Structural Sexism and Breastfeeding in the United States, 2016-2021.

INTRODUCTION: Recent studies demonstrate that structural sexism erodes women's health and impedes access to healthcare. This study extends this research to examine the relationship between structural sexism and breastfeeding initiation and duration in the United States. METHOD: A multifaceted state-level structural sexism index was constructed and merged with responses from the 2016-2021 National Survey of Children's Health by state and child's birth year. For children ages six months to 5 years, the prevalence of being ever breastfed and breastfed for at least six months was measured across levels of structural sexism. Multivariable logistic regression analyzed the association of structural sexism with breastfeeding outcomes, net of individual and family characteristics. RESULTS: Higher levels of structural sexism were associated with lower odds of breastfeeding initiation and lower odds of breastfeeding for at least six months net of family and child characteristics. In addition, sensitivity analyses show that variations in state breastfeeding laws did not explain these differences. DISCUSSION: This study highlights structural sexism's role in limiting breastfeeding initiation and duration. Breastfeeding promotions and guidelines should consider the broader context of structural sexism.

Older Adults and the Food Security Infrastructure.

This project explores the correlates of state variation in food security using data from the 2008 to 2018 Current Population Survey's Food Security Supplements. The focus is on the relationship between state-level availability and accessibility of congregate and home-delivered meal programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Senior Farmer's Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) on food security among lower-income households headed by older adults (ages 60 and up). Results show evidence that a senior-specific state level food security infrastructure plays a role in the food security status of households headed by older adults.

Family Structure and Child Food Insecurity: Evidence from the Current Population Survey.

Food insecurity-the lack of consistent access to adequate amounts of food-remains a reality for many American families. Although children are usually protected from reductions in food intake even in households with low food security, about 8 percent of all households with children also experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns. The research on child food insecurity and family structure is limited and the findings are mixed. Given the increasing complexity of families in the U.S., combined with sustained high levels of food insecurity during the last decade, a closer examination of this relationship is warranted. Using data from multiple years of the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (N=39,619 households) this study finds that children growing up in complex family households are more vulnerable to food insecurity, on average, than children growing up in two biological married-parent households. The results also show higher odds of child food insecurity among single mother households than among married biological or married stepfamilies suggesting a protective effect of marriage beyond economic resources.

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.

Relationship Involvement Among Young Adults: Are Asian American Men an Exceptional Case?

Asian American men and women have been largely neglected in previous studies of romantic relationship formation and status. Using data from the first and fourth waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we examine romantic and sexual involvement among young adults, most of who were between the ages of 25 to 32 (N=11,555). Drawing from explanations that focus on structural and cultural elements as well as racial hierarchies, we examine the factors that promote and impede involvement in romantic/sexual relationships. We use logistic regression to model current involvement of men and women separately and find, with the exception of Filipino men, Asian men are significantly less likely than white men to be currently involved with a romantic partner, even after controlling for a wide array of characteristics. Our results suggest that the racial hierarchy framework best explains lower likelihood of involvement among Asian American men.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, the Medical Home, and Child Well-Being.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACE), access to a medical home and a global measure of well-being among children ages 6-17 using the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health. METHODS: Multivariate linear regressions assessed the associations between each adverse experience and an index of child well-being with and without the impact of other events. The number of ACE was summed for each respondent and the analyses were repeated with the cumulative score as a continuous variable. The cumulative model was repeated with the addition of an interaction term between ACE score and medical home access. All analyses were conducted separately for children ages 6-11 and adolescents 12-17. RESULTS: Over half (53 %) of US children ages 6-17 have experienced some adverse experience during childhood. Over a quarter (28 %) has experienced at least two adverse experiences, while 15 % have experienced three or more hardships. Results suggest that the accumulation of ACE reduces well-being in children. The associations remained significant after controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, age, parental education, special health condition, and medical home access. Medical home access was consistently associated with higher levels of child well-being and was a significant moderator of the relationship between the total ACE and child well-being among children ages 6-11. Children with ACE exposure and access to a medical home have higher levels of well-being than comparable children without access to a medical home. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Children exposed to adverse experiences have measurably lower levels of well-being, although younger children with access to a medical home are protected at increasing exposure.

WELFARE AND THE CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS: TRANSMISSION OF DEPENDENCE OR INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE?

The public concern that immigrant families might be using a disproportionate share of social benefits and transmitting some form of public dependency to their children, combined with the rising levels of immigrants entering the country, fueled the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, which limited public assistance to many immigrant families. This paper uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to explore the association between exposure to welfare and young adult outcomes of high school graduation, college enrollment and labor force participation with a focus on parental nativity status as well as broad country of origin group. Results indicate a persistent negative association between welfare legacy and high school graduation; a negative association that is most pronounced for children of natives. Results also show the largest positive effect of welfare receipt among the most disadvantaged group, the young adult children of immigrants from Mexican and Central American countries. The main finding of this study suggests that the negative impacts of welfare receipt might be lessened and in some cases reversed among the young adults from immigrant families. Such findings challenge the common notion that immigrant families use welfare as a crutch across generations and raise serious concern about U.S. immigration and welfare policies.

Socioeconomic status and body mass index among Hispanic children of immigrants and children of natives.

OBJECTIVES: We examined how Hispanic parents' income and education, combined with their nativity status, influenced the body mass index (BMI) of their children, compared with non-Hispanic White children and their parents. METHODS: We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 to estimate linear growth curve models of children's initial BMI in kindergarten and change in BMI through fifth grade. Socioeconomic status was measured by logged household income and parental educational attainment (less than high school, high school graduate, some college, college graduate or higher). RESULTS: Parental education was negatively associated with children's BMI (baseline and growth) for non-Hispanic White children. Among Hispanic children, the association of parental education with growth in BMI was negative but much weaker. The weak effect of parental education was not explained by the presence of immigrants in the Hispanic population. Income was strongly negatively associated with children's BMI in kindergarten among children of Hispanic and White natives, but positively associated among Hispanic immigrant families. CONCLUSIONS: The positive income-BMI association among Hispanic immigrant children might reflect cultural differences that immigrant parents carry with them from their countries of origin.

Maternal employment and overweight among Hispanic children of immigrants and children of natives.

This research examines the relationship between maternal employment and child overweight among fifth grade Hispanic and non-Hispanic white children. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten (ECLS-K) cohort fifth grade sample (N = 4,360) were analyzed. OLS regression models were estimated predicting percentile BMI as a function of maternal employment, ethnicity, parental nativity status, income, and the interactions of employment, ethnicity/nativity, and income. Among Hispanic children of immigrants, maternal employment is associated with lower percentile BMI and this association strengthens at higher levels of income. Among Hispanic children of natives and non-Hispanic whites, maternal employment is beneficial (i.e. associated with lower percentile BMI) among low-income children but detrimental among high-income children, but this pattern is significantly greater in strength for Hispanics than non-Hispanic whites. Thus, maternal employment is associated with worse health outcomes only in the case of Hispanic children of natives, and maternal employment is associated with the best outcomes for Hispanic children of mothers from high-income families. We speculate that among children of immigrants, maternal employment may signify and/or accelerate assimilation towards middle- or upper-class American values of healthy weight and body size. Diet, meal regularity and supervision, and childcare did not mediate the relationship between maternal employment and overweight.

Immigrant generation, socioeconomic status, and economic development of countries of origin: a longitudinal study of body mass index among children.

Prior research has yielded mixed evidence of a relationship between immigrant generational status or acculturation and overweight or obesity among children of immigrants. This study examined socioeconomic status (SES) and economic development of the sending country as additional factors influencing children body mass index (BMI) and as moderating the relationship between parental generational status and BMI. Using data from the kindergarten cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (N=16,664 children) carried out in the USA, the research estimated growth curve models and tested the significance of interaction terms between generational status (i.e., children of the 1.0 generation, who arrived at age 12 or older; children of the 1.5 generation, who arrived between the ages of birth and 11; and children of natives), SES, and the country of origin's gross domestic product per capita. Results indicate that the children of the 1.0 generation from higher-income countries tended to gain more weight than children from lower-income countries. The relationship between family SES and weight gain was positive among the first-generation children and stronger among those from lower-income countries than from higher-income countries. Weight gain was positively associated with generation only among lower SES children from low-income countries. It was negatively associated with generation for higher SES children from low-income countries. The results are consistent with a conceptual model of BMI assimilation that links global nutrition patterns to the levels and socioeconomic variations in BMI among the 1.0-generation and their children, and conceptualizes assimilation as occurring within socioeconomic strata. This approach leads to the expectation that overweight is likely to be positively associated with generation among those from low-income countries (as measured by GDP/capita) with low SES but negatively associated among those from low-income countries with high SES.

Diversity and change in the institutional context of immigrant adaptation: California schools 1985-2000.

This article brings attention to a structural dimensions 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.