Jacob E. Cheadle

Patterns of Nonresident Father Contact

We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79) from 1979 to 2002 and the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY) from 1986 to 2002 to describe the number, shape, and population frequencies of U.S. nonresident father contact trajectories over a 14-year period using growth mixture models. The resulting four-category classification indicated that nonresident father involvement is not adequately characterized by a single population with a monotonic pattern of declining contact over time. Contrary to expectations, about two-thirds of fathers were consistently either highly involved or rarely involved in their children’s lives. Only one group, constituting approximately 23% of fathers, exhibited a clear pattern of declining contact. In addition, a small group of fathers (8%) displayed a pattern of increasing contact. A variety ofvariables differentiated between these groups, including the child’s age at father-child separation, whether the child was born within marriage, the mother’s education, the mother’s age at birth, whether the father pays child support regularly, and the geographical distance between fathers and children.

A Quantitative Assessment of Lareau’s Qualitative Conclusions About Class, Race, and Parenting:

The authors used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, to test ideas from Lareau’s qualitative study of social class differences in parenting. Consistent with Lareau, a confirmatory factor analysis supported the general concerted cultivation construct—a parenting strategy that subsumes parents’ school engagement, children’s participation in extracurricular activities, and the amount of educational materials in the home. The authors also found that socioeconomic status (SES) was the major correlate of parents’ use of concerted cultivation. Contrary to Lareau, however, the authors found that racial/ethnic differences in concerted cultivation are moderately strong, even with SES controlled. Finally, this study identified a variety of other family characteristics that are related to concerted cultivation, net of SES. The findings suggest the utility of combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand the intergenerational transmission of social status.

The Effect of Catholic Schooling on Math and Reading Development in Kindergarten Through Fifth Grade

Abstract Prior research estimating the effect of Catholic schooling has focused on high school, where evidence suggests a positive effect of Catholic versus public schooling. In this article, we estimate the effect of attending a Catholic elementary school rather than a public school on the math and reading skills of children in kindergarten through fifth grade. We use nationally representative data and a set of matching estimators to estimate the average effect of Catholic schooling and the extent to which the effect varies across educational markets. When we use public school students nationwide or within the same county to provide a counterfactual estimate of how Catholic school students would have performed in public schools, we find strong evidence indicating that Catholic elementary schools are less successful at teaching math skills than public schools (Catholic school students are 3–4 months behind public school students by third and fifth grade), but no more or less successful at teaching reading skills. Moreover, unlike prior research, we find no consistent evidence that the effects of Catholic schooling vary substantially by race or urbanicity, though our power to detect such differences is weak.

Alcohol use trajectories and problem drinking over the course of adolescence: A study of north american indigenous youth and their caretakers

This study investigated the links between alcohol use trajectories and problem drinking (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition abuse/dependence) using five waves of data from 727 North American Indigenous adolescents between 10 and 17 years from eight reservations sharing a common language and culture. Growth mixture models linking fundamental causes, social stressors, support, and psychosocial pathways to problem drinking via alcohol use trajectories over the early life course were estimated. Results indicated that 20 percent of the adolescents began drinking at 11 to 12 years of age and that another 20 percent began drinking shortly thereafter. These early drinkers were at greatly elevated risk for problem drinking, as were those who began drinking at age 13. The etiological analysis revealed that stressors (e.g., perceived discrimination) directly and indirectly influenced early and problem alcohol use by decreasing positive school attitudes while increasing feelings of anger and perceived delinquent friendships. Girls were found to be at risk independently of these other factors.

Birth Weight, Math and Reading Achievement Growth: A Multilevel Between-Sibling, Between-Families Approach

We used multilevel covariance structure analysis to study the relationship between birth weight, family context and youth math and reading comprehension growth from approximately ages 5 through 14 within and between families. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample, we examined the relationship between birth weight and subsequent academic achievement growth disparities, distinguishing between birth weight and other contextual social confounders. We found that smaller birth weight is associated with lower math and reading scores at age 5. Additional findings indicated that the home environment has important developmental consequences from early childhood and into adolescence. Overall, the pattern of findings painted a complex picture of disadvantage, beginning in the womb and extending through a variety of mechanisms into adolescence.

Perceived discrimination and markers of cardiovascular risk among low-income African American youth.

Our study examines the relationship between perceived discrimination and levels of C‐reactive protein and blood pressure in low‐income youth ages 10−15 years old.

The Small-school Friendship Dynamics of Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Adolescence is a time when depressive symptoms and friendships both intensify. The authors ask whether friendships change in response to depressive symptoms, whether individual distress is influenced by friends’ distress, and whether these processes vary by gender. To answer these questions, the authors use longitudinal Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis models to study how changes in friendships and depressive symptoms intertwine with each other among all adolescents as well as boy-only and girl-only networks in seven smaller K-12 Add Health schools. The findings indicate that distressed youth are more likely to be socially excluded, though depressive symptoms are also a basis for friendship formation. Moreover, friends influence one another’s mood levels. These processes differ for boys and girls, however, such that distressed girls are more likely to face exclusion and distressed boys are more likely to befriend and subsequently influence one another.

Hard Times and Heart Break Linking Economic Hardship and Relationship Distress

We used the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine an integrated mediational model linking economic hardship to relationship distress. Depressive symptoms, partner’s discord, parenting stress, and coparenting are combined into a joint model linking economic hardship to relationship distress among mothers and fathers in intimate relationships. Although economic hardship is significantly associated with each mediating factor, only discord is associated with both relationship distress and dissolution in the full model. Moreover, comparisons using multigroup structural equation modeling indicate that while economic hardship is associated with higher discord among both mothers and fathers, the influence is substantially larger among fathers. We suggest that the link between hardship and relationship distress is largely contingent on interactional processes (i.e., discord) and how mothers perceive their child’s father in the midst of economic hard times.

The differential contributions of teen drinking homophily to new and existing friendships: An empirical assessment of assortative and proximity selection mechanisms

Alcohol use is pervasive in adolescence. Though most research is concerned with how friends influence drinking, alcohol is also important for connecting teens to one another. Prior studies have not distinguished between new friendship creation, and existing friendship durability, however. We argue that accounting for distinctions in creation-durability processes is critical for understanding the selection mechanisms drawing drinkers into homophilous friendships, and the social integration that results. In order to address these issues, we appliedstochastic actor based models of network dynamics to National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data. Adolescents only modestly prefer new friendships with others who drinker similarly, but greatly prefer friends who indirectly connect them to homophilous drinkers. These indirect homophilous drinker relationships are shorter lived, however, and suggest that drinking is a social focus that connects adolescents via proximity, rather than assortativity. These findings suggest that drinking leads to more situational and superficial social integration.

Adolescent Loneliness and Health in Early Adulthood

The desire to belong and feel socially connected is a fundamental aspect of human development and well-being. Although there is an extensive sociological literature examining the health implications of social support and social integration along with a growing literature assessing the harmful impact of loneliness (i.e. perceived social isolation) among the elderly (Savikko et al. 2005; Warner and Kelley-Moore 2012), there is a dearth of information regarding the potential health consequences of loneliness relative to other indicators of social integration at earlier life course stages. The omission of early life course loneliness in the sociological literature is somewhat curious because loneliness is an eminently social-psychological construct, reflecting how people experience the communal aspects of their social worlds. Indeed, we know little about the extent to which early life course loneliness influences health during the transition to adulthood or the pathways through which loneliness impacts early adult health. Loneliness may serve as an important, overlooked pre-disease pathway for a range of health outcomes in adulthood. Adolescence is a particularly salient time for understanding the health consequences of loneliness because youth are experiencing various developmental transitions, from biological (i.e. pubertal onset) to social (e.g. transitioning from primary to secondary school). During this developmental stage, youth are also transitioning from their parents to their friends as primary socializing agents (Crosnoe 2000). Such a myriad of transitions can lead to both friendship instability and emotional distress, which could lead to a cascade of health risks over time. Social ties are salient for life course health (Umberson and Montez 2010). For adolescents specifically, both attachment to school and parental support may be key protective factors for mental and physical health during a developmental period when distress is high (Resnick et al. 1997; Giordano 2003). Using data from Waves 1–3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine the social and psychological pathways through which loneliness influences early adult depression, self-rated health, and metabolic conditions associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). To this end, our study expands the existing literature by applying a life course perspective to identify the psychological and social risk and protective pathways associated with loneliness in adolescence and health in early adulthood.