Racial/ethnic and nativity disparities in U.S. Covid-19 vaccination hesitancy during vaccine rollout and factors that explain them.

While research has begun to investigate disparities in Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy between White, Black and Hispanic adults, no nationally representative studies to date have accounted for Hispanic immigrants as a unique group or fully investigated the reasons behind racial/ethnic and nativity disparities. We make these contributions by substantively drawing from what is known about the ways that immigrant fear and structural racism create conditions that produce countervailing forces that are likely to contribute to racial/ethnic and nativity disparities in vaccine hesitancy. We use OLS regression and decomposition techniques to analyze data from 1936 18-65 year-old United States (U.

Extradyadic Sex and Psychological Distress among Married and Cohabiting Young Adults: An Examination of Internalized and Externalized Responses.

Extradyadic sex (EDS) is a major relationship violation, yet it occurs in nearly a quarter of U.S. cohabiting and marital unions.

Understanding the Barriers of Violence Victims' Health Care Use.

Violence is a leading cause of death among U.S. adults under age 45.

Would the elimination of obesity and smoking reduce U.S. racial/ethnic/nativity disparities in total and healthy life expectancy?

Obesity and smoking are the two leading causes of preventable death and disability in the United States. Both of these health risks are socially patterned in ways that likely produce racial/ethnic/nativity disparities in total and healthy life expectancy. The current study simulates the extent to which the hypothetical elimination of smoking and obesity would change disparities in longevity and disability by analyzing data from 19,574 U.

Dietary Assimilation among Mexican Children in Immigrant Households: Code-switching and Healthy Eating across Social Institutions.

Immigrant health assimilation is often framed as a linear, individualistic process. Yet new assimilation theory and structural theories of health behavior imply variation in health assimilation as immigrants and their families interact with different US social institutions throughout the day. We test this idea by analyzing how two indicators of dietary assimilation-food acculturation and healthy eating-vary throughout the day as Mexican children in immigrant households consume food in different institutional settings.

Extradyadic sex and union dissolution among young adults in opposite-sex married and cohabiting unions.

This study investigates extradyadic sex (EDS) among contemporary opposite-sex married and cohabiting young adults and examines how EDS is associated with union dissolution. By analyzing data from 8301 opposite-sex spouses and cohabiters in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we estimate the prevalence of self-reported EDS, reports of partners' EDS, and reports of mutual EDS (i.e.

One Size May Not Fit All: How Obesity Among Mexican-Origin Youth Varies by Generation, Gender, and Age.

Immigrants' health (dis)advantages are increasingly recognized as not being uniform, leading to calls for studies investigating whether immigrant health outcomes are dependent on factors that exacerbate health risks. We answer this call, considering an outcome with competing evidence about immigrants' vulnerability versus risk: childhood obesity. More specifically, we investigate obesity among three generations of Mexican-origin youth relative to one another and to U.

It is Hard to Swim Upstream: Dietary Acculturation Among Mexican-Origin Children.

Health and immigration researchers often implicate dietary acculturation in explanations of Mexican children of immigrants' weight gain after moving to the U.S., but rarely explore how diet is shaped by immigrants' structural incorporation.

The food similarity index: a new measure of dietary acculturation based on dietary recall data.

This study introduces a flexible indicator of dietary acculturation that measures immigrants' eating behavior relative to U.S.-born persons.

Early Adult Obesity and U.S. Women's Lifetime Childbearing Experiences.

Literature from multiple disciplines suggests that women who are obese during early adulthood may accumulate social and physiological impediments to childbearing across their reproductive lives. This led the authors to investigate whether obese young women have different lifetime childbearing experiences than leaner peers by analyzing data from 1,658 female participants in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Study sample members were nulliparous women ages 20 - 25 in 1982.

Weight change and depression among US young women during the transition to adulthood.

By using data from wave 2 (in 1996) and wave 3 (in 2000-2001) of the US-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we investigated the association between young women's body weight and depression during the transition to adulthood. Respondents (n = 5,243) were 13-18 years of age during wave 2 and 19-25 years of age during wave 3. We used Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale scores to classify young women as never depressed, consistently depressed, experiencing depression onset, or experiencing depression recovery from wave 2 to wave 3.

Obesity, school obesity prevalence, and adolescent childbearing among U.S. young women.

In the United States, adolescent obesity reduces young women's odds of forming romantic and sexual partnerships but increases the likelihood of risky sexual behavior when partnerships occur. This led us to conduct a study examining the relationship between adolescent obesity and adolescent childbearing. Our study has two aims.

Social stratification and adolescent overweight in the United States: how income and educational resources matter across families and schools.

The current study examines how poverty and education in both the family and school contexts influence adolescent weight. Prior research has produced an incomplete and often counterintuitive picture. We develop a framework to better understand how income and education operate alone and in conjunction with each other across families and schools.

Canaries in a coalmine: Immigration and overweight among Mexican-origin children in the US and Mexico.

The prevalence of overweight is higher for Hispanic children of immigrants than children of natives. This does not fit the pattern of the epidemiological paradox, the widely supported finding that immigrants tend to be healthier than their U.S.

The multidimensional relationship between early adult body weight and women's childbearing experiences.

This study has three primary goals that make an important contribution to the literature on body weight and childbearing experiences among United States' women. It sheds light on the physiological and social nature of this relationship by examining whether the consequences of early adult weight for lifetime childbearing are shaped by historical social context, women's social characteristics, and their ability to marry. We analyze data from two female cohorts who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79).

The image in the mirror and the number on the scale: weight, weight perceptions, and adolescent depressive symptoms.

Double jeopardy and health congruency theories suggest that adolescents' joint experience of their weight and weight perceptions are associated with depressive symptoms, but each theory offers a different prediction about which adolescents are at greatest risk. This study investigates the proposed associations and the applicability of both theoretical perspectives using data from 6,557 male and 6,126 female National Longitudinal Study ofAdolescent Health (Add Health) Wave II participants. Empirically, results indicate that focusing on the intersection of weight and weight perceptions better shows which adolescents are at risk of depressive symptoms than an approach that treats both predictors as independent, unrelated constructs.

Equal weights but different weight perceptions among US adolescents.

We investigate sex and race/ethnic differences in adolescents' perceptions of the same objectively measured weight in a nationally representative US sample. At the same BMI z-score, girls perceive themselves as heavier than boys. Regardless of sex and relative to Whites, African-Americans perceive the same BMI z-score as leaner and Native Americans are more likely to perceive objectively heavier weights as 'about the right weight'.

A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of the Effects of Special Education Services.

We sought to quantify the effectiveness of special education services as naturally delivered in U.S. schools.

Adolescent Weight and Depressive Symptoms: For Whom is Weight a Burden?

Objective: Adolescent weight and depressive symptoms are serious population health concerns in their own right and as they relate to each other. This study asks whether relationships between weight and depressive symptoms vary by sex and race/ethnicity because both shape experiences of weight and psychological distress.

Methods: Results are based on multivariate analyses of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data.

Gender and race/ethnic differences in inaccurate weight perceptions among U.S. adolescents.

Purpose: Inaccurate weight perceptions may lead to unhealthy weight control practices among normal weight adolescents and to a greater risk of adult obesity and related morbidities for overweight adolescents. To examine which U.S.

ESL Placement and Schools: Effects on Immigrant Achievement.

In this study, the authors explore English as a Second Language (ESL) placement as a measure of how schools label and process immigrant students. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimate the effect of ESL placement on immigrant achievement. In schools with more immigrant students, the authors find that ESL placement results in higher levels of academic performance; in schools with few immigrant students, the effect reverses.

ADOLESCENTS' SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AND ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT.

High school students today have high ambitions but do not always make choices that maximize their likelihood of educational success. This is the motivation for investigating relationships between high school sexual behavior and two important academic attainment milestones: earning a high school diploma and enrollment in distinct postsecondary programs. Analysis of data from 7,915 National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988-1994 participants indicates that timing of sexual initiation, contraceptive nonuse, and parenthood all predict female and male students' academic attainment.

Family Transitions and Adolescent Severe Emotional Distress: The Salience of Family Context.

We use the life course perspective to argue that family transitions like divorce and remarriage are turning points in adolescents' lives and that emotional distress associated with these events are shaped by the circumstances surrounding them. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we explore how family transitions net of family structure are related to two types of emotional distress, acute depressive symptoms and excessive binge drinking, and whether family context moderates these associations. We find that going through a family transition is related to both outcomes, but only under certain circumstances.