Trends in sleep duration in the U.S. from 2004 to 2018: A decomposition analysis

SSM - Population Health · 2023 · 12 citations

• Sociology
• Demography
• Psychology

Average sleep duration in the United States declined in recent years, and the decline may be linked with many biopsychosocial factors. We examine how a set of biopsychosocial factors have differentially contributed to the temporal trends in self-reported sleep duration across racial groups between 2004-2005 and 2017-2018. Using repeated nationally representative cross-sections from the National Health Interview Survey, we decompose the influence of biopsychosocial factors on sleep duration trends into two components. One component corresponds to coefficient changes (i.e., changes in the associations between behaviors or exposures and sleep duration) of key biopsychosocial factors, and the other part accounts for the compositional changes (i.e., changes in the distributions of exposures) in these biopsychosocial factors during the study period. We reveal that changes in the coefficients of some biopsychosocial factors are more important than compositional changes in explaining the decline in sleep duration within each racial/ethnic group. Our findings highlight racial differences manifest across multiple biopsychosocial domains that are shifting in terms of association and composition. Methodologically, we note that the standard regression approach for analyzing temporal trends neglects the role of coefficient changes over time and is thus insufficient for fully capturing how biopsychosocial factors may have influenced the temporal patterns in sleep duration and related health outcomes.

Kinship, Demography, and Inequality: Review and Key Areas for Future Development

2022 · 21 citations

• Sociology
• Sociology
• Geography

Kinship relations play a crucial role in structuring populations and shaping individual outcomes. Differences in kinship among individuals, cohorts, and subpopulations are one important aspect of these structures. Demography and related disciplines have proposed sophisticated approaches to study kinship in recent years. We argue that the development of a demography of kinship that centers on these processes will help advance the field of demography as a whole. Here, we review four key substantive areas of kinship research in demography: (1) kin supply and intergenerational transfers; (2) demographic change; (3) kin loss; and (4) social stratification. For each area, we identify important gaps in the literature and avenues for future research. We then review available methods and data sources to advance each of these areas, and conclude with an agenda to foster the study of the demography of kinship in general and kinship inequalities specifically.

Bereavement & mental health: The generational consequences of a grandparent's death

SSM - Mental Health · 2022 · 14 citations

• Demography
• Psychology
• Medicine

The COVID-19 pandemic has left millions of children and adolescents grieving the sudden death of a grandparent. Yet, we lack knowledge of the mental health implications of a grandparent's death for youth. This study uses longitudinal data to examine if the loss of a grandparent increases adolescent grandchildren's likelihood of experiencing their mothers' major depressive disorder, and of having depressive symptoms themselves. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a population-based cohort study of children born in 20 U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000, we estimate associations between the death of a maternal grandparent in mid-childhood and adolescents', and their mothers', depressive outcomes when the adolescent is roughly age 15 (in 2014-17), net of a robust set of covariates, including pre-bereavement depression. Adjusted regression models show no elevated depression risk associated with a grandfather's death-neither for adolescents nor their mothers. A grandmother's death within the previous seven years is associated with a higher likelihood of adolescents having a depressed mother compared to both non-bereaved adolescents (odds ratio (OR) = 2.42; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.17, 5.01) and those whose grandmother died more than seven years ago (OR = 3.78; 95% CI = 1.54, 9.31). Furthermore, adolescent boys have a 50% increase in their depressive symptoms following a grandmother's death relative to their non-bereaved peers-an increase that operates independently from the influence of the death on their mother. Together, the results show the death of a grandmother is an underappreciated, persistent risk factor for adolescents experiencing maternal major depressive disorder, and for adolescent boys experiencing depressive symptoms personally.

Climate Change and Migration: New Insights from a Dynamic Model of Out-Migration and Return Migration

American Journal of Sociology · 2020 · 71 citations

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Economic geography

In popular accounts, stories of environmental refugees convey a bleak picture of the impacts of climate change on migration. Scholarly research is less conclusive, with studies finding varying effects. This paper uses an agent-based model (ABM) of land use, social networks, and household dynamics to examine how extreme floods and droughts affect migration in Northeast Thailand. The ABM explicitly models the dynamic and interactive pathways through which climate-migration relationships might operate, including coupled out and return streams. Results suggest minimal effects on out-migration but marked negative effects on return. Social networks play a pivotal role in producing these patterns. In all, the portrait of climate change and migration painted by focusing only on environmental refugees is too simple. Climate change operates on already established migration processes that are part and parcel of the life course, embedded in dynamic social networks, and incorporated in larger interactive systems where out- and return migration are integrally connected.