Research Projects


Research Projects by Author & Research Projects by CSDA Concentration
Center Affiliated Research is Denoted With an Asterisk(*)
Research Projects by Author
Research Projects by CSDA Concentration


Research Projects by Author

Alba, Richard


PI: John Logan and Richard Alba

Title: Residential Patterns of Minorities in the Metropolis

Source of Funding: National Science Foundation

Award Period:

Budget: Total Budget $174,300

Summary:

Analysis of segregation indices has provided insight into the changing residential patterns of racial and ethnic groups in metropolitan areas, lending support to models of assimilation and racial stratification. This project examines two important aspects of residential patterns that are only indirectly captured by that approach. The first is the geographic configuration of areas of minority group concentration as "ethnic" or "minority" neighborhoods. The second is the determinants of individual locational choices and outcomes. The study includes New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the 1980-1990 period. The racial and ethnic groups studied are whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians in these regions, with additional distinctions among the major white ethnic groups (such as Italians, Irish, Germans) and among national-origin subgroups among Hispanics (e.g., Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans), Asians (e.g., Chinese, Koreans), and blacks (treating separately blacks from the larger non-U.S. origin groups such as the English-speaking Caribbean and Haitians). Many of these subgroups are well represented in the three regions. The research design allows the testing of hypotheses drawn from more recent sociological theories, including the underclass and the ethnic enclave models.

The project begins with calculation of descriptive measures of the extent of segregation in each area (which can be usefully compared between city and suburban portions of the metropolis, between 1980 and 1990, and between the various racial and ethnic minority groups). The more innovative research steps taken by the project include: (1) The identification of neighborhoods -- that is, sets of proximate census tracts -- in which a particular group is over-represented in each region -- in terms of such characteristics as social class and presence of other racial/ethnic groups. (2) The analysis of determinants of residence in these neighborhoods. For members of a given group, models will be estimated to predict the likelihood of living in one of the group's neighborhoods. Predictors include indicators of socioeconomic status (education, income, employment) and cultural assimilation (particularly nativity, language use, and intermarriage). (3) The analysis of more general locational issues, including integration with the white majority and the income level and crime rate of people's neighborhoods.
 

Alba, Richard D.

PI:  Richard D. Alba

Title:  Disadvantaged Second Generations:  The Socioeconomic Incorporation of Mexicans in the U.S. and Meghrebins in France

Source of Funding:  National Science Foundation

Award Period:  3/1/02 - 2/29/04

Budget:  Total Budget $123,599

Summary:

The major goal of this project, which involves a collaboration between French and U.S. teams, is to study the socioeconomic incorporation of the second generation of the largest immigrant groups in France and the U.S.—Maghrebins, i.e. Muslim North Africans, in the former and Mexicans in the latter.
 

PI:  Richard D. Alba

Title:  Socioeconomic Attainments of Second Generations in Immigration Societies:  An Analysis of Canada, Germany, and the United States

Source of Funding:  Russell Sage Foundation

Award Period:  7/15/02 - 12/31/03

Budget:  Total Budget  $196,344

Summary:

The major goal of this project is to investigate the applicability of the main models of second-generation incorporation—conventional assimilation, segmented assimilation, and pluralist—through a comparison of the educational and occupational attainments of the second generations of different ethnic groups in Canada, Germany, and the U.S.
 
 
 

Armstrong, Donna
 

PI:  Donna Armstrong

Title:  Transportation Access to Medical and Other Community Services:  Effects on Race and SES Differences in Premature Coronary Mortality*

Source of Funding:  Ford Foundation

Award Period:  7/1/02 - 6/30/03

Budget:  Total Budget $100,000

Summary:

This project will examine racial segregation and differences in transportation access to medical and other basic services, as well as transportation effects on employment indicators by race and gender (i.e., “spatial mismatch”) associated with premature coronary mortality.
 
 

PI: Donna Armstrong and  David Strogatz

Title: Heart Disease Mortality and Inequalities in Community Resources/Capacity*

Source of Funding: American Heart Association

Award Period:  7/01/98 - 6/01/01

Budget:  Total Budget $134,979

Summary:

Results of major community-based cardiovascular trials and recent health promotion theories emphasize the importance of addressing social and material environmental conditions to improve cardiovascular health. Geographic disparities in coronary mortality remain poorly understood, including reasons for New York State continuing to rank highest in coronary mortality among U.S. states. Furthermore, there is disturbing evidence that coronary mortality rates are no longer declining in some economically disadvantaged communities and rates may be increasing in some populations. The general goals of this project are 1) to advance our knowledge of community characteristics and conditions which correspond with different levels of premature heart disease mortality 2) describe specific potential mechanisms for effects of community environments on premature coronary mortality rate 3) identify general types of services and resources which need to be included in an epidemiology questionnaire measuring resources relevant to cardiovascular health in communities. This research is important to further our understanding of geographic differences in heart disease mortality, to develop better community-level heart disease prevention strategies and to better tailor prevention programs to communities that have different levels of resources and program capacities.
 
 

Bose, Christine
 

PI:  Christine Bose and Edna Acosta-Belen

Title: Gender Studies in Global Perspective

Source of Funding:  Ford Foundation

Award Period:  8/01/98 - 7/01/02
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bures, Regina M

PI: Regina M. Bures

Title:  ADVANCE Fellow/Preservation and Change: The Social Context of Spatial Patterns in a Southern City, 1900-2000

Source of Funding:  NSF

Budget:  $100,544

Summary:

This ADVANCE Fellows proposal is designed to produce concrete research results over the next three years and to stimulate a sustainable research program. This project will also provide a case study of urban change in the South over the 20th century, emphasizing the social and spatial consequences of the Great Migration, the impact of historic preservation on the social environment, and the interaction of multiple dimensions of segregation.

PI:  Regina M. Bures

Title: Family, Health, and Labor Force Transitions in Midlife

Source of Funding:  National Institute on Aging

Award Period:  9/30/00 - 9/30/2001

Budget:  Total Budget $74,950

Summary:

Understanding work and retirement behavior in later life has become increasingly important.  Over the past 30 years, increases in women's labor force participation have contributed to significant changes in the social institutions of family and work.  These changes have had important consequences for the lives of adults in later midlife.  Today, many midlife families are headed by dual-earner couples who find themselves balancing family considerations, including the costs of children in college and needs of aging parents, with joint labor force decisions.  As they approach retirement, they are likely to consider a transition out of the labor force at younger ages and in a different manner from previous cohorts.  At the same time, advances in health care and increases in life expectancy meant that older Americans are living longer and healthier lives, a growing proportion of which will be without traditional career-related commitments.  The proposed study will examine the impact of family and health characteristics on labor force transitions, including retirement, using data from the first four waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).  Building on previous research, we examine the context of work and retirement decisions for individuals and married couples.  An important innovation of this project will be the joint consideration of labor force transitions and residential mobility.  The results of this research will contribute to the development of an R01 proposal to further study the dynamic nature of family, health and labor force transitons and their roles in understanding the retirement process.
 

PI:      Regina M. Bures

Title:  The Impact of Marital Status Transitions on the Retirement Decision

Source of Funding:    Steven H. Sandell Grant Program

Award Period:    6/01/02-6/01/03

Budget:  Total Budget $25,000

Summary:

This research investigates how marital status transitions influence the retirement decision. The relationships between retirement timing, retirement savings, and divorce will be explored using descriptive and multivariate analyses, paying particular attention to variations by race and gender. The results of this research will contribute to our understanding of the consequences of marital disruption for the retirement decision and contribute to a better understanding of related retirement policy consequences.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Deane, Glenn


PI: Nancy Denton, Glenn Deane, and Larry Raffalovich

Title:  Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Housing Appreciation

Source of Funding:  NICHD

Award Period:  7/01/00 - 6/30/01

Budget:  Total Budget $71,025

Summary:

The proposed research will examine in detail the African American-white differential in housing values and change in housing values over time at the neighborhood level.  To the extent that race influences neighborhood housing value levels and neighborhood housing appreciation, the estimated wealth loss can be seen as yet another deleterious consequence of residential segregation.  The first part of the project will consist of GIS to document neighborhood level black-white median housing value differentials and change in median housing values over time in selcted MSAs.  Exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) will be used to identifyspatial clusters and spatial outliers in housing values and to identify the areal covariates of housing values.  The second part of the research project will develop multilevel models to explain the neighborhood level differentials found in the descriptive analysis.  By limiting the scope of the research to the neighborhood level, to a small number of metropolitan areas and to only two racial groups, the proposed research gains flexibility to explore in a detailed, context specific way, the spatial patterns and mechanisms which determine neighborhood housing value levels and changes.
 
 

PI:  Steven F. Messner, Glenn D. Deane

Title:  Criminal Violence, Employment Levels, and Population Change:  An Examination of Spatio-Temporal Variation and Reciprocal
Causal Effects

Source of Funding:  NCOVR

Award Period:  1/01/01 - 5/01/02

Budget:  Total Budget $81,149

Summary:  The purpose of the proposed research is to examine the spatial and temporal variation in criminal violence, employment levels, and population changes for US counties over the latter part of the 20th century.  Our general objectives are to search for patterns that are suggestive of difuusion processes and to model reciprocal causal relations.  The research will employ a panal data design based on annual observations for metropolitan and surrounding counties over the 1969-98 period.  The analyses will integrate newly developed exploratory and descriptive methods for spatial analyses with state-of-the art space-time regression techniques.
 

PI: Steven Messner, Glenn Deane, and Stewart Tolnay

Title: The Spatial Patterning of County Homicide Rates During the Post-War Era: An Analysis of Diffusion Effects

Source of Funding: Carnegie Mellon University, National Consortium on Violence Research (NSF)

Award Period: 1/1/98 - 5/31/98

Requested Budget: $56,345

Summary:

A large social science literature has demonstrated substantial variation in the levels of homicide across areas of the United States. This literature has shown that homicide levels are predicted quite well by such structural characteristics as poverty, age structure, inequality, and family structure. Theoretical arguments, especially those emphasizing cultural influences, have also been advanced suggesting that homicide might be usefully viewed as a "contagious" social process likely to spread from one area to another. However, virtually no empirical research has examined the extent to which lethal violence actually "diffuses" across geographic boundaries - independently of structural characteristics.

This project examines the spatial patterning of homicide rates across U.S. counties during the post World War II period. It seeks to determine whether areas with high (or low) homicide rates tend to cluster together in a spatial pattern suggestive of diffusion. A positive diffusion effect is hypothesized (i.e. areas with high homicide levels are proximate to one another) -- after key structural similarities across areas are taken into consideration. A set of hypotheses, drawn from influential criminological theories, are identified to explain the operation of diffusion effects on homicide, as well as to explain possible regional patterns and temporal shifts in the positive diffusion effect. Evidence consistent with a significant diffusion effect on homicide rates would strongly suggest that cultural forces complement structural ones in the etiology of homicide, and it would significantly further our understanding of the processes through which some areas exhibit higher levels of homicide than others.

The project uses county-level data for five decade years in the post-War period, 1950 - 1990. Separate analyses are conducted for each decade, using a spatial effects model to determine whether there is an areal diffusion of homicide rates, net of structural similarities across areas. In addition, a pooled cross-sectional, time series analysis is conducted to assess the significance of changes in any diffusion effect over time, or between major regions of the country (South-nonSouth).
 
 
 

Denton, Nancy


PI:  Nancy Denton

Title:  Newcomer Children in California
 

PI: Nancy Denton, Glenn Deane, and Larry Raffalovich

Title:  Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Housing Appreciation

Source of Funding:  NICHD

Award Period:  7/01/00 - 6/30/01

Budget:  Total Budget $71,025

Summary:

The proposed research will examine in detail the African American-white differential in housing values and change in housing values over time at the neighborhood level.  To the extent that race influences neighborhood housing value levels and neighborhood housing appreciation, the estimated wealth loss can be seen as yet another deleterious consequence of residential segregation.  The first part of the project will consist of GIS to document neighborhood level black-white median housing value differentials and change in median housing values over time in selcted MSAs.  Exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) will be used to identifyspatial clusters and spatial outliers in housing values and to identify the areal covariates of housing values.  The second part of the research project will develop multilevel models to explain the neighborhood level differentials found in the descriptive analysis.  By limiting the scope of the research to the neighborhood level, to a small number of metropolitan areas and to only two racial groups, the proposed research gains flexibility to explore in a detailed, context specific way, the spatial patterns and mechanisms which determine neighborhood housing value levels and changes.
 
 

PI: Nancy Denton

Title: MTO: The Short-Term Adjustment Process

Source of Funding: USDHUD

Award Period: 7/17/95 - 1/31/97

Budget: Total Budget $50,904

Summary:

For poor single-parent families in public housing, participation in the MTO (Moving to Opportunity) program offers the promise of better housing in better neighborhoods, as well as the counseling and resources necessary to take advantage of this opportunity. However, as everyone who has ever moved knows, moving is stressful. This research investigates the stresses associated with moving for MTO and Section 8 families in the Chicago MTO demonstration project. It seeks to learn whether the satisfaction that the MTO/Section 8 family derives from improved housing and neighborhood is offset by hostile reactions from new neighbors, feelings of isolation from friends and family, and children's adjustment to new friends and school. While the MTO program offers long-term potential for the participant families, realization of this potential hinges on overcoming short-term and immediate adjustment problems associated with the move.
 

PI: Nancy Denton

Title: Spatial Isolation of Immigrant and Poor Elderly by Race

Source of Funding: National Institute on Aging

Award Period: 9/1/96 - 8/31/97

Requested Budget: $70,273

Summary:

The spatial segregation and isolation of the elderly are important to their own personal satisfaction, and to the various social service programs that serve them. In addition, spatial concentration of the elderly plays a role in determining intra-neighborhood heterogeneity, and intergenerational contact can affect the neighborhood transition process by creating clusters of available housing, and may have implications for the community as a whole by structuring support for age-related community services such as schools, libraries, daycare, etc.

The proposed research will use census tract data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 decennial censuses to investigate issues related to the spatial location of the elderly in metropolitan areas in the U.S. First, it will calculate the segregation and neighborhood isolation of the total population ages 65+, and then break the population down into non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Asian and Hispanic groups and calculate their segregation from non-Hispanic whites and from each other. Second, within each of the four race/ethnic groups, the 1990 segregation of the elderly by immigrant and poverty status will be calculated to show how spatial isolation varies within these groups. Third, for a small sample of metropolitan areas where the elderly and immigrant elderly are concentrated, the project will calculate profiles of the neighborhood environments of these different groups of elderly, estimate the role of the elderly in neighborhood race/ethnic and socioeconomic status transitions, with particular emphasis on racial/ethnic differences in these effects, and create maps of the elderly location and their neighborhoods.
 
 

Dewar, Diane

PI:  Diane Dewar

Title:  Managed Care Impact on Critical Care Service Utilization*

Source of Funding:  NIH

Award Period:  6/01/00 - 7/01/01

Budget:  Total budget $70,514

Summary:
Given the environment of rising service utilization and the reduction in hospital reimbursements for ICU patients, there are a number of issues that should be addressed or health care costs will become increasingly unmanageable. This study will address two of the most pressing issues concerning critical care services, specifically those for PMV. Have health policies such as the Health Care Reforrn Act of 1996 (HCRA) and managed care resulted in more or less utilization of resources for patients with PMV? And Have health policies such as HCRA and managed care resulted in differential outcomes for patients with PMV among various reimbursement methods? These broad compelling questions will be studied by the University at Albany School of Public Health with particular attention to factors that impact service utilization and outcomes for the elderly population with PMV, with and without tracheostomy, due to their iarge impact on health care expenditures

This project has the unique opportunity to use medical record data from a high-volume academic medical center in a pilot study to provide extensive inforrnation on patient characteristics, treatment protocols and hospital discharge patterns for MCO and non-MCO PMV patients pre- and post-HCRA from 1995 through 1997. These data are not currently available in public-use administrative databases and will be used to complement the analysis of existing hospital discharge abstracts for the statewide population of PMV patients during 1995-1997 collected through the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System. The statewide analysis of hospital discharge abstracts will determine the general patient, hospital and policy impacts on the utilization, costs and outcomes associated with the use of these resources. It is recognized that administrative databases are limited in their ability to provide detailed information for policy evaluation and economic analysis of service utilization, but can
provide information to determine if basic differences exist in resource utilization and reimbursements due to changes in the delivery system. The primary data in the pilot study provides additional information for more precise determination of treatment differences, and serves to validate the findings using the administrative data in this project.

for both the statewide and pilot study, four hyptheses regarding the impacts of HCRA and MCO participation on hospital survival and and length of stay for patients with PMV will be tested using regression analysis. The models will control for hospital, sociodemographic, clinical, utilization, and delivery system impacts on these outcomes, with the impacts of the MCO and HCRA measured explicitly through regression coefficients of the main and interactive MCO and HCRA effects, and through the coefficient for MCO penetration. The models will be estimated and validated using a split-half sample technique, and model reliability will be determined by comparing Ordinary Least Squares regression with identity-linked geometric regression, since the regression errors are not necessarily normaily distributed with constant variance across all observations; but instead are exponentially distributed.
 
 

Ensel, Walter


PI: Walter Ensel

Title: The Annual Center for Social and Demographic Analysis Capital District Survey

Summary: The Center for Social and Demographic Analysis (CSDA) conducts and annual survey of the capital District area. The annual survey was initiated in 1991 to provide an ongoing opportunity for collaboration by SUNYA researchers. Individual researchers and research groups (departments, research centers, etc.) may particpate on a regular or occasional basis. In return for modest support to fund the survey, particpants may include their own questions and have access to other data gathered as part of the core survey instrument. The survey can be used to gather data to stand alone, supplement other research, or serve as pilot studies, without the need to invest substantial time and money in separate survey projects.

The survey employs telephone interviewing, using the resources of CSDA's Telephone Survey Facility for computer-assisted telephone interviewing. The samples are drawn from the Capital District metropolitan region. Random-digit dialing techniques are used and the researchers target a representative sample of 500 respondents (completed interviews), 18 years of age or older, residing in the area.

To date, the CSDA has conducted 7 annual surveys. The first survey was conducted in the fall of 1991. A total of 541 individuals, 18 years of age and older, residing in a five county area (Albany, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady) were interviewed. The second survey was conducted in the fall of 1992 with 555 individuals in a six couty area (Greene county was added to the other 5 counties). The thrid survey was conducted in the fall of 1993, with 516 respondents interviewed. The fourth survey was conducted the fall of 1994 with 509 individuals interviewed. The fifth survey was conducted in the fall of 1995 and a total of 557 respondents were interviewed. The sixth annual survey was conducted in the winter of 1996/97 and a total of 531 interviews were completed with respondents in the 6 county area. The most recent survey, the seventh annual survey, was conducted in the winter of 1997/98. A total of 540 individuals were interviewed. All samples were representative of the population of the area as defined by the census.

The interviews take under 10 minutes to complete. They include core questions of basic sociodemographic and location information as well as indicators of well-being (overall happiness and health, financial, residential, and community satisfaction). There is also space for the inclusion of approximately 25 questions from survey participants. The overall cost to participants will depend on the number and complexity of the questions included.

Preparations for the survey are usually finalized in the summer and the survey is conducted in either the fall or the winter. CSDA staff, who are experienced in the conduct of such surveys, oversee and coordinate preparation of the interview and all aspects of data collection and preparation. Survey participants receive a cleaned data file in ASCII format that includes the core data and data from the participant's questions (participants have sole access to data from their own questions).

CSDA staff consult with interested researchers about budget and survey content. Survey questions should reflect scholarly research interests, rather than more narrowly-defined "marketing" research. Participants should also avoid overly complex and open-ended questions. Final decision about survey content are the responsibility of the CSDA. Generally, the selection of the collaborators for the survey are finalized by mid-August. Researchers interested in participating in the Capital District Survey, or desiring more information, should contact: Walter M. Ensel (442-4692) or Scott South (442-4905).
 
 
 

PI: Walter Ensel

Title: Stressors, Resources, and Mental Health: A Life Course Study

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIMH)

Award Period: 3/1/95 - 2/28/97 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $734,905

Summary:

This project examines an integrated model of the life stress process which specifies the effects of stressors and resources embedded in the social, psychological and physical environments on mental health in the life course. Two waves of data will be collected in 1993 and 1994. The total sample size will be 1100. Part of the data (approximately 500 cases) will be a follow-up of a panel study of a community survey initiated in 1979 in an upstate New York metropolitan area and the remainder of the data will be a supplemental sample which will allow the reconstitution of a representative sample of the community in 1993.

These data sets will allow examination of:

1) the effects of distal and proximal stressors and resources over the course of 13 years (1979-1993) based on the panel data collected in 1979, 1980, 1982, and the proposed follow-ups in 1993 and 1994.

2) possible period effects in a comparison of the 1979-1980 panel and the 1993-1994 panel.

3) new concepts and measures in an expanded model reflecting a more comprehensive life stress paradigm regarding social, psychological, and physical stressors and resources.
 

Gage, Timothy

PI:  Timothy Gage

Title: The Determinants of Infant Mortality:  Statistical Models

Source of Funding:  NICHD

Award Period: 4/01/00 - 3/01/03

Budget:   $110,004
 

Gallant, Mary P.

PI: Mary P. Gallant

Title:  Social Network Influences on Illness Self-Management

Source of Funding:    National Institute on Aging

Award Period:  5/01/01 - 4/30/02  (No-cost Extension to 4/30/03)

Budget:  $74,950

Summary:

The purpose of this research is to explore the influence of family and friends on older adults' self-management of three chronic illnesses (arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes).  Chronic illness self-management is a significant aspect of older adults' self-care and has important implications for the well-being of older adults and for health care costs.  Self-management occurs within a network of family and friends who may facilitate or impede the self-management process in a variety of ways.  Yet the social context within which older adults attempt to manage their chronic illnesses is not well understood.  The specific aims of the present project include: (1) to identify and describe the various roles that family members and friends play in older adults' chronic illness self-management; (2) to identify the specific ways in which social network members (i.e., family and friends) positively and negatively influence older adults' self-management behavior; (3) to examine whether the role of the social network in older adults' self-management differs by gender, race, or disease; and (4) to generate items for a measurement instrument that assesses pertinent social contexts of older adults' self-management behavior.  Twelve focus group interviews will be conducted with older adults who are managing one of three chronic illnesses.  To facilitate comparisons, groups will be composed according to gender, race and disease.  Qualitative data will be analyzed with a grounded theory approach to develop an in-depth understanding of the role of social network members in the self-management process.  Data analysis will focus on determining the extent to which family and friends are involved in self-management, the ways in which this involvement occurs, and the extent to which this involvement positively or negatively influences self-mangagement.  The analysis will also provide insight into the mechanismes by which social network influence exerts its effects.  The data will be used to develop a first generation of items for a measurment instrument assessing the role of important social network members in self-management.  Results will inform the development of tailored interventions that account for the specific roles of family and friends in order to maximize positive health outcomes.
 
 
 

Hernandez, Donald J.

PI:  Donald J. Hernandez

Title:  Newcomer Children in California

Source of Funding:  The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Award Period:  1/1/03 – 12/31/04

Budget:  $173,913

Summary:
 

 The major goal of this project is to analyze differences for children who live in specific localities in California with large immigrant populations (and selected cities outside California, such as New York City, Miami, and Chicago) by immigrant generation and country of origin regarding their demographic, educational, economic, and neighborhood and housing situations.
 
 
 
 
 

Hoff, Timothy J.
 

PI: Timothy J. Hoff

Title: Physician Adaption to Managed Care

Source of Funding: American College of Physician Executives, National Association of Inpatient Physicians

Summary:

This is a multi-phase project examining at the individual and group levels how physicians are responding to managed care. Primary foci are the new careers evolving because of managed care within the profession, changing notions of professionalism and professional solidarity, and adaptation to employee status. Specific projects underway or completed include a national mail survey of physician executives looking at identity, a national mail survey of hospitalist physicians looking at burnout, satisfaction, and autonomy, and a 4 year qualitative case study of a single group of physician-employees employed within an HMO. All data used in the project are primary and have been (or are being) gathered by the investigator.
 

PI:  Timothy J. Hoff

Title:  Creating Learning Cultures Around Mistakes for Residents

Source of Funding:  Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Budget:  Total Budget $99,916
 
 
 
 
 

Horton, Hayward

PI:  Horton, Hayward

Title:  Critical Demography:  A Paradigmatic Shift in the Study of Population

Source of Funding:  NSF

Award Period:  3/01/00 - 2/28/01
 
 
 

Jaccard, James

PI: James Jaccard

Title: Developmental/Social Psychological Models of Binge Drinking

Source of Funding: NIH

Award Period: 9/01/99-5/31/04

Budget:  Total Budget $800,990

Summary:

Binge drinking is increasingly being recognized as a major problem among college populations and has serious adverse consequences. Numerous educators have argued that drinking and alcohol-related problems represent one of the most significant social problems on our nation's college campuses. It is often asserted that the foundations for binge drinking behavior are established during early adolescence and high school. Yet there are few empirical studies that have explored this issue in a rigorous way. The present study applies a comprehensive social psychological theory to the analysis of binge drinking in college youth. It also analyzes binge drinking in both college and non-college populations with an emphasis on predicting binge drinking behaviors in young adulthood from features of the individual's environment, upbringing, and personality during adolescence. The project uses data from the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a two wave panel study of approximately 20,000 adolescents in grades 7 through 12. These adolescents will be re-interviewed in the year 2000, approximately five years after their initial interview. An in depth survey on binge drinking will be administered to a sample of 700 first and second year college students, with more general questions being reserved for the larger study population. The major aims of the research are (1) to conduct an in depth analysis of social psychological correlates of binge drinking in college youth, (2) to predict transitions towards and away from binge drinking of college students relative to their experiences in grade school and high school prior to attending college, and (3) to explore adolescent correlates of binge drinking during young adulthood for non-college populations.
 
 
 
 

PI: James Jaccard

Title: Bias and Validity of Self-Reports of HIV Risk Behavior

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NICHD)

Award Period: 3/1/94 - 3/31/97 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $710,526

Summary:

Given the recent increase in AIDS and HIV infection, there has been renewed interest in measuring aspects of sexual behavior that are directly relevant to the possible spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Most research relies on self reports of contraceptive and sexual behavior. Despite the primary importance of these measures, there have been relatively few studies on their validity. Self reports of single events or the frequency of events are the result of complex psychological processes that may produce biased judgments. The present research evaluates the accuracy of self report measures of risk behavior and identifies time intervals that are necessary for isolating stable individual differences in risk behavior. The research analyzes accuracy as a function of different question formats and identifies circumstances under which one question format may be superior or inferior to another. On a more theoretical level, the present research explores an explanatory model of risk behavior that is distinct from traditional models currently receiving attention. Most of these models focus on individual difference variables in the context of cross sectional, correlational designs. The present research yields data that are distinct from traditional data collection efforts and permits a careful analysis of more transitory, situational-based influences on risk behavior and how these may lead an individual to avoid risk behavior one week but perform risk behavior another week. Such weekly fluctuations cannot reflect the influence of stable individual difference variables, because the fluctuations occur for a single individual and the influence of the "stable" variable is the same from week to week. The present study interviews approximately 480 individuals about their risk behavior every week for one year. At 1, 3, 6, and 12 months into the project, individuals recall selected aspects of risk behavior since study inception. Self reports of behavioral patterns are compared with aggregates of the weekly scores to gain insights into recall accuracy. Numerous control conditions are included to evaluate monitoring and testing effects.
 

PI: James Jaccard

Title: Parent Education in Adolescent Drunk Driving

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIAAA)

Award Period: 9/01/96 - 8/31/99

Budget: Total Budget $1,043,003

Summary:

This project develops and evaluates an intervention strategy designed to reduce the drunk driving of adolescents. The approach taken is relatively novel in that the focus of the intervention is on influencing adolescent drunk driving through the parents of the adolescents. Previous research by the PI has identified empirically the kinds of information that needs to be conveyed to teenagers in order to reduce drunk driving. Such information potentially could be conveyed to the teen by parents. Thus, this research develops educational materials as an intervention program designed to teach parents how to convey information about drunk driving to their teenage sons and daughters, so as to maximize the impact of the information in reducing drunk driving. The research formally evaluates the impact of the intervention on both a short-term and long-term basis. In addition, the research identifies demographic and social-psychological correlates of parents for whom the intervention seems to be relatively successful (in terms of reducing drunk driving) versus those for whom the intervention is relatively ineffective. Finally the research evaluates, in the context of an experimental study involving change, a model of the social-psychological determinants of drunk driving in adolescents. This model has previously been tested with correlational data. The current research extends past research efforts by going beyond purely correlational data.
 

PI: James Jaccard

Title: Social Psychological Analysis of Risk Behavior

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (subcontract with University of North Carolina)

Award Period: 3/01/94 - 2/28/99

Budget: Total Budget $275,000

Summary:

This project examines potential social psychological determinants of sexual risk behavior with a focus on variables that can serve as the basis for the design of future behavioral interventions. The general framework that guides this research is designed to identify some of the primary psychological mediators of sexual and contraceptive behavior. Behaviors of interest include age at first intercourse, use of birth control at first intercourse, use of condoms at first intercourse, frequency of sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, consistency of birth control use over time (i.e., over multiple acts of sexual intercourse), and consistency of condom use over time. Relevant psychological mediators include self efficacy, problem solving orientations, perceived knowledge about birth control, actual knowledge about birth control, motivations for engaging in sex, motivations for resisting sex, and variables identified in classic decision models, such as Fishbein's expectancy-value framework and the Health Belief Model. Once identified, some of the potential determinants of these psychological mediators will be explored, focusing on parental influences. This analysis will serve as the cornerstone of the development of parent-based approaches to modifying adolescent behavior.
 
 

Krohn, Marvin


PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, and Carolyn Smith

Title: Explaining Serious, Chronic, and Violent Delinquency

Source of Funding: United States Department of Justice (OJJDP)

Award Period: 4/01/97 - 9/01/02

Budget: Total Budget $156,250

Summary:

The Rochester Youth Development Study is an ongoing panel study designed to examine the development of serious delinquency and violent behavior. It has followed a sample of high-risk youth from 1988 through 1996 and has collected extensive information about their involvement in delinquency, violence, drug use, and other problem behaviors. It has also collected extensive information on many of the basic causes and correlates of these behaviors. The proposed research will analyze data with a specific focus on improving our understanding of serious, chronic, and violent offenders.

During this three year project we will create, in collaboration with the Denver Youth Survey and the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a comprehensive and uniform data management system to service the three projects. We will also continue to analyze the data already collected as part of the Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency. As in past years, we will submit a variety of site-specific reports over the three-year funding period. Also, because of the data system to be created and this long-term support, we will be able to conduct a series of major, collaborative analyses on such topics as the identification of developmentally appropriate protective factors, developmental pathways, and the long-term consequences of juvenile justice system processing. In addition to these collaborative topics, others will be selected in consultation with OJJDP staff during the later years so that they address issues of current policy relevance.
 
 
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, and Carolyn Smith

Title: Gang Membership and Involvement in Serious and Violent Delinquency

Source of Funding: United States Department of Justice (OJJDP)

Award Period: 10/01/95 - 3/31/97 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $140,000

Summary:

Gang members are heavily involved in serious and violent delinquency and contribute disproportionately to the volume of crime in society. Despite their heavy involvement in delinquent behavior, we do not have precise estimates of what proportion of all serious and violent juvenile crime is committed by gang-involved youth. Nor do we have a firm understanding of the risk factors associated with gang membership. This research is designed to address these and related questions by analyzing data already collected as part of the Rochester Youth Development Study, an ongoing panel study of serious delinquency and drug use. The Rochester Study has traced the delinquent careers of a high-risk urban sample from ages 13-14 to ages 20-21. By using these longitudinal data we estimate the proportion of offenses attributable to gang members, compare gang members to other youth who are involved in law-violating youth groups, and examine the facilitating impact that gangs appear to have on delinquent behavior. Also, by exploiting the project's very extensive measurement space we examine both risk and protective factors associated with gang membership.
 
 
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, and Carolyn Smith

Title: A Social Network Approach to Drug Use of Minority Youth

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIDA)

Award Period: 6/01/88 - 5/31/98 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $1,636,037

Summary:

The Rochester Youth Development Study is a longitudinal examination of the causes and correlates of drug use and delinquency. Phase I of the study followed a sample of high-risk youth from the seventh and eighth grades until their eleventh and twelfth grades. This project is Phase II of the study in which subjects are followed to early adulthood. The objectives of the study are to understand the social and psychological factors associated with different stages of drug use, especially the continuation and escalation of use for many subjects that occurs at these ages and the termination of use for others. The transition from adolescence to early adulthood is a critical developmental period as individuals complete high school, move out of the parent's home, move in with new family units, acquire a full-time job, and so forth. The study examines how changes in these different life circumstances relate to drug use and delinquency. It also examines the consequences of adolescent drug use on the success of the transition to these adult roles. In addition, given the long-term nature of this panel study, these factors can be placed in a more general developmental sequence.

The sample for this study is drawn from adolescents who were attending the Rochester City School System in 1987. By oversampling high crime areas, a sample of youth who are at high risk for problem drug use and serious delinquency was acquired. The sample is comprised of 69% African American youth, 17% Hispanic (predominantly of Puerto Rican ancestry), and 14% white. Nine waves of data on these subjects were collected by the end of Phase I. The interviews with the adolescents and parents are comprehensive, covering a wide range of social and psychological factors as well as self-reported drug use, problem drug use, and delinquency. In Phase II, respondents and their primary caretaker are interviewed at annual intervals, and official data have been collected from social service, police, court, and correctional agencies. All of this information can be linked to the extensive developmental data collected about these subjects and their families during their adolescent years. The results of the study will provide one of the most extensive and comprehensive data sets assembled to investigate drug use and delinquent behavior.
 
 
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, Carolyn Smith, and Monica Rodriguez

Title: Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior*

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIMH)

Award Period: 4/98 - 5/03

Requested Budget: $4,900,000

Summary:

This study examines the development of childhood antisocial behavior in a three-generation prospective panel study. Specifically, it makes the children of the current subjects of the Rochester Youth Development Study the focal subjects of a new long-term study. Doing so will allow us to examine two general issues. The first is to describe intergenerational continuity and discontinuity in antisocial behavior across the generations for a broad spectrum of antisocial behaviors, including for each type such dimensions as onset, course, and severity. The second is to identify mediating processes to explain the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. In doing so, we capitalize on the development data we have been collecting over the past 10 years on both the parents and grandparents of the new focal subjects. Combining these data with the data from this project provides an opportunity to examine how the parent's own developmental course influences their transition to adulthood and their behavior as parents which, in turn, can be used to explain the onset and development of the child's antisocial behavior. By nesting this study within an ongoing panel study we can greatly broaden the range of the explanatory variables that can be used to explain antisocial behavior.

The study will begin with children who are at least 5 years of age in Year 1 and in each subsequent year, the new 5-year olds will be added to the sample. At annual intervals we will interview the child, the parent who has been a member of the Rochester Youth Development Study, and the child's (other) primary caregiver. We will also observe dyadic interactions between the child and each of these caregivers and data will be collected from teachers, schools, and other agencies. Measures include the parent's structural positioning and stressors, antisocial behavior and prosocial bonds, and parenting behaviors as well as the information already available about their adolescent development. The manner in which these attributes unfold over the parent's life-course will then be used to inform our understanding of the development of the child's antisocial behaviors, prosocial bonds, and their interrelationships.
 
 

Liang, Zai

PI:  Zai Liang

Title:  Market Transition and Migration in China

Source of Funding:  NICHD

Budget:  Total Budget $103,547

Summary:

The major goals of this project are to measure patterns of migration in China transition and migration networks.
 
 

Lizotte, Alan

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, and Carolyn Smith

Title: Explaining Serious, Chronic, and Violent Delinquency

Source of Funding: United States Department of Justice (OJJDP)

Award Period: 4/01/97 - 9/01/02

Budget: Total Budget $156,250

Summary:

The Rochester Youth Development Study is an ongoing panel study designed to examine the development of serious delinquency and violent behavior. It has followed a sample of high-risk youth from 1988 through 1996 and has collected extensive information about their involvement in delinquency, violence, drug use, and other problem behaviors. It has also collected extensive information on many of the basic causes and correlates of these behaviors. The proposed research will analyze data with a specific focus on improving our understanding of serious, chronic, and violent offenders.

During this three year project we will create, in collaboration with the Denver Youth Survey and the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a comprehensive and uniform data management system to service the three projects. We will also continue to analyze the data already collected as part of the Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency. As in past years, we will submit a variety of site-specific reports over the three-year funding period. Also, because of the data system to be created and this long-term support, we will be able to conduct a series of major, collaborative analyses on such topics as the identification of developmentally appropriate protective factors, developmental pathways, and the long-term consequences of juvenile justice system processing. In addition to these collaborative topics, others will be selected in consultation with OJJDP staff during the later years so that they address issues of current policy relevance.
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, and Carolyn Smith

Title: Gang Membership and Involvement in Serious and Violent Delinquency

Source of Funding: United States Department of Justice (OJJDP)

Award Period: 10/01/95 - 3/31/97 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $140,000

Summary:

Gang members are heavily involved in serious and violent delinquency and contribute disproportionately to the volume of crime in society. Despite their heavy involvement in delinquent behavior, we do not have precise estimates of what proportion of all serious and violent juvenile crime is committed by gang-involved youth. Nor do we have a firm understanding of the risk factors associated with gang membership. This research is designed to address these and related questions by analyzing data already collected as part of the Rochester Youth Development Study, an ongoing panel study of serious delinquency and drug use. The Rochester Study has traced the delinquent careers of a high-risk urban sample from ages 13-14 to ages 20-21. By using these longitudinal data we estimate the proportion of offenses attributable to gang members, compare gang members to other youth who are involved in law-violating youth groups, and examine the facilitating impact that gangs appear to have on delinquent behavior. Also, by exploiting the project's very extensive measurement space we examine both risk and protective factors associated with gang membership.
 
 
 
 
 

PI: Alan Lizotte and Terence Thornberry

Title: Illicit Gun Markets and Juveniles -- Breaking the Cycle of Violence

Source of Funding: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (subcontract with Carnegie Mellon University)

Award Period: 1/01/96 - 12/31/98

Budget: Total Budget $91,314

Summary:

This project collects special data related to gun involvement from 1,000 members of a cohort of adolescents participating in the Rochester Youth Development Study. In addition to interviews with cohort members, data are collected from the Rochester, New York Police Department, including any record data relating to firearms and offenders charged with firearm violations that are not available in computerized form. During Years 1 and 2 of the project the gun interview questions are designed and the data are collected. During Year 3, the data are analyzed and research reports prepared.
 
 
 
 
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, Carolyn Smith, and Monica Rodriguez

Title: Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior*

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIMH)

Award Period: 4/98 - 5/03

Requested Budget: $4,900,000

Summary:

This study examines the development of childhood antisocial behavior in a three-generation prospective panel study. Specifically, it makes the children of the current subjects of the Rochester Youth Development Study the focal subjects of a new long-term study. Doing so will allow us to examine two general issues. The first is to describe intergenerational continuity and discontinuity in antisocial behavior across the generations for a broad spectrum of antisocial behaviors, including for each type such dimensions as onset, course, and severity. The second is to identify mediating processes to explain the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. In doing so, we capitalize on the development data we have been collecting over the past 10 years on both the parents and grandparents of the new focal subjects. Combining these data with the data from this project provides an opportunity to examine how the parent's own developmental course influences their transition to adulthood and their behavior as parents which, in turn, can be used to explain the onset and development of the child's antisocial behavior. By nesting this study within an ongoing panel study we can greatly broaden the range of the explanatory variables that can be used to explain antisocial behavior.

The study will begin with children who are at least 5 years of age in Year 1 and in each subsequent year, the new 5-year olds will be added to the sample. At annual intervals we will interview the child, the parent who has been a member of the Rochester Youth Development Study, and the child's (other) primary caregiver. We will also observe dyadic interactions between the child and each of these caregivers and data will be collected from teachers, schools, and other agencies. Measures include the parent's structural positioning and stressors, antisocial behavior and prosocial bonds, and parenting behaviors as well as the information already available about their adolescent development. The manner in which these attributes unfold over the parent's life-course will then be used to inform our understanding of the development of the child's antisocial behaviors, prosocial bonds, and their interrelationships.
 
 
 

PI: Terence Thornberry, Marvin Krohn, Alan Lizotte, and Carolyn Smith

Title: A Social Network Approach to Drug Use of Minority Youth

Source of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIDA)

Award Period: 6/01/88 - 5/31/98 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $1,636,037

Summary:

The Rochester Youth Development Study is a longitudinal examination of the causes and correlates of drug use and delinquency. Phase I of the study followed a sample of high-risk youth from the seventh and eighth grades until their eleventh and twelfth grades. This project is Phase II of the study in which subjects are followed to early adulthood. The objectives of the study are to understand the social and psychological factors associated with different stages of drug use, especially the continuation and escalation of use for many subjects that occurs at these ages and the termination of use for others. The transition from adolescence to early adulthood is a critical developmental period as individuals complete high school, move out of the parent's home, move in with new family units, acquire a full-time job, and so forth. The study examines how changes in these different life circumstances relate to drug use and delinquency. It also examines the consequences of adolescent drug use on the success of the transition to these adult roles. In addition, given the long-term nature of this panel study, these factors can be placed in a more general developmental sequence.

The sample for this study is drawn from adolescents who were attending the Rochester City School System in 1987. By oversampling high crime areas, a sample of youth who are at high risk for problem drug use and serious delinquency was acquired. The sample is comprised of 69% African American youth, 17% Hispanic (predominantly of Puerto Rican ancestry), and 14% white. Nine waves of data on these subjects were collected by the end of Phase I. The interviews with the adolescents and parents are comprehensive, covering a wide range of social and psychological factors as well as self-reported drug use, problem drug use, and delinquency. In Phase II, respondents and their primary caretaker are interviewed at annual intervals, and official data have been collected from social service, police, court, and correctional agencies. All of this information can be linked to the extensive developmental data collected about these subjects and their families during their adolescent years. The results of the study will provide one of the most extensive and comprehensive data sets assembled to investigate drug use and delinquent behavior.
 
 
 
 
 

Logan, John

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

PI: John Logan, Scott South, Christopher J.  Smith and Jennifer Rudolph

Title:  Urban China Research Network*

Source of Funding:  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Award Period:  4/01/00 - 9/30/03

Budget:  Total Budget $480,000

Summary:

The major goals of this project are to reinforce the emerging field of research on urban China, including rural-urban and return migration, restructuring of cities, provision of services, changes in the stratification system, development of a market for housing and real estate, and other broad changes in China’s urban system.
 
 

PI:  John Logan

Title:  Urban Studies and Demography of China*

Source of Funding:  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Award Period:  7/1/02 – 12/31/05

Budget:  $100,000

Summary:

The major goal of this project is to organize conferences and workshops to create new connections between urban China researchers and scholars who have studied comparable issues in other research settings.
 

PI: John Logan

Title:  Immigration, Ethnicity and the Family:  1900-1920*

Source of Funding:  NICHD

Award Period:  9/01/00 - 6/01/04

Budget:  Total Budget $1,009,779

Summary:

This study examines the family behaviors - ethnic intermarriage and living arrangements of parents and their grown children - of people in Chicago between 1900 and 1920.  It uses two sorts of data.  The first is the series of IPUMS public use samples of the census, 1900-1910-1920, analyzed cross-sectionally.  The second is a sample of 6500 men and women drawn from the 1920 IPUMS and linked back to their records in the 1910 and 1900 censuses, using standard genealogical methods.  These data will be analyzed as a three-wave panel.

The principal questions to be addressed arise from the assimilation model of immigrant and migrant adaptation.  This model posits a process of increasing similarity to the family patterns characterizing the host society.  Evidence of such a process would be found in differences between older and newer immigrant groups, differences among individuals by years or generations in the U.S. (or, for blacks, in the North), and effects of other key indicatiors of assimilation such as occupational, and residential location, naturalization, and speaking English.  The study distinguishes racial and ethnic groups (based on race, state or country of birth, and mother tongue) according to generation (for blacks, the comparison is between 1st and 2nd and later generation Northerners; for whites, it is between 1st, 2nd, and later generation Americans).
 
 

PI: John Logan

Title: Group Boundaries in New York and Chicago, 1900-1920*

Source: National Science Foundation

Award Period: 9/15/02 - 8/31/04

Budget:  $$52,525

Summary:
This project studies the residential and labor force positions of ethnic and racial groups in New York and Chicago, at the turn of the 20th Century. The principal questions involve the degree to which blacks and/or the main immigrant groups - Germans, Irish, Italians, Russians, and Poles - were segregated into specific neighborhoods and occupational niches, and the extent of their mobility over the life cycle and across generations. Previously untapped data on the racial and ethnic compositions of census tracts in New York and Chicago in 1920 will be linked to individual and household records from the newly available 1920 IPUMS file (including each household's address and census enumeration district), making possible the estimation of individual-level models of residential attainment. Labor force patterns will be analyzed in terms of occupational clustering and segregation, levels of occupational standing, and the existence of ethnic economies based on concentrated group ownership and employment in certain sectors. The project also includes record linkages between 1920 and 1900 census information for a random sample of 4,000 residents of each city.
 

PI: John Logan

Title: Group Boundaries in New York and Chicago: New Uses of the 1880 Census*

Source: National Science Foundation

Award Period: 9/15/02 - 8/31/04

Budget:  $52,525

Summary:
 
 

PI:  John Logan

Title:  Diversity and Separation in American Neighborhoods

Source of Funding:  The Ford Foundation

Award Period:   8/1/01 – 7/31/04

Budget:  $100,000

Summary:

The major goals of this project are to provide easy access to information from Census 2000 relevant to understanding race and class divisions in American society, and to facilitate public reporting of these findings.
 
 
 
 

PI:  John Logan

Title:  Economic Revitalization through Technology and Education-Based Institutions

Award Period:  10/01/00 - 1/01/02

Budget:  Total Budget $85,000
 
 
 
 

PI: John Logan and Richard Alba

Title: Residential Patterns of Minorities in the Metropolis

Source of Funding: National Science Foundation

Award Period: 5/01/96 - 4/30/98 (with extension)

Budget: Total Budget $174,300

Summary:

Analysis of segregation indices has provided insight into the changing residential patterns of racial and ethnic groups in metropolitan areas, lending support to models of assimilation and racial stratification. This project examines two important aspects of residential patterns that are only indirectly captured by that approach. The first is the geographic configuration of areas of minority group concentration as "ethnic" or "minority" neighborhoods. The second is the determinants of individual locational choices and outcomes. The study includes New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the 1980-1990 period. The racial and ethnic groups studied are whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians in these regions, with additional distinctions among the major white ethnic groups (such as Italians, Irish, Germans) and among national-origin subgroups among Hispanics (e.g., Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans), Asians (e.g., Chinese, Koreans), and blacks (treating separately blacks from the larger non-U.S. origin groups such as the English-speaking Caribbean and Haitians). Many of these subgroups are well represented in the three regions. The research design allows the testing of hypotheses drawn from more recent sociological theories, including the underclass and the ethnic enclave models.

The project begins with calculation of descriptive measures of the extent of segregation in each area (which can be usefully compared between city and suburban portions of the metropolis, between 1980 and 1990, and between the various racial and ethnic minority groups). The more innovative research steps taken by the project include: (1) The identification of neighborhoods -- that is, sets of proximate census tracts -- in which a particular group is over-represented in each region -- in terms of such characteristics as social class and presence of other racial/ethnic groups. (2) The analysis of determinants of residence in these neighborhoods. For members of a given group, models will be estimated to predict the likelihood of living in one of the group's neighborhoods. Predictors include indicators of socioeconomic status (education, income, employment) and cultural assimilation (particularly nativity, language use, and intermarriage). (3) The analysis of more general locational issues, including integration with the white majority and the income level and crime rate of people's neighborhoods.
 
 
 
 
 

Loscocco, Karyn


PI: Karyn Loscocco

Title: Gender and Small Business Success

Source of Funding: National Science Foundation

Award Period: 1/1/97 - 7/31/98

Requested Budget: $150,151

Summary:

The small business arena, a growing sector of the economy which women have been entering in record numbers, provides an important context in which to examine fundamental theoretical issues of gender, work and family. This project combines a survey and intensive interviews with small business owners in upstate New York. The study is organized around two interrelated questions: 1) Through what mechanisms do structural and individual variables contribute to inequality between men and women owners? 2) How does family intersect with work to shape the economic and personal lives of these women and men?

This project charts new territory in four major ways. First, it traces the specific ways in which a broad range of structural and individual variables combine to affect both economic and personal outcomes -- such as emotional well-being. Particular attention is paid to the direct and indirect paths through which personal and family characteristics affect both economic and personal success. Second, this study brings together such seemingly disparate areas of inquiry as the economics of small business, work-family linkages, gender and reasoning, and emotional well-being. Such integration should enhance understanding not only of gender and small business ownership, but of the dynamics of gender, work and family more generally. Third, key work and family issues are examined from the provocative perspective of women and men who have more control than most over all aspects of their work, including the boundaries between work and family. Finally, the use of both quantitative and qualitative research techniques will enhance the quality of the data and the strength of the conclusions.
 
 

McNutt, Louise-Anne

PI:  Louise-Anne McNutt

Title:  Estimating Relative Risk in Studies with Common Outcomes*

Source of Funding:  Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH)

Budget:  Total Budget $70,948

Summary:

The major goal of this project is to compare statistical methods of estimating relative risks in populations where an outcome occurs frequently.
 

PI:  Louise-Anne McNutt

Title:  Evaluation of an Intimate Partner Violence Intervention*

Source of Funding: Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH)

Budget:  Total Budget $71,255

Summary:

The major goals of this project are to implement and evaluate a program to reduce violence between intimate partners and its effects on women’s health.
 

Messner, Steven

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

PI:  Steven F. Messner, Glenn D. Deane

Title:  Criminal Violence, Employment Levels, and Population Change:  An Examination of Spatio-Temporal Variation and Reciprocal
Causal Effects

Source of Funding:  NCOVR

Award Period:  1/01/01 - 5/01/02

Budget:  Total Budget $81,149

Summary:  The purpose of the proposed research is to examine the spatial and temporal variation in criminal violence, employment levels, and population changes for US counties over the latter part of the 20th century.  Our general objectives are to search for patterns that are suggestive of difuusion processes and to model reciprocal causal relations.  The research will employ a panal data design based on annual observations for metropolitan and surrounding counties over the 1969-98 period.  The analyses will integrate newly developed exploratory and descriptive methods for spatial analyses with state-of-the art space-time regression techniques.
 

PI: Steven Messner, Glenn Deane, and Stewart Tolnay

Title: The Spatial Patterning of County Homicide Rates During the Post-War Era: An Analysis of Diffusion Effects

Source of Funding: Carnegie Mellon University, National Consortium on Violence Research (NSF)

Award Period: 1/1/98 - 5/31/99

Requested Budget: $56,345

Summary:

A large social science literature has demonstrated substantial variation in the levels of homicide across areas of the United States. This literature has shown that homicide levels are predicted quite well by such structural characteristics as poverty, age structure, inequality, and family structure. Theoretical arguments, especially those emphasizing cultural influences, have also been advanced suggesting that homicide might be usefully viewed as a "contagious" social process likely to spread from one area to another. However, virtually no empirical research has examined the extent to which lethal violence actually "diffuses" across geographic boundaries - independently of structural characteristics.

This project examines the spatial patterning of homicide rates across U.S. counties during the post World War II period. It seeks to determine whether areas with high (or low) homicide rates tend to cluster together in a spatial pattern suggestive of diffusion. A positive diffusion effect is hypothesized (i.e. areas with high homicide levels are proximate to one another) -- after key structural similarities across areas are taken into consideration. A set of hypotheses, drawn from influential criminological theories, are identified to explain the operation of diffusion effects on homicide, as well as to explain possible regional patterns and temporal shifts in the positive diffusion effect. Evidence consistent with a significant diffusion effect on homicide rates would strongly suggest that cultural forces complement structural ones in the etiology of homicide, and it would significantly further our understanding of the processes through which some areas exhibit higher levels of homicide than others.

The project uses county-level data for five decade years in the post-War period, 1950 - 1990. Separate analyses are conducted for each decade, using a spatial effects model to determine whether there is an areal diffusion of homicide rates, net of structural similarities across areas. In addition, a pooled cross-sectional, time series analysis is conducted to assess the significance of changes in any diffusion effect over time, or between major regions of the country (South-nonSouth).
 

PI: Steven Messner

Title: Social Capital and Homicide: Merging Aggregated Survey Data with Official Statistics

Source of Funding: Carnegie Mellon University (subcontract from NSF-supported National Consortium on Violence Research)

Award Period: 6/1/1999 - 5/31/2000

Amount: $35, 092 (Albany subcontract)

Summary:

This project evaluates the relationship between homicide rates and levels of social capital for a nationally representative sample of U.S. communities. Social capital refers generally to cooperative relationships that facilitate the attainment of collective goals, and produced by high levels of interpersonal trust and civic engagement. In a key methodo