Living arrangements and housing affordability issues of young adults in Canada: Differences by nativity status.

Housing prices in Canada have increased dramatically, giving rise to a housing affordability crisis. Young adults have been disproportionately affected by this crisis. To cope, many young adults have had to alter their living arrangements, contributing to the diversification of their living arrangements. Young adults' diverse living arrangements are the product of growing inequalities in young adults' economic prospects and access to family support. Extant work has yet to document how young adults' risk of having unaffordable housing varies according to their living arrangements. Our comparison of young adults' risk of having unaffordable housing according to their living arrangements reveals that co-residence with parents, relatives, or roommates reduces young adults' risk of having unaffordable housing. This protective effect is smaller for the foreign-born than the Canadian-born. The National Housing Strategy should allocate more resources to increase the supply of affordable housing earmarked for young adults, particularly the foreign-born who live alone or with children.

Les prix du logement au Canada ont augmenté de façon spectaculaire, donnant lieu à une crise de l'abordabilité. Les jeunes adultes ont été touchés de manière disproportionnée par cette crise. Pour faire face à la situation, de nombreux jeunes adultes ont dû modifier leurs conditions de vie, contribuant ainsi à la diversification de leurs conditions de vie. Les diverses conditions de vie des jeunes adultes sont le produit d'inégalités croissantes dans les perspectives économiques des jeunes adultes et dans l'accès à l'aide familiale. Les recherches existantes n'ont pas encore documenté la manière dont le risque pour les jeunes adultes d'avoir un logement inabordable varie en fonction de leurs conditions de vie. Notre comparaison du risque pour les jeunes adultes de se trouver dans un logement inabordable en fonction de leurs conditions de vie révèle que la cohabitation avec leurs parents, des proches ou des colocataires réduit le risque pour les jeunes adultes de se trouver dans un logement inabordable. Cet effet protecteur est plus faible pour les personnes nées à l'étranger que pour les personnes nées au Canada. La Stratégie nationale sur le logement devrait allouer davantage de ressources pour augmenter l'offre de logements abordables destinés aux jeunes adultes, en particulier aux personnes nées à l'étranger qui vivent seules ou avec des enfants.

Racial/Ethnic Variation in the Relationship Between Educational Assortative Mating and Wives' Income Trajectories.

Prior work has examined the relationship between educational assortative mating and wives' labor market participation but has not assessed how this relationship varies by race/ethnicity. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we estimate group-based developmental trajectories to investigate whether the association between educational assortative mating and wives' income trajectories varies by race/ethnicity. The presence, prevalence, and shapes of prototypical long-term income trajectories vary markedly across racial/ethnic groups. Whites are more likely than Blacks and Hispanics to follow income trajectories consistent with a traditional gender division of labor. The association between educational assortative mating is also stronger for Whites than for Blacks and Hispanics. White wives in educationally hypogamous unions make the greatest contribution to the couple's total income, followed by those in homogamous and hypergamous unions. Black and Hispanic wives in hypogamous unions are less likely than their peers in other unions to be secondary earners. These findings underscore the need for studies of the consequences of educational assortative mating to pay closer attention to heterogeneity across and within racial/ethnic groups.

Mental health and economic concerns from March to May during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: Insights from an analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the psychological wellbeing of populations worldwide. In this study, we assess changes in mental health during the early months of the pandemic in Canada and examine its relationship with another prominent problem during this time, economic concerns. METHODS: Analyses were based on two cycles of the nationally representative repeated cross-sectional Canadian Perspectives Survey Series (N=4627 in March and 4600 in May). We described the changes in mental health and economic concerns between March and May, and assessed the relationship between the two characteristics. RESULTS: Mental health declined significantly during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic: the proportion of Canadian adults who reported only good/fair/poor mental health grew from 46% to 52% from March to May. Economic concerns including food insecurity were an important correlate of 'bad' mental health, as was younger age, female gender, and Canada-born status. Contrary to expectations, however, economic concerns lessened during this time frame. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that policies to mitigate economic stress, such as Canada's Emergency Response Benefit, may have eased mental health deterioration in early pandemic months through a reduction in financial hardship. Interventions to increase the economic security of the population will have far-reaching consequences in terms of improved mental health, and should be continued throughout the pandemic.

The Social Significance of Interracial Cohabitation: Inferences Based on Fertility Behavior.

Interracial couples cohabit at higher rates than same-race couples, which is attributed to lower barriers to interracial cohabitation relative to intermarriage. This begs the question of whether the significance of cohabitation differs between interracial and same-race couples. Using data from the 2006-2017 National Survey of Family Growth, we assessed the meaning of interracial cohabitation by comparing the pregnancy risk, pregnancy intentions, and union transitions following a pregnancy among women in interracial and same-race cohabitations. The pregnancy and union transition behaviors of women in White-Black cohabitations resembled those of Black women in same-race cohabitations, suggesting that White-Black cohabitation serves as a substitute to marriage and reflecting barriers to the formation of White-Black intermarriages. The behaviors of women in White-Hispanic cohabitations fell between those of their same-race counterparts or resembled those of White women in same-race cohabitations. These findings suggest that White-Hispanic cohabitations take on a meaning between trial marriage and substitute to marriage and support views that Hispanics with White partners are a more assimilated group than Hispanics in same-race unions. Results for pregnancy intentions deviated from these patterns. Women in White-Black cohabitations were less likely than Black women in same-race cohabitations to have an unintended pregnancy, suggesting that White-Black cohabitations are considered marriage-like unions involving children. Women in White-Hispanic cohabitations were more likely than White and Hispanic women in same-race cohabitations to have an unintended pregnancy, reflecting possible concerns about social discrimination. These findings indicate heterogeneity in the significance of interracial cohabitation and continuing obstacles to interracial unions.

Low birth weight and childhood health: the role of maternal education.

PURPOSE: Low birth weight (LBW) is associated with myriad health and developmental problems in childhood and later in life. Less well-documented is the variation in the relationship between LBW status and subsequent child health by socioeconomic status-such as education levels and income. This article examines whether differences exist in the relationship between LBW and subsequent child health by maternal education. METHODS: We used data from the 1998-2017 National Health Interview Survey to estimate multivariate logistic regression models to determine whether the association between LBW and subsequent child health as measured by general health status, developmental disability, and asthma diagnosis differed by maternal education, net of differences in children's sociodemographic factors, family background, and medical access. RESULTS: The negative association between LBW and subsequent health was typically weaker for children of mothers with less than high school education than it was for children of mothers with higher levels of education. CONCLUSIONS: The findings on the enduring impact of LBW status on child health for all children, especially those born to mothers with higher levels of education, suggest that all children born LBW should be provided appropriate medical and support services to reduce the lifelong repercussions of poor health at birth.

The relationship between low birthweight and childhood health: disparities by race, ethnicity, and national origin.

PURPOSE: Racial/ethnic disparities in rates of low birthweight (LBW) are well established, as are racial/ethnic differences in health outcomes over the life course. Yet, there is little empirical work examining whether the consequences of LBW for subsequent child health vary by race, ethnicity, and national origin. METHODS: Using data from the 1998-2016 National Health Interview Survey, we examined whether racial, ethnic, and national differences existed in the association between LBW and subsequent health outcomes, namely being diagnosed with a developmental disability, asthma diagnosis, and poorer general health. RESULTS: Children born with LBW consistently had poorer health relative to children born with normal birthweight. There was no systematic evidence that the linkages between LBW and subsequent health were weaker for one racial/ethnic/national origin group relative to others. CONCLUSIONS: LBW was associated with subsequent poorer health. There was no systematic evidence that the link between LBW and subsequent child health were weaker for one racial/ethnic/national origin group relative to others. Together, these findings highlight the importance of reducing race/ethnic disparities in rates of LBW as a way of eradicating inequalities in childhood health.

Asian children's verbal development: A comparison of the United States and Australia.

Using longitudinal cohort studies from Australia and the United States, we assess the pervasiveness of the Asian academic advantage by documenting White-Asian differences in verbal development from early to middle childhood. In the United States, Asian children begin school with higher verbal scores than Whites, but their advantage erodes over time. The initial verbal advantage of Asian American children is partly due to their parent's socioeconomic advantage and would have been larger had it not been for their mother's English deficiency. In Australia, Asian children have lower verbal scores than Whites at age 4, but their scores grow a faster rate and converge towards those of Whites by age 8. The initial verbal disadvantage of Asian Australian children is partly due to their mother's English deficiency and would have been larger had it not been for their Asian parent's educational advantage. Asian Australian children's verbal scores grow at a faster pace, in part, because of their parent's educational advantage.

The mixed effects of migration: community-level migration and birthweight in Mexico.

Research on the relationship between migration and infant health in Mexico finds that migration has mixed impacts on the risk of low birthweight (LBW). Whereas the departure and absence of household and community members are harmful, remittances are beneficial. We extend this work by considering a different measure of infant health in addition to LBW: macrosomia (i.e., heavy birthweight), which is associated with infant, child, and maternal morbidities but has a different social risk profile from LBW. We link the 2008 and 2009 Mexican birth certificates with community data from the 2000 Mexican census to analyze the association between various dimensions of community-level migration (i.e., rates of out-migration, receipt of remittances, and return migration) and the risk of LBW and macrosomia. We examine this association using two sets of models which differ in the extent to which they account for endogeneity. We find that the health impacts of migration differ depending not only on the dimension of migration, but also on the measure of health, and that they are robust to potential sources of endogeneity. Whereas community remittances and return migration are associated with lower risk of LBW, they are associated with increased risk of macrosomia. By contrast, out-migration is associated with increased risk of LBW and lower risk of macrosomia. Our analysis of endogeneity suggests that bias resulting from unmeasured differences between communities with different levels of migration may result in an underestimate of the impacts of community migration on birthweight.

Widowhood, age heterogamy, and health: the role of selection, marital quality, and health behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: Although the impact of widowhood on the surviving spouse's health has been widely documented, there is little empirical research examining whether certain spousal choice decisions and marital sorting patterns predispose individuals to be more vulnerable to the adverse consequences of widowhood for health. DESIGN AND METHOD: We use data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and employ ordinary least squares models to (a) document variations in mental and physical health between married and widowed persons, (b) determine whether widowed persons in age heterogamous unions are especially vulnerable to the adverse consequences of widowhood, and (c) investigate to what extent differential selection, marital quality, and health practices account for health disparities by marital status and the spousal age gap. RESULTS: Widowed persons, especially those in age heterogamous unions, have worse mental health than married persons, but they do not seem to be more disadvantaged in terms of physical health. Differential selection, marital quality, and health behaviors partly account for some of the health disparities by marital status and spousal age gap. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that marrying a spouse who is very dissimilar in age may enhance one's vulnerability to the adverse consequences of widowhood for health.