Kelly Stamper Balistreri

Trajectories of Overweight Among US School Children: A Focus on Social and Economic Characteristics

Much of the research examining the patterns, timing, and socioeconomic characteristics of child overweight has been limited by the lack of longitudinal nationally representative data with sufficiently large or diverse samples. We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of US kindergartners, to identify three distinct patterns of weight gain from kindergarten through eighth grade. The largest group (boys: 59%, girls: 55%) was characterized as having consistently normal weight whereby BMI percentile remained below the 85th percentile. The remaining children (boys: 41%, girls: 45%) fell either into a class characterized as always overweight/at risk of overweight (boys: 27%, girls: 25%) or gradually becoming overweight/at risk for overweight (boys: 15%, girls 20%). We found some evidence that the relationship between socioeconomic status and children’s health may operate differently across gender. Among girls, low parental income and education were both significant risk factors for the gradual onset of overweight after beginning Kindergarten. Parental income or changes in parental income were not related to boys’ risk of developing overweight after entering Kindergarten; only parents’ education. We found that while children of immigrants display higher levels of overweight/at risk for overweight at each grade level, the children of immigrant parents who have had less exposure to the US were more likely to experience early and sustained overweight throughout elementary and middle school, particularly among boys. High rates of overweight as early as kindergarten, combined with race/ethnic differences suggest that interventions should focus on pre-school children’s environments.

Immigrant status and cognitive functioning in late-life: An examination of gender variations in the healthy immigrant effect

Although some research suggests that the healthy immigrant effect extends to cognitive functioning, it is unclear whether this general pattern varies according to gender. We use six waves of data collected from the original cohort of the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to estimate a series of linear growth curve models to assess variations in cognitive functioning trajectories by nativity status and age at migration to the U.S.A. among women and men. Our results show, among women and men, no differences in baseline cognitive status (intercepts) between early- (before age 20) and late-life (50 and older) immigrants and U.S.-born individuals of Mexican-origin. We also find, among women and men, that middle-life (between the ages of 20 and 49) immigrants tend to exhibit higher levels of baseline cognitive functioning than the U.S.-born. Our growth curve analyses suggest that the cognitive functioning trajectories (slopes) of women do not vary according to nativity status and age at migration. The cognitive functioning trajectories of early- and late-life immigrant men are also similar to those of U.S.-born men; however, those men who migrated in middle-life tend to exhibit slower rates of cognitive decline. A statistically significant interaction term suggests that the pattern for middle-life migration is more pronounced for men (or attenuated for women). In other words, although women and men who migrated in middle-life exhibit higher levels of baseline cognitive functioning, immigrant men tend to maintain this advantage for a longer period of time. Taken together, these patterns confirm that gender is an important conditioning factor in the association between immigrant status and cognitive functioning.

Diversity and Change in the Institutional Context of Immigrant Adaptation: California Schools 1985-2000

This article brings attention to a structural dimension of the schooling context that may affect the incorporation of immigrant youths. Using administrative data about students in California public schools, we found that Spanish-speaking, limited English-proficient (LEP) children have become increasingly more likely to attend schools with low-income, minority, and LEP students than other non-LEP and LEP groups. Nearly all the change in school composition can be attributed to statewide shifts in the composition of the school-aged population. But compositional changes have disproportionately occurred in schools attended by Spanish-speaking LEP students as a result of district-level patterns of segregation by income, race/ethnicity, and language.

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same: Mexican Naturalization before and after Welfare Reform

During the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the both the number and the rate of Mexican naturalization. Some have interpreted this increase as a response to changes in welfare and immigration policy surrounding the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which limited public assistance to non-citizens, and the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which may have increased the incentive to naturalize by making it more difficult for legal immigrants to sponsor their relatives for entry to the United States. This article uses Current Population Survey data from 1994/95 and 2000/01 to examine how the social and economic determinants of naturalization may have changed in order to provide insight into which explanation for the increase in naturalizations is most relevant. We find that while the proportion of Mexican immigrants who are naturalized increased during the 1990s, their determinants have remained largely the same with the exception that those with noncitizen spouses have become more likely to be naturalized in the post-reform period. This suggests that a more cautious interpretation be taken about the relationship between the increase in naturalizations and welfare and sponsorship restrictions, particularly when regarding Mexican immigrants.

Does the “healthy immigrant effect” extend to cognitive aging?

We test whether the “healthy immigrant effect” extends to indicators of cognitive aging. We use six waves of data collected from the original cohort of the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to estimate a series of growth curve models to assess variations in cognitive functioning trajectories by nativity and age at migration. Our results suggest that the cognitive functioning trajectories of early (before age 20) and late life migrants (50 and older) are similar to those of the U.S.-born. We also find that those who immigrated between the ages of 20 and 49 tend to exhibit a slower rate of cognitive decline than the U.S.-born. Although our results suggest that the health advantage of Mexican immigrants extends to cognitive aging, additional research is needed to explore selection processes that are specific to age at migration.

Adverse childhood experiences, family functioning and adolescent health and emotional well-being

OBJECTIVES Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been consistently linked in a strong and graded fashion to a host of health problems in later adulthood but few studies have examined the more proximate effect of ACEs on health and emotional well-being in adolescence. STUDY DESIGN Nationally representative cross-sectional study. METHODS Using logistic regression on the 2011/12 National Survey of Childrens Health, we examined the cumulative effect of total ACE score on the health and emotional well-being of US adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. We investigated the moderating effect of family functioning on the impact of ACE on adolescent health and emotional well-being. RESULTS Adolescents with higher ACE scores had worse reported physical and emotional well-being than adolescents with fewer ACEs net of key demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Family functioning moderated the negative impact of cumulative ACE on adolescent health and emotional well-being. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent well-being has enduring consequences; identifying children with ACE exposure who also have lower-functioning family could also help identify those families at particular risk.

The relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality in metropolitan Ohio, 1999-2001.

Abstract Empirical evidence has consistently documented the direct relationship between infant mortality and socioeconomic inequality in the United States and numerous other countries. While the majority of these studies reveal an inverse relationship between socioeconomic level and infant mortality, not even this finding is free from disagreement. Furthermore, the specific nature and magnitude of this relationship has varied over time. This study will examine the relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality in metropolitan Ohio by using birth and infant death data centered on the 2000 Census. The analyses presented herein will describe and analyze the relationship between infant mortality and socioeconomic status in metropolitan Ohio in the year 2000. The key finding is that in spite of remarkable declines in infant mortality during the past several decades, most notably in neonatal mortality, there continues to be a pronounced inverse association between the infant death rate and the economic status of a population.

Trading Youth for Citizenship? The Spousal Age Gap in Cross-Border Marriages

Prior studies concerning patterns of intermarriage among immigrants have primarily focused on how factors such as race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and country of origin shape the choice of a spouse. Moreover, they have focused on intermarriage patterns among immigrants who are already in the US. Using the 2010-2014 American Community Survey (ACS), we focus on immigrants who were not US citizens at the time of their marriage and highlight patterns of status exchange, specifically, the exchange of youth for citizenship. Towards this end, we compare the age gap between spouses across four different groups of respondents: 1) non-citizens married to a citizen before or upon arrival to the US; 2) non-citizens married to a citizen after arrival to the US; 3) non-citizens married to a non-citizen before or upon arrival to the US; and 4) non-citizens married to a non-citizen after arrival in the US. We document the fact that a large fraction of marriages between citizens and non-citizens occurred before or upon arrival to the US. We also provide evidence that immigrants who migrate to the US after marrying a US citizen, particularly women, tend to be partnered with much older spouses, signaling an exchange of youth for citizenship.

A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity

Rates of food insecurity in the US have been rising since 2000 spiking with the onset of the Great Recession in 2008, and have remained essentially unchanged since then despite improvements in the economy. The present study employed a series of indices adapted from the poverty literature to examine the depth and severity of food insecurity across the decade by race and ethnicity among low-income households with and without children. The most rapid increases in the depth and severity of food insecurity were found among low-income households without children. Non-Hispanic White households with and without children had lower prevalence rates but steeper increases in the depth and severity of food insecurity throughout the decade. Non-Hispanic Black households with and without children were at the most disadvantaged among low-income populations.