Bethany Boettner

Secondhand smoke exposure and hair nicotine in children: age-dependent differences.

INTRODUCTION A significant proportion of children in the United States remain exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS). We are reporting on relationships observed between parental report of their childs SHS exposure in two groups of children (ages 2-5 years and 9-14 years) with a biological marker of long-term SHS exposure, hair nicotine. METHODS Participants were healthy children recruited via convenience sampling for two age groups: 2-5 years and 9-14 years. The presence and amount of SHS exposure were assessed by both questionnaire and hair sampling for nicotine determination. RESULTS A total of 115 participants were recruited (54 toddlers and 61 youth). The groups were similar in terms of demographics and reported SHS exposure. Hair nicotine levels were significantly different by age group, with toddlers having higher levels than youth. The most important independent determinants of hair nicotine were toddler age group, receiving Medicaid for health insurance, and number of smokers the subject was exposed to in 24 hr. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that young children who are insured by Medicaid have higher levels of hair nicotine, a biomarker of SHS exposure, when compared with an older age group. Further efforts to protect this vulnerable population and mitigate their lifetime risks of SHS exposure-related morbidities are warranted.

From Heterogeneity to Concentration: Latino Immigrant Neighborhoods and Collective Efficacy Perceptions in Los Angeles and Chicago

Latino immigrant presence in urban neighborhoods has been linked with reduced neighborhood cohesion in social disorganization-based ethnic heterogeneity hypotheses and enhanced cohesion in immigration revitalization approaches. Using the 2000-2002 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and the 1994-1995 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods Community Survey, we explore the association between Latino immigrant concentration and both levels of, and agreement about, neighborhood collective efficacy. Findings from multilevel models with heteroskedastic variance indicate that Latino immigrant concentration exhibits a nonlinear association with collective efficacy. At low levels, increases in Latino immigrant concentration diminish collective efficacy, consistent with a heterogeneity hypothesis. The negative association between Latino immigrant concentration and collective efficacy declines in magnitude as immigrant concentration increases and, particularly in LA, becomes positive beyond a threshold, consistent with an immigration revitalization effect. We also find an inverse nonlinear pattern of association with the variance of collective efficacy. At low levels, increasing Latino immigrant concentration increases the variance of collective efficacy (reflecting more disagreement), but beyond a threshold, this association becomes negative (reflecting increasing agreement). This pattern is observed in both LA and Chicago. The prevalence of social interaction and reciprocated exchange within neighborhoods explains a modest proportion of the Latino immigrant concentration effect on mean levels of collective efficacy in Chicago, but does little to explain effects on the mean in LA or effects on the variance in either LA or Chicago. These findings offer insight into the complex role Latino immigrant presence plays in shaping neighborhood social climate.

Neighborhood, Place, and the Life Course

We consider the rapidly expanding literature on features of the neighborhoods and other places individuals encounter in their everyday lives and their relevance to life course approaches. Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in research examining “neighborhood effects” – particularly in urban settings – with increasing evidence that neighborhood social environments independently contribute to life course outcomes. Despite the promise of research on neighborhood and other place effects, the field faces a number of significant challenges, most notably, the need for more sophisticated theoretical and analytic treatment of multilevel influence processes, including the mechanisms through which sociospatial contexts are channeled and the individual level exposure and response processes that link environments to outcomes. We also consider questions concerning the appropriate unit of analysis, selection and causal inference in estimating neighborhood effects, the adequacy of extant data resources, and the siloed nature of contextual effects research. We argue that the notions of activity space – capturing actual routine spatial exposures – and ecological networks – the aggregate structure of shared exposures – offer useful conceptual and analytic tools that address a number of the aforementioned challenges. These concepts also align well with key principles of life course research, including the role of agency in the construction of the sociospatial contexts of everyday experience, the historical and spatial specificity of life course trajectories and transitions, and the linkage of lives in space and time.

Understanding Racial Differences in Exposure to Violent Areas

Emerging evidence indicates that exposure to areas prone to violence may influence youth well-being. We employ smartphone GPS data on a sample of urban youth to examine the extent of, and potential explanations for, racial disparities in these exposures. We use data from the Adolescent Health and Development in Context study, which continuously collects GPS data from the smartphones of participating youth for a week, to analyze exposure to violent areas. We find that exposure varies significantly across days of the week and between youth who reside in the same neighborhood. African American youth are exposed to areas with substantially higher levels of violence. Residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood is significantly associated with exposure to violence and explains some of the racial difference in this outcome, but neighborhood factors are incomplete explanations of the racial disparity. Characteristics of the locations at which youth spend time explain the residual racial disparity in exposure to violent areas. These findings highlight the importance of youth activity spaces, above and beyond their neighborhood environments.

Do Rising Tides Lift All Boats Equally? Racial Disparities in Health across the Lifecourse among Middle-Class African-Americans and Whites

Although racial inequalities in health are well documented, much less is known about the underlying mechanisms that create and sustain these population patterns, especially among nonpoor subgroups. Using 20 waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we estimate the magnitude of the Black/White gap in self-rated health among middle-income, working-age (18–65) adults and explore potential sources of this disparity. Findings from multilevel regression models suggest that intragenerational gains in family income result in significantly smaller improvements in self-rated health for middle-class African-Americans than similarly situated Whites. We also note that childhood disadvantage predicts subsequent health trajectories in adulthood, but does little to explain the Black/White gap in the association between family income and self-rated health. We conclude that middle-class status provides restricted health returns to upward mobility for African-Americans and this differential relationship cannot be accounted for by greater exposure to early life disadvantage.