Julien O. Teitler

Fragile Families: sample and design

Abstract This paper provides important background information on the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and is the first and only paper to provide detailed information on the research methodology and sampling strategies employed. The bulk of the paper is devoted to a detailed description of the three-stage sampling process that was used to obtain a nationally representative sample of non-marital births in large US cities. First, it was necessary to sample cities that, collectively, were nationally representative and had maximum variation in policy regimes. Next, it was necessary to sample hospitals so as to be representative of non-marital births in each city. Finally, we sampled births in order to be representative of those at each hospital. The paper concludes with some general information about the study and a simple description of the baseline non-marital sample from the first seven cities.

Using google street view to audit neighborhood environments

BACKGROUND Research indicates that neighborhood environment characteristics such as physical disorder influence health and health behavior. In-person audit of neighborhood environments is costly and time-consuming. Google Street View may allow auditing of neighborhood environments more easily and at lower cost, but little is known about the feasibility of such data collection. PURPOSE To assess the feasibility of using Google Street View to audit neighborhood environments. METHODS This study compared neighborhood measurements coded in 2008 using Street View with neighborhood audit data collected in 2007. The sample included 37 block faces in high-walkability neighborhoods in New York City. Field audit and Street View data were collected for 143 items associated with seven neighborhood environment constructions: aesthetics, physical disorder, pedestrian safety, motorized traffic and parking, infrastructure for active travel, sidewalk amenities, and social and commercial activity. To measure concordance between field audit and Street View data, percentage agreement was used for categoric measures and Spearman rank-order correlations were used for continuous measures. RESULTS The analyses, conducted in 2009, found high levels of concordance (≥80% agreement or ≥0.60 Spearman rank-order correlation) for 54.3% of the items. Measures of pedestrian safety, motorized traffic and parking, and infrastructure for active travel had relatively high levels of concordance, whereas measures of physical disorder had low levels. Features that are small or that typically exhibit temporal variability had lower levels of concordance. CONCLUSIONS This exploratory study indicates that Google Street View can be used to audit neighborhood environments.

Segregation in social networks based on acquaintanceship and trust.

Using 2006 General Social Survey data, the authors compare levels of segregation by race and along other dimensions of potential social cleavage in the contemporary United States. Americans are not as isolated as the most extreme recent estimates suggest. However, hopes that “bridging” social capital is more common in broader acquaintanceship networks than in core networks are not supported. Instead, the entire acquaintanceship network is perceived by Americans to be about as segregated as the much smaller network of close ties. People do not always know the religiosity, political ideology, family behaviors, or socioeconomic status of their acquaintances, but perceived social divisions on these dimensions are high, sometimes rivaling racial segregation in acquaintanceship networks. The major challenge to social integration today comes from the tendency of many Americans to isolate themselves from others who differ on race, political ideology, level of religiosity, and other salient aspects of social identity.

Paternal Age as a Risk Factor for Low Birthweight

OBJECTIVES We examined associations between paternal age and low birth-weight in the US urban population. METHODS Using a population-based sample of 4621 births, we used multiple logistic regression analysis to estimate associations between paternal age and low birthweight, controlling for maternal age, other demographic factors, and the childs gender. RESULTS When the childs gender and the mothers race/ethnicity, birthplace, parity, marital status, and health insurance type were controlled, teenaged fathers were 20% less likely and fathers older than 34 years were 90% more likely than fathers aged 20 to 34 years to have low-birthweight babies. The associations were significant when maternal age was also controlled. No racial/ethnic differences in associations between paternal age and low birthweight were found. CONCLUSIONS We identified paternal age as an independent risk factor for low birthweight in the US urban population, suggesting that more attention needs to be paid to paternal influences on birth outcomes and to the interactive effects of urban environments and individual risk factors on health.

Trends in Youth Sexual Initiation and Fertility in Developed Countries: 1960-1995:

The widespread interest in recent changes in fertility, union formation, and union dissolution has largely focused on adult behaviors. Much less attention has been paid to changes in related youth behaviors that foreshadow and may shape adult behaviors. This article identifies some of the changes that have occurred in the timing of sexual initiation and fertility across Western industrialized countries since 1960. Documenting the similarities and differences in these patterns helps us to understand better how youth transition experiences differ across place. This article finds that patterns of youth sexual behavior are converging across developed countries. That is, within- and between-country variation in the timing of sexual initiation has decreased. There also has been a reduction and convergence in levels of teenage fertility, but the decline in fertility was more pronounced among non-English-speaking countries than among English-speaking countries, which has resulted in an increasing gap.

Health Across the Life Span in the United States and England

This study systematically compared health indicators in the United States and England from childhood through old age (ages 0-80 years). Data were from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the United States (n = 39,849) and the 2003-2006 Health Survey for England (n = 69,084). Individuals in the United States have higher rates of most chronic diseases and markers of disease than their same-age counterparts in England. Differences at young ages are as large as those at older ages for most conditions, including obesity, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high cholesterol ratio, high C-reactive protein, hypertension (for females), diabetes, asthma, heart attack or angina (for females), and stroke (for females). For males, heart attack or angina is higher in the United States only at younger ages, and hypertension is higher in England than in the United States at young ages. The patterns were similar when the sample was restricted to whites, the insured, nonobese, nonsmoking nondrinkers, and specific income categories and when stratified by normal weight, overweight, and obese weight categories. The findings from this study indicate that US health disadvantages compared with England arise at early ages and that differences in the body weight distributions of the 2 countries do not play a clear role.

Sources of Support, Child Care, and Hardship among Unwed Mothers, 1999–2001

Welfare rolls have declined substantially since 1994. However, little is known about the coping strategies that poor mothers use to manage the competing demands of rearing and supporting their children under the new welfare regime. This article uses data from the national Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to describe the sources of support and child‐care arrangements upon which unwed mothers relied, as well as the difficulties they faced, approximately 5 years after welfare reform. Findings suggest that levels of hardship among unwed mothers are high and that cohabitation and employment are not associated with improved material conditions.

TANF Sanctioning and Hardship

This article estimates the effects of being sanctioned, that is, of being subject to a governmental decision to reduce or eliminate welfare benefits, on material hardships and health among mothers on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and their children. Compared to nonsanctioned mothers, those who are sanctioned are at high risk for hunger, homelessness or eviction, utility shutoffs, inadequate medical care, any material hardship, poor health, and relying on family or friends for housing. Results suggest a causal connection to hunger, utility shutoffs, any material hardship, poor maternal physical health, and relying on others for housing.

Validity of an Ecometric Neighborhood Physical Disorder Measure Constructed by Virtual Street Audit

Neighborhood physical disorder is thought to affect mental and physical health, but it has been difficult to measure objectively and reliably across large geographical areas or multiple locales. Virtual street audits are a novel method for assessing neighborhood characteristics. We evaluated the ecometric properties of a neighborhood physical disorder measure constructed from virtual street audit data. Eleven trained auditors assessed 9 previously validated items developed to capture physical disorder (e.g., litter, graffiti, and abandoned buildings) on 1,826 block faces using Google Street View imagery (Google, Inc., Mountain View, California) dating from 2007-2011 in 4 US cities (San Jose, California; Detroit, Michigan; New York, New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). We constructed a 2-parameter item response theory scale to estimate latent levels of disorder on each block face and defined a function using kriging to estimate physical disorder levels, with confidence estimates, for any point in each city. The internal consistency reliability of the resulting scale was 0.93. The final measure of disorder was positively correlated with US Census data on unemployment and housing vacancy and negatively correlated with data on owner-occupied housing. These results suggest that neighborhood physical disorder can be measured reliably and validly using virtual audits, facilitating research on possible associations between physical disorder and health.

A Cross-National Comparison of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Low Birth Weight in the United States and England

OBJECTIVE. We used 2 new nationally representative surveys to compare racial and ethnic differences in low birth weight in the United States and England. METHODS. Risk factors and rates of low birth weight were compared across groups for singleton births within each country (white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian mothers in the United States; white, black, and Asian mothers in England). Crude rates and rates adjusted for socioeconomic status and behaviors were compared. Additional comparisons were limited to native-born mothers. RESULTS. Racial and ethnic disparities in low birth weight are as large in England as in the United States. Socioeconomic status and behaviors explain little of the variation across racial and ethnic groups in either country. CONCLUSIONS. Health disadvantages associated with being a minority do not seem to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Universal health care, as provided in the United Kingdom, alone may be insufficient to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in low birth weight.