Gunnar Almgren

The ecology of race and socioeconomic distress: infant and working-age mortality in Chicago

We examine the effects of education, unemployment, and racial segregation on age-, sex-, and race-specific mortality rates in racially defined Chicago community areas from 1989 to 1991. Community socioeconomic factors account for large observed areal variations in infant and working-age mortality, but especially working-age mortality for the black population. For black men, the mortality consequences of living in economically distressed communities are quite severe. Segregation effects on mortality are more modest and largely operate through neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, although some direct effects of segregation on mortality for blacks are apparent.

Associations Between Residential Segregation and Smoking During Pregnancy Among Urban African-American Women

Approximately 10% of African-American women smoke during pregnancy compared to 16% of White women. While relatively low, the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy among African-American women exceeds the Healthy People 2010 goal of 1%. In the current study, we address gaps in extant research by focusing on associations between racial/ethnic residential segregation and smoking during pregnancy among urban African-American women. We linked measures of segregation to birth certificates and data from the 2000 census in a sample of US-born African-American women (n = 403,842) living in 216 large US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Logistic regression models with standard errors adjusted for multiple individual observations within MSAs were used to examine associations between segregation and smoking during pregnancy and to control for important socio-demographic confounders. In all models, a u-shaped relationship was observed. Both low segregation and high segregation were associated with higher odds of smoking during pregnancy when compared to moderate segregation. We speculate that low segregation reflects a contagion process, whereby salutary minority group norms are weakened by exposure to the more harmful behavioral norms of the majority population. High segregation may reflect structural attributes associated with smoking such as less stringent tobacco control policies, exposure to urban stressors, targeted marketing of tobacco products, or limited access to treatment for tobacco dependence. A better understanding of both deleterious and protective contextual influences on smoking during pregnancy could help to inform interventions designed to meet Healthy People 2010 target goals.

Examining the influences of gender, race, ethnicity, and social capital on the subjective health of adolescents

We investigate the factors that influence adolescent self-assessed health, based upon surveys conducted between 2000 and 2004 of high-school seniors in Washington State (N=6853). A large proportion of the sample (30%) was first and second generation immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Findings include a robust negative effect of female gender on self-reported health that is largely unmodified by demographic, developmental, social capital, and parental support variables, gender differences in the covariates of self-reported health, and the tendency of male adolescents of Cambodian and Vietnamese origin to report lower levels of self-reported health despite controls for other health-related individual characteristics. Social capital dimensions such as positive school affiliation, social network cohesion, and a safe learning environment were found to covary with the self-reported health of adolescent females.

The Ecological Context of Interpersonal Violence From Culture to Collective Efficacy

This brief essay outlines the progression over the last 20 years of ecological theories of interpersonal violence. The period between the present and the early 1980s began with a revival of cultural explanations of violence that paralleled the introduction of the neo-conservative social science and then witnessed a rediscovery of deficitsbased structural explanations of interpersonal violence under the broad rubric of social disorganization theory. The essay concludes with a more optimistic appraisal of recent refinements of social disorganization theory that consider the mediating effects of collective efficacy on urban crime and interpersonal violence.

Economic distress and cause‐of‐death patterns for black and non‐black men in Chicago: Reconsidering the relevance of classic epidemiological transition theory

Abstract The mortality disadvantage of African Americans is well documented, but previous studies have not considered its implications for population theory in the general case of industrialized nation states with high levels of income inequality. This paper examines the relevance of classic epidemiological theory to the extremes of income and mortality observed in Chicago, one of Americas most racially divided cities. We analyze cause‐specific death rates for black and non‐black male populations residing in Chicagos community areas by using linked data from the 1990 Census and from 1989–1991 individual death certificates. The same cause‐of‐death patterns explain much of the mortality of black and non‐black men. These two major structures include one, degenerative diseases, the other, “tough‐living” causes (accidents, homicides, and liver disease). Community socioeconomic status is strongly related to tough‐living deaths within each racial group, and to degenerative deaths for African Americans. Black mens tough‐living mortality is much greater than non‐blacks’, but their younger age structure suppresses their degenerative death rates. Aggregate unemployment and social disorganization account for the most salient disparities in mortality across racial groups. This patterning of mortality along a socio‐economic continuum supports epidemiological theory and extends its applicability to highly unequal populations within industrialized countries.

Serving the “whole child”: Prevention practice and the U.S. children's bureau

Abstract Social works early contributions in the domain of prevention are explored through an examination of the United States Childrens Bureau campaign to prevent infant mortality in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The article brings into sharper focus the distinctive amalgam of ideology, research, and practice activities at the core of the Childrens Bureau prevention paradigm, and presents evidence for the effectiveness of this approach in preventing infant mortality. In conclusion, the implications of this contribution and its legacy are discussed in relation to the shape and direction of social works investments in contemporary prevention science.