Digital Commons Network^™

A Nationally Representative Dataset Of 1,549 Americans Aged 18 To 94 On Interest In, Experience With, And Barriers To Cogeneration, Defined As Working With Older And Younger People For Social Good, Cal J. Halvorsen, Bruce Kelley, Jim Emerman, Stefanie Weiss, David Gleicher, Jacob Stolmeier, Mark Lush

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

This dataset focuses on Americans’ interest in, experience with, and perceived barriers to working with members of other generations to improve the world around them. It includes responses from a March 2022 survey of 1,549 people between the ages of 18 and 94 who lived in the U.S. using the NORC at the University of Chicago AmeriSpeak® Panel. To increase the representativeness of the sample, the survey was offered both online and by phone. The sample is drawn from a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population. Questions focused on respondents’ efforts (paid or volunteer) to …

Disparate Financial Assistance Support For Small Business Owners, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Daniel Auguste, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Small business owners experienced a drastic economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Government pandemic assistance failed to reach many small business owners, especially those historically underserved by financial institutions. Drawing on a 2021 survey of 246 small business owners, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis descriptively examined the extent to which small business owners sought and received business assistance, and whether applications and approval of government assistance varied by race and ethnicity. We find that though Hispanic and Black business owners applied for government assistance at a higher rate than white business owners, Black business …

Financial Facts From The Seed For Oklahoma Kids Child Development Account Experiment, Center For Social Development

Center for Social Development Research

How does a Child Development Account (CDA) opened at a child’s birth shape their access to assets for higher education?

This Fact Sheet highlights findings from Financial Outcomes in a Child Development Account Experiment: Full Inclusion, Success Regardless of Race or Income, and Investment Growth for All (CSD Research Summary 21-06). Products of the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment, both the Fact Sheet and the Research Summary indicate that the automatic CDA in SEED OK greatly increases the likelihood that disadvantaged children have assets for their future education. When given a CDA structure and support for …

Racial/Ethnic Differences In The Relationship Between Wealth And Health, Sicong Sun

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Racial wealth inequity is one of the most pressing social and economic issues in the United States, historically and contemporarily. Primarily due to unequal distribution of opportunity for economic advancement and mobility in addition to the accumulation of historic disadvantage endured by Black and Latinx Americans, U.S. racial wealth inequity leads to substantial racial health disparities. It is widely acknowledged that socioeconomic position (SEP) is a fundamental cause of disease and health disparities. Centering around three key constructs—race/ethnicity, wealth, and health—this dissertation had two overarching aims: (a) to investigate the relationship between wealth and health, delineating the effects of wealth …

Environment And Health In Nigeria: Capacity And Research Development, Christine C. Ekenga, Lisa Reyes Mason, Adetoun Mustapha

Center for Social Development Research

In Africa, population growth, urbanization, and climate change are environmental health challenges of emerging concern. These challenges intersect in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. Because of gaps in research capacity, data collection, and research funding, data are lacking on extreme weather’s effects on health there.

This brief describes a project to promote the development of collaborative capacity and research in environmental epidemiology in Nigeria. The project will also produce new knowledge on the physical and mental health impacts of weather extremes among residents of Nigeria’s coastal cities, including Lagos, Africa’s most populous city. The project is designed to improve public …

Homegrown Stl 4th Annual Regional Summit On The State Of Opportunities For Black Boys And Young Men: Closing The Health, Growth, And Opportunity Gaps, Sean Joe, Maribeth Clifton, Demeisha Carlton-Brown

Center for Social Development Research

Convened annually, HomeGrown StL’s annual regional summit brings together service providers, government officials, private-sector partners, and residents to strengthen, align, and accelerate local collective-impact strategies that support the health, development, and economic mobility of Black boys and young men in St. Louis City and in St. Louis County.

This report summarizes developments from the 4th Regional Summit on the State of Opportunities for Black Boys and Young Men: Closing the Healing, Growth, & Opportunity Gaps, which convened June 3, 2021. Priority Objectives and Key Results developed during the summit are described. In addition, the report details the progress of HomeGrown …

Paid Sick Leave Heading Into Covid-19: A Descriptive Account Of Workers Who Lacked Paid Sick Leave, David Rothwell, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Paid sick leave is vital for controlling the spread of illness in the workplace and an invaluable public health tool, but too few workers have access to it. In this brief, we examine the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to assess paid sick leave coverage with a focus on the social and economic characteristics of workers without paid leave.

Using a nationally representative survey with roughly 4,000 working respondents, we found that a third lacked access to paid sick leave. Workers without paid leave were younger, more likely to be female, more likely to be white, and less likely to …

Vaccine Hesitance During Covid-19: Exploring Motivations And Incentives, Laura Brugger, Stephen Roll, Katie Kristensen, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

As rates of vaccination have slowed, concerns are growing about how to increase vaccine uptake among those who are vaccine hesitant, particularly with the emergence of new and contagious variants such as Delta. Using our national Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey, we examine the predictors of vaccine hesitance in the U.S. and report on findings from an experiment assessing the potential impacts of vaccine incentive schemes.

Our study points to the difficulties in overcoming vaccine hesitance among the unvaccinated. Vaccine hesitance was common across income levels, and experience with COVID-19-related hardships—such as knowing someone who died of the disease or …

Did Government Benefits Help Israeli Households Avoid Hardship During Covid-19? Evidence From A National Survey, Olga Kondratjeva, Talia Schwartz-Tayri, Sam Bufe, Stephen Roll, John Gal, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of Israel quickly introduced aggressive social distancing measures to curb the virus spread and adapted its unemployment insurance program in response to rising unemployment rates. This study examines the relationship between household income and the experience of material hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel, and investigates how the receipt of unemployment benefits moderated the relationship between income and material hardship. Using data from a household survey, we find a negative association between household income and the experience of material hardship. Moreover, middle-income households receiving unemployment benefits were more likely to …

Targeted Deposits In Pennsylvania’S Keystone Scholars Child Development Account Program, Anne Dececco, Julie Peachey, Margaret M. Clancy

Center for Social Development Research

In 2018, Pennsylvania became the first state to legislate a statewide, automatic CDA for all children at birth. In 2021, Pennsylvania achieved another first: an automatic targeted deposit within the Keystone Scholars program to build wealth for financially vulnerable children.

This brief examines two new targeted policy initiatives being piloted for Pennsylvania mothers who participate in WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. The Bright Future Booster and Milestone pilots represent important steps in expanding the Keystone Scholars program and serving as models for other states. Pennsylvania Treasury and the PA 529 make this CDA policy …

Expanded Child Tax Credit Payments Have Not Reduced Employment, Stephen Roll, Leah Hamilton, Yung Chun

Social Policy Institute Research

Approximately 60 million American children living in 35 million households are now receiving monthly payments from the federal government as part of the temporary Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion. Recently, a debate has emerged over whether or not the expanded CTC will cause parents to leave the workforce. On one side of the debate, a large number of economists have argued that the CTC will not cause a reduction in employment. However, a recent study used a simulation approach to estimate that 2.6% of parents will exit the labor force as a result of the CTC.

The reports below address …

Employment Changes During Covid-19, Mathieu Despard, Sam Bufe, Stephen Roll, Katie Kristensen

Social Policy Institute Research

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. unemployment peaked at 14.4%. While some workers have returned to payrolls, others have been left behind. This brief examines the nuances of employment changes over the course of the pandemic and the impact of those changes on household financial well-being. Our study finds that the proportion of employees who were laid off peaked in the spring of 2020 and has only recently returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, self-employment rose during the pandemic by 42% between the springs of 2020 and 2021. In households where someone lost a job during the pandemic, rates of financial …

Housing Hardships During Covid-19, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Yung Chun, Stephen Roll, Katie Kristensen, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. households were burdened by the cost of rental and mortgage payments, burdens which disproportionately fell on Black and Hispanic families. Using a 5-wave survey, we examined whether disparities in housing cost burden continued throughout the pandemic and trends in how households fell behind on rent and mortgage payments. We found that more than a third of households experienced housing cost burdens during the pandemic, with a slightly higher percentage of households of color bearing cost burdens than white households. Renters had greater cost burdens than homeowners.

During the pandemic, significantly more Black and …

The Socioeconomic Impacts Of Covid-19 Study: Survey Methodology Report, Stephen Roll, Sam Bufe, Yung Chun, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and economic shutdowns began in March 2020, households across the United States were faced with an unprecedented crisis that would affect their health, financial security and overall well-being for an unforeseeable amount of time. In order to examine and track the wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic on households, as well as the efficacy of different public and private efforts to mitigate these impacts, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis (SPI) launched the Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (SEICS) in the United States just weeks after the pandemic became a national …

Employment, Financial And Well-Being Effects Of The 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit: Wave 1 Executive Summary, Leah Hamilton, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Elaine Maag

Social Policy Institute Research

The 2021 temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) is unprecedented in its reach and is predicted to cut American child poverty by more than half. The expanded CTC provides families with $3,600 for every child in the household under the age of six, and $3,000 for every child between the ages of six and 17. Almost all middle- and low-income families with children are eligible for the CTC. Married parents making less than $150,000 and single parents making less than $112,500 per year will receive the full amount of the credit, which begins to phase out slowly after …

Utilization Patterns Of Community-Based Mental Health Services Among School-Going Adolescent Girls In Southwestern Uganda., William Byansi

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONGlobally an estimated 20% of children and adolescents experience a disabling mental illness (Belfer, 2008). Mental health disorders are the second leading cause of disease burden and the eleventh leading cause in older adolescents (15-19 years). Yet, children and adolescents are over-represented in low-resourced countries and settings often characterized by violence, wars, diseases, physical and sexual abuse, all of which are associated with poor mental health functioning (Kieling et al., 2011; Naker, 2005). Moreover, in LMICs the treatment gap is about 93% of individuals without access to mental health services with virtually no coverage of evidence-based interventions …

Impact Of Care Practices On The Food Security And Nutritional Status Of Ethnic Minority Children With Work-Away Parents In Rural China, Yiqi Zhu

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Background and significance: Zero Hunger as the second Sustainable Development Goal builds crucial foundation to achieve other sustainable development goals and is a key approach to the Social Work Grand Challenges. In China, there is a huge gap between in nutritional well-being between urban and rural children. Among all the rural Children, ethnic minority children often live in the poverty-stricken regions have parents work away in urban regions. Their nutritional well-being is understudied. Improve the well-being of ethnic minorities children with work-away parents and closing the nutrition gaps of the rural and urban become the key for China to further …

Patterns And Trends Among Intimate Partner Homicide Cases: An Analysis By Victim’S Sex And Race/Ethnicity, Shih-Ying Cheng

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Data suggest sex and race/ethnicity disparities in intimate partner homicide (IPH) and different trends in the IPH rates over time by sex and racial/ethnic groups. It is, however, less clear how to explain the disparities using the existing literature. This dissertation investigates the patterns and trends among IPH cases with a focus on differences within and between victims’ sex and race/ethnicity subgroups using the National Violent Death Reporting System, Restricted Access Database (NVDRS-RAD). Data were linked to Census and policy data using the geographic indicator in the NVDRS-RAD. Latent class analysis (LCA) and mixed-effects modeling were performed to identify patterns …

The Case For A Nationwide Child Development Account Policy: A Policy Brief Developed By Cda Experts And Researchers, José Cisneros, Margaret M. Clancy, William Elliott Iii, Amanda Feinstein, Martha Kanter, Muneer Karcher-Ramos, Clint Kugler, Julie Peachey, Colleen Quint, Thomas M. Shapiro, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

In this policy brief, prominent Child Development Account (CDA) experts and researchers present the case for a nationwide policy to provide CDAs and build assets for all children in the United States. The authors identify principles for CDA policy design. In a companion brief, they discuss policy and practice changes to make college savings (529) plans far more inclusive.

Redesigning College Savings (529) Plans To Achieve Inclusive Child Development Accounts: A Policy Brief Developed By Cda Experts And Researchers, José Cisneros, Margaret M. Clancy, William Elliott Iii, Amanda Feinstein, Martha Kanter, Muneer Karcher-Ramos, Clint Kugler, Julie Peachey, Colleen Quint, Thomas M. Shapiro, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

In this policy brief, prominent Child Development Account (CDA) experts and researchers recommend changes in policies and practices for state college savings (529) plans. If adopted, the changes would make possible the use of the 529 plans to deliver CDAs for all children in the United States. In a companion brief, they present the case for a nationwide CDA policy and identify design principles.

Reflections Of A Central Bank Governor, Ernest K. Addison

Center for Social Development Research

Central banks seldom play central roles in the strategies that researchers and practitioners formulate for fostering financial capability in marginalized populations, but in this Perspective, by Dr. Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, illustrates that the work of those banks is “inextricably linked” to financial capability.

This Perspective presents remarks offered by Dr. Addison as part of the event marking the launch of Financial Capability and Asset Building in Africa (FCAB Africa). Participants gathered virtually for the start of this multinational collaboration in a session of the 22nd biennial conference of the International Consortium for Social Development, which …

Fcab Africa: Summary Of Achievements As Of July 2021, Center For Social Development

Center for Social Development Research

Financial Capability and Asset Building in Africa (FCAB Africa) is a multinational collaboration designed (a) to equip human-service professionals to broaden the financial stability, security, and well-being of client populations in sub-Saharan Africa; and (b) to work with financial-service providers to create a comprehensive financial-development program delivered through existing services, including fintech. This Fact Sheet describes the goals of the FCAB Africa initiative and strategy for achieving them.

Lessons On Policies That Strengthen Household Financial Resilience To Overcome Shocks: A Keynote Address By Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President Of The Republic Of Ghana, Mahamudu Bawumia Phd

Center for Social Development Research

This Perspective presents remarks given by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, on July 15, 2021. He delivered this keynote address during FCAB Africa: The Launch of a Multinational Collaboration, an event marking the beginning of the Financial Capability and Asset Building in Africa (FCAB Africa) initiative. Vice President Bawumia drew lessons from pandemic policy and issued a call to broaden access to beneficial financial services and the knowledge and skills required to make optimal financial decisions.

Fcab Africa: Advancing Financial Stability, Security, And Well-Being, Center For Social Development

Center for Social Development Research

In sub-Saharan Africa, mobile phones and financial technology have opened doors to financial inclusion for millions, but the new financial terrain is uneven ground fraught with risks. High fees, aggressive marketing, mounting personal debt, varied digital access, and nascent regulatory structures heighten vulnerability and threaten hard-won progress toward broad financial inclusion. Financial Capability and Asset Building in Africa, or FCAB Africa, will equip human-service professionals to broaden financial stability, security, and well-being in sub-Saharan Africa, developing the financial capability of service populations and cultivating sound financial strategies. The initiative will also work with financial-service providers to create a comprehensive financial-development …

Financial Capability And Asset Building: Achievements, Challenges, And Next Steps, Johnson Lissa, Margaret S. Sherraden, Gena Gunn Mcclendon, Julie Birkenmaier, Jodi Frey, Christine Callahan, Jin Huang

Center for Social Development Research

In the midst of a global pandemic that brought untold numbers of families to a financial precipice, experts came together to examine the role of social work in ensuring financial security and equity for all. This conference report details the most recent of five Financial Capability and Asset Building (FCAB) conferences held since 2015. The two-part virtual conference, held in September 2020 and February 2021, convened leaders in the academy and in the field to discuss achievements, challenges, and next steps in FCAB.

Racism-Based Trauma And Policing Among Black Emerging Adults, Robert Motley

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Community violence exposure (CVE) among Black emerging adults ages 18-29 in the United States is a major public health concern. However, an unknown is the nature of the relationship between Black emerging adults CVE and substance use when the perpetrator(s) of the violence are the police and the violence is experienced as a race-based traumatic event. The Classes of Racism Frequency of Racial Experiences (CRFRE) measure assesses individuals’ exposure to perceived racism-based events. However, the CRFRE hostile-racism scale does not capture the range of police violent events that are most salient for a population. To fill the noted gaps in …

Exploring The Service Utilization Of Formerly Incarcerated Persons With Substance Use Disorders, Sara Beeler-Stinn

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

We are in a new era of mass reentry from years of mass incarceration (Chamberlain & Wallace, 2016) that will is complicated by challenging conditions at release (Mallik-Kane & Visher, 2008). Recent data suggests that rearrest rates within nine years of release are over 80% among individuals released from prison (Alper et al., 2018). These challenges are further complicated by drug and alcohol abuse with over 20 million individuals aged 12 and older reporting living with a substance use disorder (SAMSHA, 2019). Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations are estimated to have rates of substance use disorders (SUDs) often 10 to …

Racial Disparities In U.S. Childhood And Adolescent Cancer Diagnosis And Survival, Xiaoyan Wang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In 2020, an estimated 16,850 new cases and 1,730 cancer deaths are expected to occur in U.S. children and adolescents under 20 years of age. Childhood cancer is rare compared to cancers in adults. However, it is the most common disease-related cause of death among children and adolescents, accounting for approximately 13% of all childhood deaths in 2015. Although the overall five-year survival rate for childhood and adolescent cancers has increased to 85%, largely due to advances in treatment, supportive care, and high rates of participation in clinical trials, racial/ethnic disparities in cancer diagnosis and prognosis remain a big concern. …

Examining Mental Health In Northern Haiti, Michael Galvin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Mental health is a severely neglected field in low- and middle-income countries globally. Populations in countries such as Haiti demonstrate a high level of need for mental health services despite a lack of services and trained professionals. In addition to the dearth of biomedical services, local belief systems and explanatory models lead a majority of the population to rely on traditional medicine as their first option for care. The goal of this dissertation is to characterize mental health beliefs, practices, and services in northern Haiti by examining the relationship between traditional beliefs and mental illness, assessing the impact of traumatic …

Finding Peace: Aging, Solidarity, And Min-Iren, Aaron Hames

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnography of elderly life in Japan. Aging populations present serious challenges to societies in the provision of care and support for the elderly. As household sizes shrink and kin disperses, networks of support and informal care premised on familial involvement may no longer suffice. States encounter budgetary strains as the proportion of workers to elderly skews toward the latter. In Japan, these problems are present and have been exacerbated by shortages of professional care workers and long-term facilities for the elderly. However, the elderly have proved strategic and adaptive in relation to population aging in other …