The COVID-19 pandemic, well-being, and transitions to post-secondary education.

This study examines the immediate and intermediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of two high school graduation cohorts (2020 and 2021) and how changes in well-being affect students' educational plans and outcomes. Our unique panel data on 3697 students from 214 schools in 8 German federal states contain prospective survey information on three dimensions of well-being: mental health problems, self-rated health, and life satisfaction. Data is collected several months before (fall 2019), shortly before and soon after (spring 2020) as well as several months after (fall/winter 2020/21) the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Risk-Taking Behavior of Adolescents and Young Adults Born Preterm.

Objectives: To study sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infections (STCTs), teenage pregnancies, and payment defaults in individuals born preterm as proxies for engaging in risk-taking behavior.

Study Design: Our population-based register-linkage study included all 191 705 children alive at 10 years (8492 preterm [4.4%]) born without malformations in Finland between January 1987 and September 1990 as each mother's first child within the cohort.

How do Gambling Providers Use the Social Network Twitter in Germany? An Explorative Mixed-Methods Topic Modeling Approach.

This study examines the social media activities of gambling providers in Germany, focusing on the platform Twitter. A collection of 34.151 tweets from 13 Twitter accounts was made, representing casinos, sports betting, state lotteries, social lotteries and lottery brokers.

Sustainable Working Life Patterns in a Swedish Twin Cohort: Age-Related Sequences of Sickness Absence, Disability Pension, Unemployment, and Premature Death during Working Life.

We aimed to investigate sustainable working life via age-related sequences of sickness absence (SA), disability pension (DP), unemployment (UE), premature death, and the influence of individual characteristics, accounting for familial confounding. The sample included monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) same-sexed twin pairs with register data ( = 47,450) that were followed for 10 years in four age cohorts: 26-35 ( = 9892), 36-45 ( = 10,620), 46-55 ( = 12,964) and 56-65 ( = 13,974). A sequence analysis was done in a 7-element state space: 1.

COVID-19 and entrepreneurship entry and exit: Opportunity amidst adversity.

We theoretically and empirically examine how acquiring new skills and increased financial worries influenced entrepreneurship entry and exit intentions during the pandemic. To that end, we analyze primary individual-level survey data we collected in the aftermath of the COVID-19's first wave in Russia, which has had one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates globally. Our results show that acquiring new skills during the pandemic helped owners keep their existing businesses and encouraged start-ups in sectors other than information technology (IT).

Hate crime towards minoritized groups increases as they increase in sized-based rank.

People are on the move in unprecedented numbers within and between countries. How does demographic change affect local intergroup dynamics? Complementing accounts that emphasize stereotypical features of groups as determinants of their treatment, we propose the group reference dependence hypothesis: violence and negative attitudes towards each minoritized group will depend on the number and size of other minoritized groups in a community. Specifically, as groups increase or decrease in rank in terms of their size (for example, to the largest minority within a community), discriminatory behaviour and attitudes towards them should change accordingly.

Public preferences for safe consumption sites for opioid use: A discrete choice experiment.

Background: Safe consumption sites provide people who use drugs with medical supervision and sterile paraphernalia for drug use. Although the presence of sites in neighborhoods can be controversial, few studies have assessed the preferences of individuals for attributes of safe consumption sites.

Methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted to assess public preferences for safe consumption sites.

M-health Apps and Physical and Mental Health Outcomes of Sexual Minorities.

Given the assigned health inequalities faced by sexual minorities, it is fitting to assess whether m-health could be associated with better health-related outcomes for these sexual minorities. The present study examines associations between m-physical and m-mental health apps and sexual minorities' physical and mental health status in Greece. The study utilized three waves of panel data collected in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Young adult responses to taxes on cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems.

Background And Aims: Although over half of United States states have passed taxes on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), recent evidence links ENDS tax rates to increases in smoking, suggesting potentially substantive health costs. Overall health implications will depend on how these taxes affect transitions from experimentation to regular smoking and vaping. Current analyses have not assessed ENDS tax rates' effects in young adulthood (ages 18-25).

The demand for health turns 50: Reflections.

The year 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of my demand for health model in "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy 80(2): 223-255, and in The Demands for Health: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation, NBER Occasional Paper 119 New York: Columbia University Press for the NBER. To mark that occasion, this editorial focuses on the history of the model and its impacts on the field of health economics.

How Data Security Concerns Can Hinder Natural Experiment Research: Background and Potential Solutions.

Health economists conducting cancer-related research often use geocoded data to analyze natural experiments generated by policy changes. These natural experiments can provide causal interpretation under certain conditions. Despite public health benefit of this rigorous natural experiment methodology, data providers are often reluctant to provide geocoded data because of confidentiality concerns.

Protecting mental health during periods of financial stress: Evidence from the Australian Coronavirus Supplement income support payment.

This paper investigates whether the Australian government's Coronavirus Supplement, a temporary income support payment for unemployed jobseekers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, protected mental health (frequency of feeling anxious or depressed during the past week) by lowering financial stress (how comfortable people are in paying for essential services). We use unique nationally representative repeated cross-sectional data on 3843 unemployed Australian adults over the period April 6, 2020 to May 10, 2021. We find that the Coronavirus Supplement payment significantly reduced reported financial stress, and lower financial stress was associated with lower mental distress.

The perceived social rejection of sexual minorities: Substance use and unprotected sexual intercourse.

Introduction: This study presents associations between the perceived social rejection of sexual minorities and tobacco, alcohol and cannabis consumption and unprotected sexual intercourse in the capital of Greece, Athens. This is the first Greek study to evaluate the concept of the minority stress theory on sexual minorities' substance use and unprotected sexual intercourse. In addition, this is among the first international studies to examine whether periods of adverse economic conditions are associated with sexual minorities' substance use and unprotected sexual intercourse.

Schools under mandatory testing can mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

We use event study models based on staggered summer vacations in Germany to estimate the effect of school reopenings after the summer of 2021 on the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Estimations are based on daily counts of confirmed coronavirus infections across all 401 German counties. A central antipandemic measure in German schools included mandatory rapid testing multiple times per week.

Sex moderates the effects of total sleep deprivation and sleep restriction on risk preference.

Sleep loss has been shown to alter risk preference during decision-making. However, research in this area has largely focussed on the effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD), while evidence on the effects of sleep restriction (SR) or the potentially moderating role of sex on risk preference remains scarce and unclear. The present study investigated risky decision-making in 47 healthy young adults who were assigned to either of two counterbalanced protocols: well-rested (WR) and TSD, or WR and SR.

Schizophrenia polygenic risk score and long-term success in the labour market: A cohort study.

Employment is rare among people with a schizophrenia diagnosis. Meanwhile, a genetic liability for schizophrenia may hinder labour market performance. We studied how the polygenic risk score (PGS) for schizophrenia related to education and labour market outcomes.

Expanding the measurement of culture with a sample of two billion humans.

Culture has played a pivotal role in human evolution. Yet, the ability of social scientists to study culture is limited by the currently available measurement instruments. Scholars of culture must regularly choose between scalable but sparse survey-based methods or restricted but rich ethnographic methods.

Nevertheless She Persisted? Gender Peer Effects in Doctoral STEM Programs.

We study the effects of peer gender composition in STEM doctoral programs on persistence and degree completion. Leveraging unique new data and quasi-random variation in gender composition across cohorts within programs, we show that women entering cohorts with no female peers are 11.7pp less likely to graduate within 6 years than their male counterparts.

The effectiveness of testing, vaccinations and contact restrictions for containing the CoViD-19 pandemic.

In order to slow the spread of the CoViD-19 pandemic, governments around the world have enacted a wide set of policies limiting the transmission of the disease. Initially, these focused on non-pharmaceutical interventions; more recently, vaccinations and large-scale rapid testing have started to play a major role. The objective of this study is to explain the quantitative effects of these policies on determining the course of the pandemic, allowing for factors like seasonality or virus strains with different transmission profiles.

Did the Finnish depression of the early 1990s have a silver lining? The effect of unemployment on long-term physical activity.

This paper studies the impact of long-term unemployment on physical activity. We examined the effects 6 and 15 years following a severe business cycle downturn in Finland over the period 1991-1994. The study sample comprised residents of Northern Finland.

Oral health promotion and labour market prospects of socially disadvantaged and unemployed people - a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Previous studies indicate that poor oral health may constitute a barrier for labour market success. This study examines whether an oral health promotion intervention has an effect on economic self-support, and proximity to the labour market, among socially disadvantaged unemployed people.

Methods: From April-June 2018, we enrolled 273 vulnerable people on welfare benefits into a randomised controlled trial.

Child development and distance learning in the age of COVID-19.

School closures, forcibly brought about by the COVID-19 crisis in many countries, have impacted children's lives and their learning processes. The heterogeneous implementation of distance learning solutions is likely to bring a substantial increase in education inequality, with long term consequences. The present study uses data from a survey collected during Spring 2020 lockdown in France and Italy to analyze parents' evaluations of their children's home schooling process and emotional well-being at time of school closure, and the role played by different distance learning methods in shaping these perceptions.