Inequality and Stratification Commons^™

The Contribution Of Racism-Related Stress And Adversity To Disparities In Birth Outcomes: Evidence And Research Recommendations, Sabrina R. Liu, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Currently, racial and ethnic differences in adverse birth outcomes and infant mortality are some of the largest and most persistent health disparities in the United States. This narrative review article synthesizes existing literature to present a conceptual model of how racism-related stress and adversity are critical determinants of such disparities. We describe how historical and ongoing racism has created conditions wherein women of color are disproportionately exposed to chronic, multilayered stress and adversity and how the biological consequences of exposure to these stressors confers risk for adverse birth outcomes. Next, we identify important priorities and considerations for future research, including …

Spatial Disparities: The Role Of Nativity In Neighborhood Exposure To Alcohol And Tobacco Retailers, Georgiana Bostean, Luis A. Sánchez, Jason A. Douglas

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Studies of retail environment, one of the social determinants of health, document racial/ethnic disparities in exposure to alcohol and tobacco (A and T) retailers, but have largely overlooked nativity. We examined associations between A and T retailer density and rates of foreign-born Latinx and foreign-born Asian residents in California census tracts (N = 7888), using spatial regressions and controlling for population and ecological confounders (e.g., population density, zoning, residential instability, urbanicity). Socio-demographic data came from the American Community Survey (2012–2016); census tract density of A and T retailers came from geocoded addresses from state license data for off-sale alcohol distributors …

What Predicts How Safe People Feel In Their Neighborhoods And Does It Depend On Functional Status?, Alfredo J. Velasquez, Jason A. Douglas, Fangqi Guo, Jennifer W. Robinette

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Feeling unsafe in one's neighborhood is related to poor health. Features of the neighborhood environment have been suggested to inform perceptions of neighborhood safety. Yet, the relative contribution of these features (e.g., uneven sidewalks, crime, perceived neighborhood physical disorder) on perceived neighborhood safety, particularly among people with disabilities who may view themselves as more vulnerable, is not well understood. We examined whether sidewalk quality assessed by third party raters, county-level crime rates, and perceived neighborhood disorder would relate to neighborhood safety concerns, and whether functional limitations would exacerbate these links. Using data from the 2012/2014 waves of the Health and …

Can I Buy My Health? A Genetically Informed Study Of Socioeconomic Status And Health, Jennifer W. Robinette, Christopher R. Beam, Tara L. Gruenewald

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

A large literature demonstrates associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, including physiological health and well-being. Moreover, gender differences are often observed among measures of both SES and health. However, relationships between SES and health are sometimes questioned given the lack of true experiments, and the potential biological and SES mechanisms explaining gender differences in health are rarely examined simultaneously.

Purpose

To use a national sample of twins to investigate lifetime socioeconomic adversity and a measure of physiological dysregulation separately by sex.

Methods

Using the twin sample in the second wave of the Midlife in the United States survey …

Neighborhood Safety Concerns And Daily Well-Being: A National Diary Study, Jennifer W. Robinette, Jennifer R. Piazza, Robert S. Stawski

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

People living in unsafe neighborhoods often report poor health. The reasons for this are multi-faceted, but one possibility is that unsafe neighborhoods create a situation of chronic stress, which may deplete people's resources to cope with the daily stressors of life. How people respond to daily stressors (e.g., with increased self-reported negative affect and physical symptoms) is positively associated with health problems and may thus be one pathway linking perceptions of neighborhood safety to poor health. The current study investigated the relationship between neighborhood safety concerns, daily stressors, affective well-being, and physical health symptoms in a national sample of adults …

Cognition In Context: Pathways And Compound Risk In A Sample Of Us Non-Hispanic Whites, Jennifer W. Robinette, Jason D. Boardman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The population of individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia is growing rapidly, necessitating etiological investigation. It is clear that individual differences in cognition later in life have both genetic and multi-level environmental correlates. Despite significant recent progress in cellular and molecular research, the exact mechanisms linking genes, brains, and cognition remain elusive. In relation to cognition, it is unlikely that genetic and environmental risk factors function in a vacuum, but rather interact and cluster together. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether aspects of individual socioeconomic status (SES) explain the cognitive genotype-phenotype association, and whether neighborhood SES …

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Opioid Use For Adolescents At Us Emergency Departments, Michael T. Phan, Daniel M. Tomaszewski, Cody Arbuckle, Sun Yang, Candice D. Donaldson, Michelle A. Fortier, Brooke Jenkins, Erik Linstead, Zeev N. Kain

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Racial/ethnic disparities in the use of opioids to treat pain disorders have been previously reported in the emergency department (ED). Further research is needed to better evaluate the impact race/ethnicity may have on the use of opioids in adolescents for the management of pain disorders in the ED.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study using data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2006 to 2016. Multivariate models were used to evaluate the role of race/ethnicity in the receipt of opioid agonists while in the ED. All ED visits with patients aged 11–21 years old were analyzed. …

County-Level Factors That Influenced The Trajectory Of Covid-19 Incidence In The New York City Area, Ashley Wendell Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

More than a century of research has shown that sociodemographic conditions affect infectious disease transmission. In the late spring and early summer of 2020, reports of the effects of sociodemographic variables on the spread of COVID- 19 were used in the media with minimal scientific proof attached. With new cases of COVID-19 surging in the United States at that time, it became essential to better understand how the spread of COVID-19 was varying across all segments of the population. We used hierarchical exponential growth curve modeling techniques to examine whether community socioeconomic characteristics uniquely influence the incidence of reported COVID-19 …

The Relationship Between Perceived Neighborhood Disorder And Type 2 Diabetes Risk Across Different Racial/Ethnic Groups, Min Yu, Jennifer N. Robinette

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Approximately 32 million Americans have Type 2 Diabetes and that number is growing rapidly. Type 2 Diabetes is sensitive to environmental factors, and higher prevalence rates are often observed in disordered neighborhoods (i.e., those with more trash and vandalism). Through discriminatory practices such as redlining, racially restrictive covenants, urban renewal, and gentrification, marginalized racial/ethnic groups are more likely to live in disordered neighborhoods compared to non-Hispanic Whites. These disparities may also contribute to similar disparities in Type 2 Diabetes rates. Yet, research indicates that there may be racial/ethnic differences in the interpretation of neighborhood disorder as a threat to health …

The Effects Of Ethnicity And Socioeconomic Status On Anxiety Prevalence And Treatment, Brianna Liberman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

With the growing rise of anxiety disorders, psychosocial factors including ethnicity and socioeconomic status may be contributing to diagnostic disparities among different groups. The primary explanation for this trend has been income and ethnic differences. While previous research has followed the trends of income levels and mental health disorders, few studies have delved further into the influential nature of psychosocial factors as it relates specifically to anxiety. Rather, studies have focused on how psychosocial factors such as SES, mitigate mental health development overall. Data was collected to determine what role ethnicity, income, and parental marriage, play in the development of …

Examining The Impact Of Socioeconomic Variables On Covid-19 Death Rates At The State Level, James L. Doti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

This study uses a step-wise regression model to identify the socioeconomic variables most significant in explaining COVID-19 death rates on a state-level basis. The regression tests cover the 1/1/2020 to 12/1/2020 period as well as the first and second halves of 2020. This study also uses the Oxford stringency index to measure more precisely the efficacy of governmental mandates at the state level. The results in this study rigorously showed that while the density variables were the most significant explanatory variables during the first half of the year, their significance fell during the second half. Use of the Oxford stringency …

Neighborhoods Matter; But For Whom? Heterogeneity Of Neighborhood Disadvantage On Child Obesity By Sex, Ashley W. Kranjac, Catherine Boyd, Rachel T. Kimbro, Brady S. Moffett, Keila N. Lopez

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Although evidence suggests that neighborhood context, particularly socioeconomic context, influences child obesity, little is known about how these neighborhood factors may be heterogeneous rather than monolithic. Using a novel dataset comprised of the electronic medical records for over 250,000 children aged 2–17 nested within 992 neighborhoods in the greater Houston area, we assessed whether neighborhoods influenced the obesity of children differently based on sex. Results indicated that neighborhood disadvantage, assessed using a comprehensive, multidimensional, latent profile analysis-generated measure, had a strong, positive association with the odds of obesity for both boys and girls. Interactions revealed that the relationship between disadvantage …

Challenging Whiteness At Claremont High School, Terri Nicol Watson, Angel Miles Nash

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Ebony Wright was slated to graduate from Claremont High School in the spring. She was on the honor roll, captain of the girls’ varsity softball and swim teams, and recently awarded an academic scholarship to attend a highly ranked university in the fall. Ebony was a “model” student. How she found herself sitting in the principal’s office several weeks before graduation was a shock to everyone. This case study challenges the function of whiteness in school policies. Aspiring school and teacher leaders are provided with the opportunity to consider the impact of a seemingly race-neutral school dress code policy.

Child Obesity Moderates The Association Between Poverty And Academic Achievement, Ashley W. Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Childhood overweight and obesity are major public health problems in the United States. Children who experience poverty are 1.5 times more likely to suffer with overweight and 1.6 times more likely to have obesity. The extent to which overweight or obesity exacerbates the negative influence of socioeconomic inequality on child academic outcomes has not yet been examined. We estimated the effect of poverty on math and reading achievement trajectories using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) Kindergarten class of 1998−1999 survey data and multilevel growth curve modeling techniques. Our findings indicate that the impact of obesity status is more pronounced …

Healthcare Of Indigenous Amazonian Peoples In Response To Covid-19: Marginality, Discrimination And Revaluation Of Ancestral Knowledge In Ucayali, Peru, Doreen Montag, Marco Barboza, Lizardo Cauper, Ivan Brehaut, Isaac Alva, Aoife Bennett, José Sanchez-Choy, Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti, Pilar Valenzuela, José Manuyama, Italo García Murayari, Miguel Guimaraes Vásquez, Celso Aguirre Panduro, Angela Giattino, Edwin Julio Palomino Cadenas, Rodrigo Lazo, Carlos A. Delgado, Alfonso Nino, Elaine C. Flores, Maria Amalia Pesantes, Juan Pablo Murillo, Luisa Elvira Belaunde, Sergio Recuenco, Robert Chuquimbalqui, Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

"Systematic and persistent discrimination against Indigenous Peoples translates into differential health outcomes when analysed through ethnicity and/or mother tongue.1 In Peru, morbidity and mortality rates among Indigenous Peoples for COVID-19 appear to confirm this.2 The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the historical structural violence against Indigenous Peoples that currently takes a disproportionate toll in the Peruvian Amazon. This equally applies to Indigenous Andean Peoples and Afro Peruvians. Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and those in initial contact are at highest health risk in this pandemic as they have no previous immunity against common infectious diseases, and lack access to public healthcare …

Decomposing Differences In Coronavirus Disease 2019-Related Case-Fatality Rates Across Seventeen Nations, Ashley Wendell Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

As of 1 November 2020, estimated case-fatality rates associated with coronavirus disease 2019 are not uniformly patterned across the world and differ substantially in magnitude. Given the global spatial heterogeneity in case-fatality rates, we applied the Blinder-Oaxaca regression decomposition technique to identify how putative sociodemographic, structural, and environmental sources influence variation in case-fatality rates. We show that compositional and associational differences in country-level risk factors explain a substantial proportion of the coronavirus disease 2019-related case-fatality rate gap across nations. Asian countries fair better vis-à-vis case-fatality rate differences mainly due to variation in returns to sociodemographic, structural, and environmental sources among …

Mapping The Production And Mobilization Functions Of Collective Action, Blaine G. Robbins, Ross L. Matsueda, Steven Pfaff

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Collective action is a fundamental feature of human social life. If public goods are to materialize, social norms are to emerge, and social protests are to succeed, individuals must act jointly to achieve their collective ends. But how can collective action evolve when individuals receive the benefits of a common good without contributing to its production? According to theories of the critical mass, the success of collective action hinges on the type of production function required for the provision of a common good. Production functions and mobilization functions, however, have proven difficult to observe empirically in large groups. Here, the …

When Special Education And Disability Studies Intertwine: Addressing Educational Inequities Through Processes And Programming, Audri Sandoval Gomez, Aja Mckee

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The inception of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) in 1975 provided hope and the opportunity for equitable educational experiences for individuals with disabilities. Forty-five years later, the United States remains in a deficit-driven, medical model educational system with deeply rooted inequities continuing to segregate students because of their disability. A disability studies in education framework allows for complex components of teaching and programming for students with disabilities to be explored in a practical way that promotes inclusive education for all students. Examining special education practices through a social model of disability with a focus on ability and …

Covid-19 Treatment Resource Disparities And Social Disadvantage In New York City, Jason A. Douglas, Andrew M. Subica

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Black and Hispanic communities in the U.S. have endured a disproportionate burden of COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. Racial and ethnic health disparities such as these are frequently aggravated by inequitable access to healthcare resources in disadvantaged communities. Yet, no known studies have investigated disadvantaged communities' access to COVID-19-related healthcare resources. The current study accordingly examined racial and ethnic differences in (1) April 2020 COVID-19 total and positive viral test rates across 177 New York City (NYC) ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA); and (2) November 2019–April 2020 licensed and intensive care unit (ICU) hospital bed access across 194 NYC ZCTAs. Pairwise …

Genetic Ancestry, Skin Color And Social Attainment: The Four Cities Study, Dede K. Teteh, Lenna Dawkins-Moultin, Stanley Hooker, Wenndy Hernandez, Carolina Bonilla, Dorothy Galloway, Victor Lagroon, Eunice Rebecca Santos, Mark Shriver, Charmaine D. M. Royal, Rick Kittles

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Introduction
The Black population in the US is heterogeneous but is often treated as monolithic in research, with skin pigmentation being the primary indicator of racial classification. Objective: This paper examines the differences among Blacks by comparing genetic ancestry, skin color and social attainment of 259 residents across four US cities—Norman, Oklahoma; Cincinnati, Ohio; Harlem, New York; and Washington, District of Columbia.

Methods
Participants were recruited between 2004 and 2006 at community-based forums. Cross-sectional data were analyzed using chi-square tests, correlation analyses and logistic regression.

Results
There were variations in ancestry, melanin index and social attainment across some cities. Overall, …

Carty And Barraza: The Hidden Victims Of Covid-19, Victoria Carty, Greg Barraza

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"At the Chino Institute for Men (CIM) state prison, notorious for overcrowding conditions, the local authorities are moving toward an illogical pivot from 'containment' to 'encounter' in dealing with the health of both prisoners and staff in terms of the looming threat that Covid-19 poses. Soon, CIM officials intend to transfer inmates who have been living among other inmates who have tested positive for the virus into one of the dormitories where everyone thus far has tested negative and had been quarantined for two weeks. On May 10^th the facility halted the movement of all prisoners to isolate those …

Myocardial Infarction And Treatment Adherence Rates Across Sociodemographic & Health Indicators, Deborah Shim, Ashley Wendell Kranjac

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Trends on first myocardial infarction and rates of adherence to treatment across age were estimated. Data sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2016, were used to determine the patterned age trends of patients’ first myocardial infarction as well as their subsequent willingness to comply with treatments, such as weight loss. Demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status were taken into account and integrated as they play a key role in contextualizing and understanding these health trends. Preliminary historical trend analyses across 9 waves of data spanning 17 years indicate that patients are increasingly presenting with myocardial infarction earlier …

Change-Makers: A Grassroots Approach To Culturally Responsive Leadership And Teaching, Abigail Amoako Kayser, Angel Miles Nash, Brian Kayser

Education Faculty Articles and Research

While achievement and opportunity gaps and systemic racism exist in the majority of school districts across the United States, not every school district authentically acknowledges and addresses these issues. In this case study, researchers examine a PreK–12 school district situated in a racially and economically diverse mid-Atlantic city in which race- and class-based discrimination have been well documented and recent episodes of extreme racial violence have affected the community. The school district, which employs 1,300 teachers and serves over 14,000 students, developed and implemented a grassroots approach by forming a district-wide culturally responsive leadership team. Through interviews with 10 culturally …

Reflections On Critical Pedagogy In America Latina: La Lucha Continua, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"When I speak in Mexico, I support efforts there to create a revolutionary critical pedagogy—one that has not been domesticated and depotentiated by neoliberal dogma. This means the inclusion of a decolonial pedagogy which challenges the “coloniality of power” (patron de poder colonial) that still resides at the heart of post-colonial societies. I would advise as a central, overarching goal of critical pedagogy the struggle for a socialist alternative to the “value form of labor” that exists in capitalist societies throughout North and South America, and that such efforts must be transnational in scope since capitalism is now transnational in …

Kinship, Fractionalization And Corruption, Mahsa Akbari, Duman Bahrami-Rad, Erik O. Kimbrough

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We examine the roots of variation in corruption across societies, and we argue that marriage practices and family structure are an important, overlooked determinant of corruption. By shaping patterns of relatedness and interaction, marriage practices influence the relative returns to norms of nepotism/favoritism versus norms of impartial cooperation. In-marriage (e.g. consanguineous marriage) generates fractionalization because it yields relatively closed groups of related individuals and thereby encourages favoritism and corruption. Out-marriage creates a relatively open society with increased interaction between non-relatives and strangers, thereby encouraging impartiality. We report a robust association between in-marriage practices and corruption both across countries and within …

Decomposing Trends In Child Obesity, Ashley Wendell Kranjac, Robert L. Wagmiller

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

We unravel the absolute level and relative prominence of two demographic processes that are relevant for childhood obesity, and that will ultimately determine the long-term course and pace of change in child obesity rates. We leverage data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to decompose change in child obesity from 1971 to 2012. We partition change into that attributable to (1) healthier, more nutritionally and economically advantaged cohorts in the population being replaced by cohorts of children who are less advantaged (between-cohort change), and (2) the health habits, nutrition, and social and economic circumstances of all cohorts of …

Review Of Outsourced Children: Orphanage Care And Adoption In Globalizing China, Michelle Samura, Cala Gin, Dorcas Hoi, Florencia Park

Education Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Outsourced Children: Orphanage Care and Adoption in Globalizing China by Leslie K. Wang.

Does Money Indeed Buy Happiness? “The Forms Of Capital” In Fitzgerald’S Gatsby And Watts’ No One Is Coming To Save Us, Allie Harrison Vernon

English (MA) Theses

Looking primarily at two critically acclaimed texts that concern themselves with American citizenship—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Stephanie Powell Watts’ No One is Coming to Save Us—I analyze the claims made about citizenship identities, rights, and consequential access to said rights. I ask, how do these narratives about citizenship sustain, create, or re-envision American myth? Similarly, how do the narratives interact with the dominant culture at large? Do any of these texts achieve oppositional value, and/or modify the complex hegemonic structure? I use Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital” to investigate the ways in which economic, cultural, …

3rd Place Contest Entry: Aesthetic Activism: Protest Art In The Delano Grape Strike, Felicia Viano

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Felicia Viano's submission for the 2019 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains her essay on using library resources, a three-page sample of her research project on the use of art as a social movement tactic by the United Farm Workers during the Delano Grape Strike, and her works cited list.

Felicia is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in History and Peace Studies. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Robert Slayton.

Ecological Determinants Of Respiratory Health: Examining Associations Between Asthma Emergency Department Visits, Diesel Particulate Matter, And Public Parks And Open Space In Los Angeles, California, Jason A. Douglas, Reginald S. Archer, Serena E. Alexander

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Los Angeles County (LAC) low-income communities of color experience uneven asthma rates, evidenced by asthma emergency department visits (AEDV). This has partly been attributed to inequitable exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM). Promisingly, public parks and open space (PPOS) contribute to DPM mitigation. However, low-income communities of color with limited access to PPOS may be deprived of associated public health benefits. Therefore, this novel study investigates the AEDV, DPM, PPOS nexus to address this public health dilemma and inform public policy in at-risk communities. Optimized Hotspot Analysis was used to examine geographic clustering of AEDVs, DPM, and PPOS at the …