Carrie L. Shandra

World Bank Structural Adjustment, Water, and Sanitation: A Cross-National Analysis of Child Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

The authors conduct a cross-national analysis that seeks to accomplish two important goals. First, they test dependency theory’s hypotheses that World Bank structural adjustment adversely affects child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, they empirically evaluate the effect of access to clean water and basic sanitation on child mortality. In doing so, they use two-way fixed effects regression models to analyze child mortality using data on 31 nations and four time points (1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005). They find substantial support for their first goal relating to dependency theory that when a Sub-Saharan African nation is under a World Bank structural adjustment loan, then it tends to have higher levels of child mortality. They also find support for their second goal concerning the importance of including environmental variables in cross-national research on health. Specifically, they find that higher levels of access to an improved water source and an improved sanitation facility are associated with lower levels of child mortality within Sub-Saharan African nations. The authors conclude by discussing the findings, theoretical implications, methodological implications, policy suggestions, and possible directions for future research.

The First Sexual Experience Among Adolescent Girls With and Without Disabilities

First sexual intercourse is an important experience in the young adult life course. While previous research has examined racial, gender, and socioeconomic differences in the characteristics of first sexual intercourse, less is known about differences by disability status. Using a racially diverse (27% Black, 20% Hispanic, and 53% non-Hispanic white) sample of 2,729 adolescent girls aged 12–24 at first sexual intercourse from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this article examines the association between disability and type of first sexual relationship, degree of discussion about birth control, and pregnancy wantedness. Regression analyses indicate that girls with mild or learning or emotional disabilities experience first sexual intercourse in different types of relationships than girls without disabilities. Adolescents with learning or emotional conditions have greater levels of discussion about birth control with their first sexual partners than those without disabilities. In addition, among those who do not use birth control at first sexual intercourse, girls with multiple or seriously limiting conditions are more likely to want a pregnancy—versus not want a pregnancy—at first sexual intercourse. Findings indicate that disability status is important to consider when examining adolescent sexuality; however, not all youth with disabilities have equal experiences.

Do Non-Governmental Organizations Impact Health?: A Cross-National Analysis of Infant Mortality

According to world polity theory, international health and women’s non-governmental organizations should improve health in poor nations by providing health, reproductive, and educational services. However, there are suggestions that their effectiveness may be limited by a variety of factors. These factors include their projects being small-scale, ad hoc, or reformist. Further, non-governmental organizations may implement projects that satisfy donor interests rather than a local population’s needs. In order to evaluate these claims, we construct cross-national models of infant morality from 1990 to 2005 for a sample of 74 poor nations. Initially, we find no support for world polity theory claims that health and women’s non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality. However, we re-specify the models to test a ‘political opportunity structure’ hypothesis that democracy enhances the ability of non-governmental organizations to improve health. We do so by including interaction terms between these two variables and find substantial support for this hypothesis. Specifically, the results suggest that health and women’s non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality in democratic but not repressive nations.

The International Monetary Fund, Structural Adjustment, and Infant Mortality: A Cross-National Analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa

The authors conduct a cross-national analysis that tests the hypothesis that International Monetary Fund structural adjustment adversely affects health in Sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, the authors use two-way fixed effects regression models for 30 nations from 1990 to 2005 to analyze infant mortality. The authors find substantial support for this line of reasoning. Specifically, the authors find that higher levels of International Monetary Fund structural adjustment correspond with higher levels of infant mortality within Sub-Saharan African nations. The results indicate that structural adjustment affects infant mortality indirectly via human immunodeficiency virus prevalence, access to an improved water and sanitation source, female educational attainment, debt service, foreign investment, international trade, and gross national product per capita. The authors conclude by discussing the findings, methodological implications, policy suggestions, and possible directions for future research.

The Educational Attainment Process Among Adolescents with Disabilities And Children of Parents with Disabilities.

This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to examine the relationship between disability, parental and youth university expectations in 1997, and youth high school completion and university enrolment by 2003. Results indicate that educational attainment is not equal for young adults with and without disabilities in the United States. Parents—but not adolescents—are likely to reduce their educational expectations when adolescents have a mild or serious disability, net of school performance. These parental—but not adolescent—expectations are significantly associated with high school completion. Finally, even after controlling for educational expectations and school performance, youth with serious disabilities are much less likely to graduate from high school than youth without disabilities. Despite the considerable strides made in the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities are not achieving educational parity in graded schooling.

Life-Course Transitions Among Adolescents With and Without Disabilities: A Longitudinal Examination of Expectations and Outcomes.

Research on adolescents suggests that young people are able to form reasonable expectations about future life-course transitions—and that these expectations are predictive of future outcomes. However, less is known about how these expectations might vary for adolescents with disabilities, who might face additional challenges when transitioning to adulthood. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) to suggest that young peoples expectations about pregnancy, parenthood, education, and employment do vary according to disability status. Furthermore, disability status conditions the relationship between these expectations and their future outcomes. In general, adolescents with disabilities are more proficient in the prediction of educational outcomes than employment or pregnancy outcomes. However, their expectations about education are significantly lower—and expectations about teenage parenthood much higher—than those of adolescents without disabilities.

Planning for Motherhood: Fertility Attitudes, Desires and Intentions Among Women with Disabilities

CONTEXT An estimated 10% of U.S. women of reproductive age report a current disability; however, the relationship between disability, motherhood attitudes and fertility intentions among these women is largely unknown. METHODS Data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth were used to examine attitudes toward motherhood and fertility intentions among 10,782 U.S. women aged 15-44. A series of regression models assessed, separately for mothers and childless women, associations between disability status and womens attitudes and intentions. RESULTS Women with and without disabilities held similar attitudes toward motherhood. Among women without children, women with and without disabilities were equally likely to want a child and equally likely to intend to have one. However, childless women with disabilities who wanted and intended to have a child were more likely to report uncertainty about those intentions than were childless women without disabilities (odds ratio, 1.7). Mothers with disabilities were more likely to want another child (1.5), but less likely to intend to have a child (0.5), than were mothers without disabilities. CONCLUSIONS Deepening understanding of the reproductive health desires, needs and challenges of women with disabilities is essential if the highest quality reproductive health services are to be provided for all.

Disability and social participation: The case of formal and informal volunteering

People with disabilities in the United States experience lower levels of social integration than people without disabilities. However, less is known about the association between disability and volunteer participation-despite an extensive literature on other disparities in volunteerism. This study uses data from the 2009-2015 Volunteer Supplement of the Current Population Survey to evaluate how working-aged adults with sensory disabilities, cognitive disabilities, physical disabilities, or multiple disabilities access, participate in, and maintain volunteer roles. Net of sociodemographic characteristics, adults with disabilities are no less likely than those without disabilities to report informal volunteering, although the presence of physical and multiple disabilities negatively associates with formal volunteering. Adults with disabilities report no fewer annual hours or weeks than those without disabilities if they are formal volunteers, but the mechanism through which they initially become involved in volunteer organizations varies. People with different types of disability experience different patterns of volunteering, and the sociodemographic characteristics associated with having a disability exacerbate many of these differences. Results suggest that adults with disabilities can-and do-participate in voluntary work, but may face barriers to accessing formal volunteer roles.

Disability and sleep duration: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

BACKGROUND Regular short and long sleep durations are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. While previous research shows significant sleep disparities between people with and without disabilities, less is known about the association between different types of disability and high-risk sleep using nationally representative data. OBJECTIVE We examine the association between short and long sleep durations and having a work disability or an impairment in sensory, cognitive, or physical functioning among a nationally representative sample of working-age adults in the United States. METHODS We estimate multinomial logistic regression models using data from the 2003-2012 American Time Use Survey to identify how different types of disabling conditions--net of other sociodemographic factors--relate to the likelihood of reporting short (6 h or fewer) or long (9 h or more) sleep, versus mid-range (between 6 and 9 h) sleep. RESULTS For respondents with work disabilities versus those without work disabilities, the relative risk of short and long sleep is 1.4 and 1.5 times (respectively) that of those with mid-range sleep. The risk of short and long sleep durations is also higher among respondents with cognitive, physical, or multiple impairments. CONCLUSIONS Individuals with disabilities are less likely than those without disabilities to have optimal sleep durations. These results demonstrate the importance of health promotion services among this population, with specific attention to sleep hygiene interventions.

Delinquency Among Adolescents with Disabilities

This study expands upon previous research by utilizing nationally representative data and multivariate analyses to examine the relationship between an adolescent’s disability status and their likelihood of engaging in a spectrum of delinquent behaviors through age 16. Logistic regression models of 7,232 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 are used to investigate the association between the presence of a learning disability or emotional condition, chronic health condition, sensory condition, physical disability, or multiple conditions and ten delinquent acts, including violence-related delinquency, property crimes, drug offenses, and arrest. Additional analyses explore differences in delinquency prevalence by more specific types of limiting conditions. Results indicate that adolescents with learning disabilities or emotional conditions are particularly at risk of committing delinquent acts. Findings suggest that disability status is important to consider when examining adolescent delinquency; however, not all youth with disabilities have equal experiences.