Is social capital durable?: How family social bonds influence college enrollment and completion.

A large literature demonstrates that social capital has positive effects on outcomes for children, but we know little about whether social capital is durable, i.e., whether its effects persist long after its creation. We use two nationally representative data sets of U.S. high school students and structural equation modeling designed for binomial outcomes to examine the durability of returns to social capital created in the family on both college enrollment and college completion. Controlling for selected school characteristics, race, family, SES and other factors, results suggest that family social capital continues to have strong associations with outcomes increasingly distant from its creation. Family SES has a smaller but positive effect on both college enrollment and college completion. These findings suggest that social capital can be a durable good if formed in the family, and that family SES is also influential.

Genome-wide stress sensitivity moderates the stress-depression relationship in a nationally representative sample of adults.

We re-evaluate the findings of one of the most cited and disputed papers in gene-environment interaction (GxE) literature. In 2003, a paper was published in Science in which the authors demonstrated that the relationship between stress and depression is moderated by a polymorphism in the promoter region (5-HTTLPR) of the gene SLC6A4. Replication has been weak and led many to challenge the overall significance of GxE research. Here, we utilize data from Add Health, a large, nationally representative, and well-powered longitudinal study to re-examine the genetic determinants of stress sensitivity. We characterize environmental sensitivity using a genome-wide polygenic indicator rather than relying on one polymorphism in a single candidate gene. Our results provide support for the stress-diathesis perspective and validate the scientific contributions of the original paper.

The persistent southern disadvantage in US early life mortality, 1965-2014.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies of US adult mortality demonstrate a growing disadvantage among southern states. Few studies have examined long-term trends and geographic patterns in US early life (ages 1 to 24) mortality, ages at which key risk factors and causes of death are quite different than among adults. OBJECTIVE: This article examines trends and variations in early life mortality rates across US states and census divisions. We assess whether those variations have changed over a 50-year time period and which causes of death contribute to contemporary geographic disparities. METHODS: We calculate all-cause and cause-specific death rates using death certificate data from the Multiple Cause of Death files, combining public-use files from 1965-2004 and restricted data with state geographic identifiers from 2005-2014. State population (denominator) data come from US decennial censuses or intercensal estimates. RESULTS: Results demonstrate a persistent mortality disadvantage for young people (ages 1 to 24) living in southern states over the last 50 years, particularly those located in the East South Central and West South Central divisions. Motor vehicle accidents and homicide by firearm account for most of the contemporary southern disadvantage in US early life mortality. CONTRIBUTION: Our results illustrate that US children and youth living in the southern United States have long suffered from higher levels of mortality than children and youth living in other parts of the country. Our findings also suggest the contemporary southern disadvantage in US early life mortality could potentially be reduced with state-level policies designed to prevent deaths involving motor vehicles and firearms.

Family Socioeconomic Status and Early Life Mortality Risk in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: We examine the association between several dimensions of parental socioeconomic status (SES) and all-cause and cause-specific mortality among children and youth (ages 1-24) in the United States. METHODS: We use Cox proportional hazard models to estimate all-cause and cause-specific mortality risk based on data from the 1998 to 2015 National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files (NHIS-LMFs), restricted to children and youth ages 1-17 at the time of survey followed through age 24, or the end of the follow-up period in 2015 (N = 377,252). RESULTS: Children and youth in families with lower levels of mother's education, father's education, and/or family income-to-needs ratio exhibit significantly higher all-cause mortality risk compared with children and youth living in higher SES families. For example, compared to children and youth living with mothers who earned college degrees, those living with mothers who have not graduated high school experience 40% higher risk of early life mortality over the follow-up period, due in part to higher mortality risks of unintentional injuries and homicides. Similarly, children/youth whose fathers did not graduate high school experience a 41% higher risk of dying before age 25 compared to those with fathers who completed college. CONCLUSIONS: Today's children and youth experience clear disparities in mortality risk across several dimensions of parental SES. As the U.S. continues to lag behind other high-income countries in health and mortality, more attention and resources should be devoted to improving children's health and well-being, including the family and household contexts in which American children live.

Genetic risk, body mass index, and weight control behaviors: Unlocking the triad.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between genetic risk for body mass index (BMI) and weight control behaviors remains unknown. The objectives of this study were to determine the association between genetic risk for BMI and weight control behaviors in young adults, and to examine actual measured BMI as a potential mediator variable. METHOD: We analyzed data from three data collection waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The BMI polygenic score (PGS) was based on published genome-wide association studies for BMI. BMI was collected at 11-18 years and 18-26 years. Weight control behaviors included self-reported: (a) weight loss behaviors (dieting, vomiting, fasting/skipping meals, diet pills, laxatives, or diuretic use to lose weight) and (b) weight gain behaviors (eating more or different foods than normal, taking supplements to gain weight). RESULTS: Among 4,397 participants, the BMI PGS was associated with higher odds of weight loss behaviors in females (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.14-1.35) and males (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.26-1.62), and this association was mediated by BMI (indirect effect 0.04, 95% CI 0.03-0.05 in females and 0.03, 95% CI 0.03-0.04 in males). The BMI PGS was associated with lower odds of weight gain behaviors in females and males, which was also mediated by actual BMI. CONCLUSIONS: The BMI PGS was associated with weight loss behaviors in both males and females, and this association was mediated by actual measured BMI. Clinical interventions to prevent high BMI, particularly for individuals with genetic risk, may also prevent subsequent development of potentially unhealthy weight loss behaviors.

Sociogenomics in the 21st Century: An Introduction to the History and Potential of Genetically-informed Social Science.

This article reviews research at the intersection of genetics and sociology and provides an introduction to the current data, methods, and theories used in sociogenomic research. To accomplish this, I review behavioral genetics models, candidate gene analysis, genome-wide complex trait analysis, and the use of polygenic scores (sometimes referred to as polygenic risk scores) in the study of complex human behaviors and traits. The information provided is meant to equip readers with the necessary tools to: (1) understand the methodology employed by each type of analysis, (2) intelligently interpret findings from sociogenomic research, and (3) understand the importance of sociologists in the ever-growing field of sociogenomics. To unify these three tasks, I rely on various examples from recent sociogenomic analyses of educational attainment focusing on social stratification and inequality.

Cultural antecedents to community: An evaluation of community experience in the United States, Thailand, and Vietnam.

To what extent does community experience differ between low context and high context societies? Prior literature theorizes that community experience consists of two separate, yet highly related concepts: community attachment, an individual's general rootedness to a place, and community satisfaction, how well an individual's community meets their societal needs. We test this conceptualization of community experience across communities in the US and two Southeast Asian nations: Thailand and Vietnam. We argue that Southeast Asian nations constitute "high context" societies with relatively high social integration and solidarity while the US is more individualized and less socially integrated and thus constitutes a "low context" society. Our results provide empirical evidence that individuals' experience of community varies between low and high context societies. These results demonstrate that cultural context continues to matter in regards to the lived experience of community and researchers need to remain vigilant in accounting for such differences as they seek to examine the concept of community more broadly.

Who Has the Advantage? Race and Sex Differences in Returns to Social Capital at Home and at School.

A growing body of literature suggests that social capital is a valuable resource for children and youth, and that returns to that capital can increase academic success. However, relatively little is known about whether youth from different backgrounds build social capital in the same way and whether they receive the same returns to that capital. We examine the creation of and returns to social capital in family and school settings on academic achievement, measured as standardized test scores, for white boys, black boys, white girls, and black girls who were seniors in high school in the United States. Our findings suggest that while youth in different groups build social capital in largely the same way, differences exist by race and sex as to how family social capital affects academic achievement. Girls obtain greater returns to family social capital than do boys, but no group receives significant returns to school social capital after controlling for individual- and school-level characteristics.