This paper builds on previous studies that have examined the effect of age of immigration on adult labor market outcomes by considering the potential impact of the childhood environment in the country of origin. 2000 United States Census data and historical child mortality data is used to quantify the impact of the childhood environment in the country of origin on the effect of age of immigration on adult labor market outcomes. Results from children who immigrated to the United States between ages zero and ten indicate that the impact of age of immigration on adult labor market outcomes is more negative for immigrants arriving from countries with poor childhood environments.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s coverage provisions implemented in 2014 included subsidies for coverage through the new marketplaces, an individual coverage mandate, and, in states choosing to participate, expanded Medicaid eligibility for those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). By mid-2014, 26 states (including Washington, D.C.) had expanded Medicaid, with 32 expanding Medicaid by 2016. Several recent studies have found that health insurance coverage for the nonelderly population has increased substantially under the ACA. Yet, millions more uninsured could gain coverage if the remaining 19 states were to expand Medicaid and if more of the uninsured eligible for Medicaid or marketplace subsidies take up that coverage (Blumberg et al., 2016; Buettgens and Kenney, 2016). Studies before the ACA’s implementation in 2014 found that veterans were less likely than the general population to be uninsured: 1 in 10 nonelderly veterans neither had comprehensive health insurance coverage nor used health care available through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (Chokshi and Sommers, 2014; Haley and Kenney, 2013, 2012). Some uninsured veterans may qualify for VA care, but not all take up the available coverage or meet the eligibility requirements, which are based on service-connected disability status, veteran discharge status, income, and other factors (Panangala, 2015). In addition, many veterans’ spouses and children were found to be uninsured. Both these veterans and their family members more often report problems accessing needed health care compared with counterparts who have insurance coverage (Haley and Kenney, 2013, 2012). The ACA’s new options offered veterans the potential to gain coverage through increased Medicaid enrollment, enrollment in VA care, or participation in the new marketplaces. Before 2014, an estimated 4 in 10 uninsured veterans had incomes below 138 percent of FPL. Uninsured veterans in that income group living in states that expanded Medicaid would qualify for Medicaid in 2014 (Haley and Kenney, 2013).1 Analysis released in late 2015 found that nationwide, the uninsurance rate fell for veterans between 2013 and 2014 (Haley and Kenney, 2015). We extend that analysis by assessing changes in coverage and indicators of affordability for veterans through 2015, and examining coverage levels, and whether they have changed, for veterans and their family members. Our analysis assesses coverage nationally, in the 10 states with the largest populations of uninsured veterans, and for states that did and did not expand Medicaid under the ACA. We close with a profile of uninsured veterans’ characteristics and projections of how many uninsured veterans will remain in 2017, according to their eligibility for assistance under the ACA.

A long-standing finding in criminology is that structural disadvantage is a robust predictor of violence. Aligned with this finding is the racial invariance thesis, which states that the causes of ...

We show that contemporary differences in political attitudes across counties in the American South in part trace their origins to slavery's prevalence more than 150 years ago. Whites who currently live in Southern counties that had high shares of slaves in 1860 are more likely to identify as a Republican, oppose affirmative action, and express racial resentment and colder feelings toward blacks. We show that these results cannot be explained by existing theories, including the theory of contemporary racial threat. To explain the results, we offer evidence for a new theory involving the historical persistence of political attitudes. Following the Civil War, Southern whites faced political and economic incentives to reinforce existing racist norms and institutions to maintain control over the newly freed African American population. This amplified local differences in racially conservative political attitudes, which in turn have been passed down locally across generations.

Some economists have argued that assortative mating between men and women has increased over the last several decades, thereby contributing to increased family income inequality. Sociologists have argued that educational homogamy has increased. We clarify the relation between the two and, using both the Current Population Surveys and the decennial Censuses/American Community Survey, show that neither is correct. The former is based on the use of inappropriate statistical techniques. Both are sensitive to how educational categories are chosen. We also find no evidence that the correlation between spouses potential earnings has changed dramatically.

The rising population of stay-at-home fathers is driven by economic conditions, human capital, and changing gender ideology. When unemployment rates increase, women become breadwinners in these families. The growing gender education gap is a crucial factor in spousal work and caregiving arrangements. The authors test these propositions by tracking individuals using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth and the Current Population Survey. They find that unemployment rates are associated with having both caregiving and unable-to-work stay-at-home father families and that the probability that households choose stay-at-home father arrangements is greater when mothers have more education than fathers. Finally, individual differences in gender ideology have strong effects on the probability that families choose a caregiving stay-at-home father family structure.

Introduction: The quantitative intraracial burden of cancer incidence, survival and mortality within black populations in the United States is virtually unknown. Methods: We computed cancer mortality rates of US- and Caribbean-born residents of Florida, specifically focusing on black populations (United States, Haiti, Jamaica) and compared them using age-adjusted mortality ratios obtained from Poisson regression models. We compared the mortality of Haitians and Jamaicans residing in Florida to populations in their countries of origin using Globocan. Results: We analyzed 185,113 cancer deaths from 2008 to 2012, of which 20,312 occurred in black populations. The overall risk of death from cancer was 2.1 (95% CI: 1.972.17) and 1.6 (95% CI: 1.551.71) times higher for US-born blacks than black Caribbean men and women, respectively (P < .001). Conclusions: Race alone is not a determinant of cancer mortality. Among all analyzed races and ethnicities, including Whites and Hispanics, US-born blacks had the highest mortality rates while black Caribbeans had the lowest. The biggest intraracial difference was observed for lung cancer, for which US-blacks had nearly 4 times greater mortality risk than black Caribbeans. Migration from the islands of Haiti and Jamaica to Florida resulted in lower cancer mortality for most cancers including cervical, stomach, and prostate, but increased or stable mortality for 2 obesity-related cancers, colorectal and endometrial cancers. Mortality results in Florida suggest that US-born blacks have the highest incidence rate of aggressive prostate cancer in the world, rather than Caribbean men.

Gender inequality is embedded in men’s greater labor force participation and women’s greater assumption of domestic roles. These inequalities are at the same time rooted in people’s projections about their future lives, which influence future behaviors and values. The current research analyzes factors that influence these projections about the gender division of labor. A sample of 230 male and female Spanish university students reported their expectations about gender equality in their own future life. Data are also presented from 113 female university students from the United States, who completed the same measures. In an experimental design, these participants were also assigned to envision a possible future self as a married parent who was employed full-time, part-time, or not at all and whose educational attainment was a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree. When reporting expectations for their own future lives, more female than male Spanish participants expected part-time work, marriage, and parenthood. In most aspects, the experimental conditions, with their assignments to particular future situations, yielded the same expectations for the male and female participants. Notably, as hypothesized, participants of both sexes estimated that greater employment would enhance their attainment of career and respect goals but compromise family goals. We discuss the effects of employment expectations on the division of labor and gender equality, and additionally provide a cross-cultural interpretation of the differences observed between Spain and the United States.

This chapter focuses on the waves of Cuban immigrants that arrived after the fall of the Soviet Union (1990), Cuba’s most important political and economic ally. By now, research shows that Cuban immigrants possessed less skills and were darker-skinned than previous arrivals; meanwhile, their search for jobs and housing came amid a more economically and racially diverse city (at the same time, that by the end of the decade, more affluent, socioeconomically mobile white Cubans have moved out of the enclave and vicinity altogether). Census data begin to reveal sharper economic disparities between “black” and “white” Cubans in the region, and geographic differences by race are more pronounced in the region. I complement the data with perspectives by Afro-Cuban informants, underscoring that while their white Cuban counterparts are less ideologically conservative as in the past, ultimately race supercedes common ethnicity within the insular confines of the Miami Cuban community. The infamous Elían Gonzalez custody battle and the subsequent 2000 general presidential election are applied as backdrop to emphasize how anti-black racism became more exposed in the Cuban community, equally affecting the identities of local Afro-Cuban Americans.

Children of immigrant families experience developmental processes in the contexts of migration and settlement, presenting immigration-specific challenges. Child health providers can use awareness of the cultural-ecological model of immigrant child development to explore how acculturation, ethnic identity formation, and bilingualism affect the children and families under their care. Cross-cultural strategies for evaluating and supporting immigrant child development are presented to guide the provider in clinical interactions and community efforts.

As the potential for more children being raised by single parents increases, so does the societal need to examine this phenomena of single parent earnings and the impact it will have on the ability to support a family above the poverty line. Research suggests a substantial pay gap between men and women, but most research is limited to individuals in traditional families. This study explores income disparity and poverty between single mothers and single fathers across three decades (19902010), using a US nationally representative sample. Based on human capital theory, our analysis reveals that single mothers were more likely to be in poverty at far greater rates than single fathers, after controlling for a host of demographic, human capital, and work related variables. We also found that a contributing factor to this disparity is that single mothers were penalized for having more children while single fathers were not. We find that gendered poverty and the gender pay gap narrowed between 1990 and 2000, but have stayed stable since.

As part of the Work Support Strategies initiative, states took steps to improve access to multiple public benefits. This brief examines one measure of these efforts, changes over time in the joint participation rate the extent to which individuals who are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and public health insurance coverage (Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program) receive both. We find that four out of five states had substantial increases in multiple benefit receipt among eligible individuals from 2011 to 2013. These findings demonstrate states can implement changes to improve access to the both SNAP and Medicaid.

The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition (KTEA-3) is a revised and updated comprehensive academic achievement test (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2014). Authored by Drs. Alan and Nadeen Kaufman and published by Pearson, the KTEA-3 remains an individual achievement test normed for individuals of ages 4 through 25 years, or for those in grades prekindergarten (PK) through 12 and above. Based on a clinical model of academic skills assessment in the broad areas of reading, mathematics, and written and oral language, the KTEA-3 follows the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) or Information Processing theoretical assessment approach. Detailed information regarding the composites' structure and rationale for changes to subtest inclusion and/or exclusion is provided. Updates assess learning disabilities according to the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA; 2004) or the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association" [APA], 2013) criteria. Norm-referenced for diagnostic and classification purposes, the KTEA-3 offers criterion-referenced pattern analyses of errors or individual strengths and weaknesses to facilitate intervention planning. The most recent addition to the Kaufman series, the KTEA-3, described here is a revision of their broad-based academic skills assessment, yielding three core academic composites and 10 supplemental composites.

Introduction: This report examines the relation between weight and food insecurity in the United States between 2011 and 2014. Methods: The data used in this report come from the Integrated Health Interview Services (IHIS) and its food security index. Weight is assessed by body mass index, and the population is divided into four weight groups based on body mass index ranges. Results: First, food insecurity rates declined among the general population of Latinos between 2011 and 2014, however, food insecurity rates rose dramatically among underweight Latinos over that time period. Second, food insecurity rates were greatest among the obese and the underweight in the total population, but insecurity rates declined among all weight groups between 2011 and 2014. Third, the Latino and non-Hispanic black populations had substantially higher food insecurity rates than the non-Hispanic white and Asian populations. Discussion: According to the analyses, women, Latinos, and non-Hispanic blacks experienced higher food insecurity rates than men, non-Hispanic whites, and Asians. Food insecurity rates were higher among the obese and the underweight than normal weight and overweight people. Based on these results, future work should investigate several considerations. First, it is important to analyze the patterns of spatial access to food sources. Second, there is a need to better understand how different cultural, cuisine traditions affect food insecurity and body mass index. Finally, research should examine the efficacy of policies that promote good food habits, like having a balanced diet and promoting access to healthy food.

Recent research emphasizes the pressure technological change exerts on middle-wage occupations by automating routine tasks. I argue that technology only partially automates these tasks, which often still require labor. Rather, technology reduces task complexity enabling a less skilled worker to do the same job. The costs of automation, then, are not only the costs of the technology itself but also of low-wage workers to use it. By raising the cost of low-wage labor, the minimum wage reduces the profitability of adopting automating technologies. I test this prediction with state variation in the minimum wage and industry variation in complementarity between low-wage workers and technology. I show that accounting for state price differences induces new and useful minimum wage variation, derive new measures of complementarity from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the CPS Computer Use Supplement, and build a measure of technology based on IT employment, the largest component of IT spending. My results imply a $1 decrease in the minimum wage raises the average industrys technology use by 30% and decreases the routine share of the wage bill by 1 percentage point (3.3%), both relative to a counterfactual without complementarity. Routine-intensive industries often exhibit high complementarity, making the minimum wage an important policy lever to influence the pace of routine-biased technical change.

As climate change unfolds, weather systems in the United States have been shifting in patterns that vary across regions and seasons1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Climate science research typically assesses these changes by examining individual weather indicators, such as temperature or precipitation, in isolation, and averaging their values across the spatial surface. As a result, little is known about population exposure to changes in weather and how people experience and evaluate these changes considered together. Here we show that in the United States from 1974 to 2013, the weather conditions experienced by the vast majority of the population improved. Using previous research on how weather affects local population growth8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 to develop an index of peoples weather preferences, we find that 80% of Americans live in counties that are experiencing more pleasant weather than they did four decades ago. Virtually all Americans are now experiencing the much milder winters that they typically prefer, and these mild winters have not been offset by markedly more uncomfortable summers or other negative changes. Climate change models predict that this trend is temporary, however, because US summers will eventually warm more than winters. Under a scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions proceed at an unabated rate (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5), we estimate that 88% of the US public will experience weather at the end of the century that is less preferable than weather in the recent past. Our results have implications for the publics understanding of the climate change problem, which is shaped in part by experiences with local weather15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Whereas weather patterns in recent decades have served as a poor source of motivation for Americans to demand a policy response to climate change, public concern may rise once peoples everyday experiences of climate change effects start to become less pleasant.

Multidisciplinary conversations are tough. Language, habits of thinking, and styles of presentation and criticism differ profoundly across disciplines. Academic rewards to multidisciplinary research are unpredictable. Yet year after year, for 40 years running now, the Social Science History Association (SSHA) has hosted increasingly large, multidisciplinary conferences that attract scholars from a diverse set of academic fields and geographic regions. By fostering debate in an atmosphere of civility, respect, and inclusiveness, the SSHA has become a premiere venue for introducing the latest in social scientific topics, methods, and data. Here I salute the founders and guardians of the culture responsible for this impressive achievement with a multidisciplinary foray into the history of America's chop suey craze of the early twentieth century. Like the remarkable history of the SSHA, the history of chop suey illustrates the importance of civility, respect, and democratic inclusiveness in fostering innovation. It is a story that celebrates the rewards to institutions that promote such virtues.

Numerous scholars have examined how governments in particular times and places have classified their populations by ethnicity, but studies that are both cross-national and longitudinal are rare. Using a unique database of census questionnaires, we examine state practices of ethnic enumeration over a 50-year period (1965–2014) in the 24 countries and areas that comprise Oceania. The region’s extraordinary linguistic and cultural diversity, combined with its complex colonial history and indigenous politics, make it an ideal site for comparative analyses. We find a shift from biological concep- tions of difference to a more cultural understanding of group identity, exemplified by a sharp rise in language questions and the decline of race-based inquiries. While local identity labels have largely displaced colonial categories, the imprimatur of previous regimes still lingers, particularly in Melanesia. These shifts in official constructions of ethnoracial differences reflect a gradual lessening of colonial influences on demographic practices.

This project investigates the question of why local governments cooperate with one another for service provision and coordinated policies. It proposes that the selection of interlocal cooperation among local leaders in the Unites States can be best understood as a diffusion process by which local elites learn from the cooperative experiments of neighboring jurisdictions and reproduce them in order to realize similar gains when it makes sense to do so. This process, I argue, is driven by the mechanisms of learning, development of networks of trust, and interlocal competition. The project presents theory, methods, and results in three manuscripts. The first uses a newly constructed longitudinal dataset of financial transfers by local governments to show that localities are more likely to cooperate when larger shares of their neighbors were cooperating in the past. This process is amplified in regions with more intense interlocal competition. The second manuscript demonstrates that the diffusion of cooperation is most intense within particular types of local service provision, namely those that involve capital-intensive and system-maintenance functions of government, such as highways, sewers, and water delivery. Finally, the third paper presents results from an original, national survey of mayors and councilors that involved embedded experiments to tease out the hypothesized mechanisms of diffusion. Findings provide strong support for the role of development of trust and learning in the spread of interlocal cooperation.