
During the past 50 years in the United States, families at the upper end of the income distribution have experienced steady gains in income and wealth while those toward the bottom have endured stagnating fortunes. Much of the work in Children, Youth, Families and Education, takes a closer look at these families and unpacks the reasons for their diverging destinies.
OPR research has dealt with the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic and health status from parents to children, including genetics as a driver of both social mobility and reproduction (Conley), in-depth observations of the lives of low-income women, men, and children to address such questions as how do single mothers survive on welfare (Edin), and programs serving disadvantaged youth, especially mentoring, afterschool, and summer programs (Grossman). OPR researchers conduct a landmark study, Fragile Families, a longitudinal birth cohort study of nearly 5,000 children born in the U.S. at the end of the 20th century provides new information on the capabilities of unwed parents, as well as the effects of parental resources and public policies on children’s wellbeing (McLanahan). OPR researchers have also conducted a listening campaign with people across the U.S. to learn about what’s going well, what needs to be improved, and how we might make our neighborhoods and country work better (Edin), and an examination of the challenges, strengths, and texture of the nation's most vulnerable communities (Edin).
Researchers have also examined educational outcomes among youth (Tienda; Jennings; Education Research Section), and the effects of out-of-school-time programming on academic outcomes (Grossman), and examined how the transition to adulthood can play young people at risk for HIV acquisition (Mojola). Other research in this theme examines the labor-market work and child support experiences of low-income fathers interviewed across four U.S. metropolitan areas (Nelson; Edin), how neighborhood effects, crime, and violence in the United States affect outcomes for children (Sharkey), research on the role of labor market institutions and economic conditions on fertility decisions (Adsera), and how social arrangements and life course trajectories both perpetuate and reshape socioeconomic inequality (Tienda).
Publications
Adsera, A., & Ferrer, A. (forthcoming 2021). The effect of linguistic proximity and the labour market performance of immigrant men in Canada. Labour, doi:
Adsera, A., Pozza, D., Sergei, G., Kleine-Rueschkamp, L., & Nikolova, E. (forthcoming 2020). Height and well-being during the transition to market economy Economic Policy, doi:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3464572
Adsera, A. (2020). What is the most important factor likely to influence future fertility trends and why? international political economy and future fertility trends. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 18, 1. doi:
https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576%200x003ba809.pdf
Adsera, A., & Ferrer, A. M. (2020). Speeding up for a son: Sex ration imbalances by birth interval among south Asian migrants to Canada. Canadian Studies in Population, 47, 133.
de Jong, P., Adsera, A., & de Valk, H. (2019). The role of welfare in locational choices: Modelling intra-european migration decisions across the life-course. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 111(2) doi:10.1111/tesg.12390.
Conley, D. (2020). Toward a two-dimensional conception of socioeconomic status for health policy. Milbank Quarterly Opinion, December 17 doi:
https://doi.org/10.1599/mqop.2020.1217
Conley, D. (2020). Who you gonna call? COVID-19 and the future of telemedicine. Milbank Quarterly Opinion, July 15 doi:
https://doi.org/10.1599/mqop.2020.0715
Conley, D., & Schanzenbach, D. W. (2020). Invest in school-based health centers to improve child health. Milbank Quarterly Opinion, December 23 doi:
https://doi.org/10.1599/mqop.2020.1224
Johnson, T., Dawes, C. T., & Conley, D. (2020). How does a statistician raise an army? the time when john W. tukey, a team of luminaries, and a statistics graduate student repaired the vietnam selective service lotteries. The American Statistician, 74(2), 190. doi:DOI: 10.1080/00031305.2019.1677267
McMartin, A., & Conley, D. (2020). Commentary: Mendelian randomization and education-challenges remain. International Journal of Epidemiology, 49(1), 1193. doi:doi: 10.1093/ije/dyaa160
PMID: 33029641
McMartin, A., & Conley, D. (2020). Commentary: Mendelian randomization and education–Challenges remain . International Journal of Epidemiology, 49(4), 1193. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa160
Mostafavi, H., Harpak, A., Agarwal, I., Conley, D., Pritchard, J. K., & Przeworski, M. (2020). Variable prediction accuracy of polygenic scores within an ancestry group. Elife, 9, e48376. doi:
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.48376
PMCID7067566
Ginther, D. K., Currie, J. M., Blau, F. D., & Croson, R. T. A. (2020). Can Mentoring Help Female Assistant Professors in Economics? An Evaluation by Randomized Trial
AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110, 205. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201121
Currie, J. (2020). Child Health as Human Capital. Health Economics, 29(4), 452. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1002/hec.3995
PMID: 31965679
Currie, J., Kleven, H., & Zwiers, E. (2020). Data and Code for Technology and Big Data Are Changing Economics: Mining Text to Track Methods. Openicpsr, https://doi.org/https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/120827/version/V1/view;jsessionid=C3D4770D4FE44EAC0B7010081B1F943F
Chorniy, A., Currie, J., & Sonchak, L. (2020). Does Prenatal WIC Participation Improve Child Outcomes? American Journal of Public Health, 6(2), 169. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1086/707832
PMC7652032
Currie, J., & Rossin-Slater, M. (2020). Does the WIC Program Promote Equality of Opportunity in Early Life? In L. Tach, R. Dunifon & D. Miller (Eds.), Confronting Inequality: How Policies and Practices Shape Children's Opportunities (pp. 49). American Psychological Association.
Currie, J. M., Rafferty, J. A., Bassett, M. T., & Groves, R. (2020). Evaluating Data Types: A Guide for Decision Makers Using Data to Understand the Extent and Spread of Covid-19. National Academy of Sciences Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) (). The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/https://www.nap.edu/read/25826/chapter/1
Currie, J. M. (2020). Inequality Before Birth Contributes to Health Inequality In Adults: Improving Newborn Health Is More Essential Now Than Ever. Scientific American, 343(4)https://doi.org/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/inequality-before-birth-contributes-to-health-inequality-in-adults/
Currie, J., & Schnell, M. (2020). Letter to the Editor: Medical School Ranking and Physician Opioid Prescribing. Journal General Internal Medicine, 35(8), 2477. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-05797-z
PMC7403264
Ginther, D. K., Currie, J. M., Blau, F. D., & Croson, R. T. A. (2020). Mentoring Matters for Women in Economics. In S. Lundberg (Ed.), Women in Economics: Challenges and Opportunities along the Pipeline (). CEPR Press.
Currie, J., Schwandt, H., & Thuilliez, J. (2020). Pauvreté, Egalité, Mortalité: Mortality (In)Equality in France and the United States. Journal of Population Economics, 33, 197. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-019-00736-7
Currie, J., Henrik, K., & Esmée, Z. (2020). Technology and Big Data Are Changing Economics: Mining Text to Track Methods
. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110(42)https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201058
Cuddy, E., & Currie, J. (2020). Treatment of Mental Ilness in American Adolescents Varies Wdely within and Across Areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(1), 24039. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007484117
PMC7533674
Currie, J. M., & Macleod, W. B. (2020). Understanding Doctor Decision Making: The Case of Depression Treatment. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 88(3), 847. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta16591
PMCID7514077
Currie, J. (2020). What We Say And What We Do: Why US Investments In Children's Health Are Falling Short. Health Affairs, 39(10), 1684. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00633
PMID: 33017250
Alexander, D., Currie, J., & Schnell, M. (2019). Check Up before You Check Out: Retail Clinics and Emergency Room Use. Journal of Public Economics, 178https://doi.org/https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ihu23FUOb_hGZnz9lj_kLAX8wMzmCLr/view
Simeonova, E., Currie, J., Nilsson, P., & Walker, R. (2019). Congestion Pricing, Air Pollution, and Children's Health
. Journal of Human Resources, Octhttps://doi.org/doi: 10.3368/jhr.56.4.0218-9363R2
Pesko, M. F., & Currie, J. M. (2019). The Effect of E-Cigarette Minimum Legal Sale Age Laws on Cigarette Use and Birth Outcomes among Pregnant Teenagers. Journal of Health Economics, 66, 71. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.05.003
PMCID7051858
Currie, J., & Duque, V. (2019). Medicaid: What Does it Do and Can We Do it Better? The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 686(1), 148. https://doi.org/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002716219874772
Baker, M., Currie, J., & Schwandt, H. (2019). Mortality Inequality in Canada and the U.S.: Convergent or Divergent Trends. Journal of Labor Economics, 37(S2), S325. https://doi.org/DOI 10.1086/703259
Currie, J., & Walker, R. (2019). What Do Economists Have to Say About the Clean Air Act 50 Years After the Establishment of the EPA? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 433(4), 3. https://doi.org/https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.3
Currie, J., Ho., B., Kelly, R., & Kuziemko, I. (2019). Who Will Be Our Moral Conscience Now? A Tribute To Uwe Reinhardt. Health Affairs Blog, https://doi.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190805.922868/full/
Edin, Kathryn, Timothy J. Nelson, Andrew Cherlin, and Robert Francis. “The Tenuous Attachments of Working-Class Men.” Journal of Economic Perspectives. 33(2): 211-228. 2019
Shaefer, H. Luke, Kathryn Edin, Pinghui Wu, and Vincent Fusaro. The Decline of Cash Assistance and the Well-being of Households with Children.” Social Forces: Soz020,
https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soz020. 2019
“Taking Care of Mine” or “Just another Bill to Pay: Can the US Child Support System be a Family Building Institution?” Journal of Family Theory. 11(1): 79-91.
Nick, M., & Jennings, J. L. (Forthcoming). Collaboration and competition in New Orleans charter management organizations.
van de Werfhorst, H., & Jennings, J. L. (Forthcoming). School inspectorates, standardized tests, and socioeconomic inequality in educational attainment.
Weixler, L.,B., Barrett, N., Harris, D., & Jennings, J. L. (Forthcoming). Examining the distribution of students when choice is the primary means of enrollment: The case of New Orleans. American Education Research Journal,
Sattin, B., & Jennings, J. L. School counselors’ assessment of the legitimacy of high school choice policy. Educational Policy.2020,34(1), 21.
Kim, M., King, M. D., & Jennings, J. (2019). ADHD remission, inclusive special education, and socioeconomic disparities. SSM - Population Health, 8, 100420. doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100420
PMCID6580433
Sean P. Corcoran, Jennifer L. Jennings. (2019). Information and school choice. In Mark Berends, Ann Primus, Matthew G. Springer (Ed.), Handbook of research on school choice (2nd ed., pp. Ch. 26) Routledge.
Book Chapter
Mojola, S. A., Angotti, N., Denardo, D., Schatz, E., & Xavier Gómez Olivé, F. (2020). The end of AIDS? HIV and the new landscape of illness in rural South Africa. Global Public Health, Epub ahead of print, 111-13. doi: 10.1080/17441692.2020.1851743
PMID: 33290168
Gómez-Olivé, F. X., Houle, B., Rosenberg, M., Kabudula, C., Mojola, S., Rohr, J. K., . . . Menken, J. (2020). Brief report: HIV incidence among older adults in a rural south African setting: 2010-2015. . Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 85(1), 18.
https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000002404
PMCID:7417014
Houle, B., Yu, S. T., Angotti, N., Schatz, E., Kabudula, C. W., Gómez-Olivé, F. X., . . . Mojola, S. A. (2020). Clusters of HIV risk and protective sexual behaviors in Agincourt, rural South Africa: Findings from the Ha Nakekela population-based study of ages 15 and older. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 6, 2057-2068. doi:doi: 10.1007/s10508-020-01663-5
PMCID7321875
Schatz, E., Knight, L., Belli, R. F., & Mojola, S. A. (2020). Assessing the feasibility of a life history calendar to measure HIV risk and health in older South Africans. PLoS One, 15(1) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226024
PMCID6961824
Mojola, S. A., & Wamoyi, J. (2019). Contextual drivers of HIV risk among young African women., 22 suppl 4, e25302. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 22(4)
https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25302
PMCID6643074
Mojola, S. A., & Angotti, N. (2019). 'Sometimes it is not about men': Gendered and generational discourses of caregiving HIV transmission in a rural South African setting. Global Public Health, Epub ahead of print doi:doi: 10.1080/17441692.2019.1606265
PMCID6812629
Schatz, E., Houle, B., Mojola, S. A., & Angotti N, W. J. (2019). How to "live a good life": Aging and HIV testing in rural South Africa. Journal of Aging and Health, 31(4), 709. doi:DOI: 10.1177/0898264317751945
PMCID6027599
Raymo, James M., Fumiya Uchikoshi, and Shohei Yoda. 2021. “Marriage Intentions, Desires, and Pathways to Later and Less Marriage in Japan.” Demographic Research 44: 67–98.
Halpern-Manners, Andrew, James M. Raymo, John R. Warren, and Kaitlin Johnson. 2020. “School Performance and Mortality: The Role of Work and Family Trajectories Across the Life Course” Advances in Life Course Research 46.
Wang, Jia and James M. Raymo. 2020.“Non-standard Employment and Life Satisfaction in Japan” forthcoming in Journal of Marriage and Family.
Fukuda, Setsuya, James M. Raymo, and Shohei Yoda. 2020. “Revisiting the Educational Gradient in Women’s Marriage in Japan” Journal of Marriage and Family 82: 1378–1396.
Wang, Jia and James M. Raymo. 2020. “Household income and child well-being in Japan: The role of grandparental coresidence and residential proximity.” Chinese Journal of Sociology 6: 286-314.
Raymo, James M. and Hyunjoon Park. 2019. “Marriage Trends in Korea: Changing Composition of the Domestic Marriage Market and Growth in International Marriage” Demography 57: 171–194.
Raymo, James M., Isabel Pike, and Jersey Liang. 2019.“A New Look at the Living Arrangements of Older Americans using Multistate Life Tables.” Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 74: e84–e96.
Hendi, Arun S., Irma T. Elo, and Pekka Martikainen. 2021. “The Implications of Changing Education Distributions for Life Expectancy Gradients.” Forthcoming at Social Science & Medicine.
Vierboom, Yana C., Samuel H. Preston, and Arun S. Hendi. 2019. “Rising Geographic Inequality in Mortality in the United States.” Social Science & Medicine – Population Health 9: 100478. (PMCID: PMC6804490).
Hendi, Arun S. 2019. “Proximate Sources of Change in Trajectories of American First Marriage, 1960-2010.” Demography 56(3): 835-862. (PMCID: PMC6827978)
Projects
Dalton Conley - Connected Learning Research Network
Dalton Conley - Genetic analysis of the Dutch Hunger Winter Families Study to Boost Rigor and Robustness for Testing In-Utero Famine Effects on Aging-Related Health Conditions and
Biological Aging
Dalton Conley - GxE and Health Inequality Over the Life Course
Dalton Conley - Understanding the Interplay of Genes and Environment in U.S. Families to Improve Child Health: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Kathryn Edin - Assessing the impact of Place-Based and Place-Conscious Interventions on Economic Mobility
Kathryn Edin - Computational examination of threat and reward constructs in a predominantly low-income, longitudinal sample at increased risk for internalizing disorders
Kathryn Edin - Deepening Our Understanding of America's Most Vulnerable Communities
Kathryn Edin - Fragile Families & the Transition to Adulthood (BMGF)
Kathryn Edin - Fragile Families and the Transition to Adulthood (NIH)
Kathryn Edin - The National Poverty Study
Kathryn Edin - Support the Fragile Families, Systems-Involved Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood follow-up survey activities
Kathryn Edin - Support for the Fragile Families panel study
Jennifer Jennings - Visiting Scholar program Russell Sage Foundation: Urban School Choice and Equality of Educational Opportunity
Sara McLanahan - Beyond Abuse and Neglect: Universal Approaches to Promoting Healthy Development in the First Years of Life
Sara McLanahan - Effects of Poverty on Affective Development: A Multi-Level, Longitudinal Study
Sara McLanahan - Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing in Adolescence
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: "Reducing Justice System Inequality"
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: "University-Agency Partnerships to Strengthen Preschool: Improving Preschool at Scale"
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: Culture and Social Mobility
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: Prenatal to Age Three
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: Social-Emotional Learning
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: University - Agency Partnerships to Strengthen Preschool: Improving Preschool at Scale
Sara McLanahan - Future of Children: University-Agency Partnerships to Strengthen Preschool: Improving Preschool at Scale
Sara McLanahan - Improving Opportunities for Urban Youth: What Can We Learn from City Comparisons?
Sara McLanahan - Reducing Justice System Inequality
Sara McLanahan - The Future of Children Conference and Volume on Universal Approaches to Child Maltreatment Prevention
Sanyu Mojola - HIV after 40 in Rural South Africa: Aging in the Context of an HIV/AIDS Epidemic