Doctoral Dissertation Research: Family Structure and Infant Health Outcomes

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SES-1020468Alan BoothJennifer Buher KanePennsylvania State University, University ParkProviding insights into how to improve infant health outcomes is an important goal of health disparities research given that conditions such as preterm birth and low birth weight often contribute to poorer physical and cognitive outcomes later. Prior research has shown that poor infant health outcomes are not randomly distributed in the population; thus, social stratification processes likely play a central role in explaining differential incidence and risk factors. This dissertation studies how such inequalities are produced and reproduced through interactions between individuals and social structures such as families and neighborhoods. More specifically, this study investigates (1) the social processes that underlie the marital disparity in infant health outcomes, (2) the role of social resources (at the individual- and neighborhood-level) in attenuating the risk of poor infant health outcomes, and (3) the intergenerational processes that explain mother-daughter similarities in infant health outcomes. To address these goals, this study will employ advanced quantitative analytic techniques using multiple secondary data sources including the newly released National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG Cycle 7), (restricted-access) spatially located data from the NSFG (which will be performed onsite at the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 cohort, and the Children of the NLSY79.Broader Impacts: This project, using theoretically-motivated empirical research, presents a unique opportunity to expand the health disparities and family sociology literatures by providing insights into how persistent infant health disparities in the U.S. are produced and reproduced. Research findings will be made available through publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and sharing with policymakers and practitioners via conference presentations (particularly within interdisciplinary venues).