at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Each one-year subcontract involves the participating studies receiving funds to process and prepare their data for public distribution. At the end of the contracts, the data will be publicly available through the NAHDAP Web site. All of the studies were funded by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, and will become part of the NAHDAP archive when completed. The data in these studies potentially contain hugely important insights into the dynamics of addiction and HIV. By making them available to the wider research community for secondary analysis, we hope to facilitate significant advancements in these fields. NAHDAP’s innovative subcontracting system advances the goal of promoting the wide dissemination of research data on drug and alcohol abuse by providing financial incentives as well as training in data processing to the participating studies. Typically, data would be processed by NAHDAP staff—under these contracts, staff from the participating research centers will be trained in data processing so that data from subsequent research projects can be more easily deposited with ICPSR and disseminated to the public. The hope is that these contracts will help build a sustainable infrastructure of data dissemination, while at the same time making important data available to the research community. NAHDAP is part of the Inter-university Consortium of Political and Social Rearch. Established in 1962, ICPSR is one of the oldest and largest archives of digital social science data. Providing a unique combination of data holdings, user support, and training in quantitative methods, ICPSR is a vital resource for fostering inquiry and furthering the social sciences. ICPSR, a membership-based organization with nearly 700 members, is a unit of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. More information on NAHDAP is available at www.icpsr.umich.edu/NAHDAP.

From Preserving the Past to Preserving the Future: The Data-PASS Project and the Challenges of Preserving Digital Social Science Data

Social science data are an unusual part of the past, present, and future of digital preservation. They are both an unqualified success, due to long-lived and sustainable archival organizations, and in need of further development because not all digital content is being preserved. This article is about the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS), a project supported by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), which is a partnership of five major U.S. social science data archives. Broadly speaking, Data-PASS has the goal of ensuring that at-risk social science data are identified, acquired, and preserved, and that we have a future-oriented organization that could collaborate on those preservation tasks for the future. Throughout the life of the Data-PASS project we have worked to identify digital materials that have never been systematically archived, and to appraise and acquire them. As the project has progressed, however, it has increasingly turned its attention from identifying and acquiring legacy and at-risk social science data to identifying ongoing and future research projects that will produce data. This article is about the projects history, with an emphasis of the issues that underlay the transition from looking backward to looking forward.

Social network and health outcomes among African American cardiac rehabilitation patients.

OBJECTIVE We tested the hypotheses that the number of close social network members and the health-related support provided by social network members are predictive of coping efficacy and health behaviors. METHODS Cross-sectional data were collected from 115 African Americans enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation. Measures included the social convoy model, SF-36, the Social Interaction Questionnaire, the Patient Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, and an investigator-developed assessment of health behaviors. RESULTS Bivariate relationships were found between the number of inner network members and coping efficacy (r = .19, P < .05) and health behaviors (r = .18, P < .06), and between health-related support and coping efficacy (r = .22, P < .05) and health behaviors (r = .28, P < .001). Regression analyses support the hypothesis that close network members predicted better coping efficacy (β = .18, P < .05) and health behaviors (β = .19, P < .05). Health-related support also predicted coping efficacy (β = .23, P < .05) and health behaviors (β = .30, P < .01). CONCLUSION African Americans with larger inner networks have more health support, better health behaviors, and higher coping efficacy. The number of close social network members and related health-support promote health through health behaviors and coping efficacy.

Correlates of depression at baseline among African Americans enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation.

PURPOSE To compare baseline psychosocial characteristics of African Americans entering phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation who have depression symptoms at or above threshold (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale [CES-D] score ≥16) with those who do not (CES-D score <16). METHODS A nonrandom sample of 112 men and women (n = 78 without depression, n = 34 with depression) was recruited through local phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation programs. Data were obtained by a structured interview and brief physical examination using several reliable and valid instruments. Chi-square tests, Kruskal-Wallis 2-sample tests, Spearman rank correlation coefficients, and logistic regression models were used for analyses. RESULTS We found that 30% of the participants were above the depression symptom threshold. Demographic characteristics were not significantly different between individuals at or above threshold and those below threshold. However, depressed individuals above threshold were more likely to be dissatisfied with their neighborhoods (P = .01) and had lower optimism scores (P < .0001), higher stress scores (P < .0001), lower adaptive coping scores (P = .05), and higher problematic coping scores (P < .01) than their counterparts who were below threshold. In the logistic regression model, the odds of being above the depression symptom threshold increased with stress (P < .001) and decreased with optimism (P = .03); none of the other psychosocial characteristics had an independent effect on depression symptoms. CONCLUSIONS At baseline, African Americans starting phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation with depression symptoms at or above threshold had more stress and fewer stress resilience factors. Assessing depression and stress resilience factors is important and may lead to more active participation in cardiac rehabilitation once enrolled, as well as optimal cardiovascular health outcomes.

Using ICPSR Resources to Teach Sociology

The focus on quantitative literacy has been increasingly outside the realm of mathematics. The social sciences are well suited to including quantitative elements throughout the curriculum but doing so can mean challenges in preparation and presentation of material for instructors and increased anxiety for students. This paper describes tools and resources available through the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) that will aid students and instructors engaging in quantitative literacy across the curriculum. The Online Learning Center is a source of empirical activities aimed at undergraduates in lower-division substantive courses and Exploring Data through Research Literature presents an alternative to traditional research methods assignments. Searching and browsing tools, archive structures, and extended online-analysis tools make it easier for students in upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses to engage in exercises that increase quantitative literacy, and paper competitions reward them for doing so.

A large, open source dataset of stroke anatomical brain images and manual lesion segmentations

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability worldwide, with up to two-thirds of individuals experiencing long-term disabilities. Large-scale neuroimaging studies have shown promise in identifying robust biomarkers (e.g., measures of brain structure) of long-term stroke recovery following rehabilitation. However, analyzing large rehabilitation-related datasets is problematic due to barriers in accurate stroke lesion segmentation. Manually-traced lesions are currently the gold standard for lesion segmentation on T1-weighted MRIs, but are labor intensive and require anatomical expertise. While algorithms have been developed to automate this process, the results often lack accuracy. Newer algorithms that employ machine-learning techniques are promising, yet these require large training datasets to optimize performance. Here we present ATLAS (Anatomical Tracings of Lesions After Stroke), an open-source dataset of 304 T1-weighted MRIs with manually segmented lesions and metadata. This large, diverse dataset can be used to train and test lesion segmentation algorithms and provides a standardized dataset for comparing the performance of different segmentation methods. We hope ATLAS release 1.1 will be a useful resource to assess and improve the accuracy of current lesion segmentation methods.