Duane F. Alexander (1940-2020).

This article is in memory of Duane F. Alexander, who directed the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) from 1986 to 2009. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing population health scientists: Findings from an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program.

•RWJF Health & Society Scholars (HSS) program outcomes evaluated.•HSS alumni have higher scholarly productivity and impact than control group.•HSS alumni are more engaged in population health research than controls.

A Cognitive-Social Model of Fertility Intentions.

We examine the use and value of fertility intentions against the backdrop of theory and research in the cognitive and social sciences. First, we draw on recent brain and cognition research to contextualize fertility intentions within a broader set of conscious and unconscious mechanisms that contribute to mental function. Next, we integrate this research with social theory.

Culture and demography: from reluctant bedfellows to committed partners.

Demography and culture have had a long but ambivalent relationship. Cultural influences are widely recognized as important for demographic outcomes but are often "backgrounded" in demographic research. I argue that progress toward a more successful integration is feasible and suggest a network model of culture as a potential tool.

Challenges in replicating interventions.

Purpose: To describe and reflect on an effort to document, through a set of 6 interventions, the process of adapting effective youth risk behavior interventions for new settings, and to provide insights into how this might best be accomplished.

Methods: Six studies were funded by the NIH, starting in 1999. The studies were funded in response to a Request for Applications (RFA) to replicate HIV prevention interventions for youth.

Explaining Family Change and Variation: Challenges for Family Demographers.

Twenty years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) issued a request for proposals that resulted in the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a unique survey valuable to a wide range of family scholars. This paper describes the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of family demographers to build on the progress enabled by the NSFH and many other theoretical and methodological innovations. Our work, also supported by NICHD, will develop plans for research and data collection to address the central question of what causes family change and variation.

Social science and health research: growth at the National Institutes of Health.

Programs within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have recently taken steps to enhance social science contributions to health research. A June 2000 conference convened by the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research highlighted the role of the social sciences in health research and developed an agenda for advancing such research. The conference and agenda underscored the importance of research on basic social scientific concepts and constructs, basic social science research on the etiology of health and illness, and the application of basic social science constructs in health services, treatment, and prevention research.

Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940-99.

Objectives: This report presents information on trends and variations in nonmarital childbearing in the United States and includes information on the factors that have contributed to the recent changes. Data are presented for 1940-99 with emphasis on the trends in the 1990's.

Methods: Data in this report are presented on a variety of measures of nonmarital childbearing, including numbers, rates, and percent of births to unmarried women.

Adoption, adoption seeking, and relinquishment for adoption in the United States.

Objectives: This report presents national data on adoption and adoption-related behaviors among ever-married women 18-44 years of age in the United States, according to selected characteristics of the women. Trends are shown in the prevalence of adoption and relinquishment of children for adoption. For 1995, the report shows demand for adoption and women's preferences for characteristics of the child.

Understanding U.S. fertility: continuity and change in the National Survey of Family Growth, 1988-1995.

About 50 studies based on the 1988 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and a telephone reinterview conducted with the same women two years later provide continuing information about the fertility and health of American women. Among the findings of these studies are that black women have almost twice as many pregnancies as do white women (5.1 vs.

Relinquishment of premarital births: evidence from national survey data.

According to 1982 and 1988 NSFG data, unmarried white women are far less likely than they were in the early 1970s to place their children for adoption. The levels of relinquishment among black women have remained low throughout this period, and relinquishment among Hispanic women may be virtually nonexistent. Multivariate analysis of the determinants of relinquishment among unmarried non-Hispanic white women suggests that having a well-educated mother, being in school at the time of conception, having no labor force experience, and being older are positively associated with placing a child for adoption.

What do women use when they stop using the pill?

Current use of oral contraceptives among currently married women aged 15-44 declined from 25 percent to 13 percent between 1973 and 1982, while ever-use increased from 60 percent to 80 percent. By 1982, the pill appeared to be used mainly to delay first pregnancies, secondarily to space subsequent conceptions, and only rarely as a means of ending childbearing. Most women who had stopped using the pill by 1982 had done so on their own initiative: Only about one-third had been advised by a doctor to discontinue use.

First premarital contraceptive use: United States, 1960-82.

This study shows the first national estimates of trends and differentials in first contraceptive use for a national sample of all women. Only 47 percent of women aged 15-44 in 1982 (or their partners) used a method at first premarital intercourse. The leading method at first intercourse was the condom, followed by the pill and withdrawal.

Contraceptive practice among American women, 1973-1982.

During the decade 1973-1982, use of oral contraceptives declined sharply among wives aged 15-44, although the total number of pill users did not decrease after 1979. This drop occurred in all groups of wives examined. At the same time, the prevalence of female contraceptive sterilization rose sharply; this increase occurred mainly among wives aged 35 and older and, of course, among all wives intending no more children.