SSRI Open House - Faculty Flash Talks: Inequalities Across the Life Course

Presenter: Dr. Cleothia Frazier

Title: Early Life Stress and Sleep among Older Black Americans: A Latent Class Analysis

Abstract: Research shows consistent Black-White disparities in sleep health and cognition. One factor that may contribute to these differences is exposure to early life stress (ELS). Increasingly, studies show that experiencing chronic stress at earlier stages of the life course can cause developmental changes to neurological pathways and induce stress response mechanisms (e.g., HPA-axis) that have long-lasting effects on health and well-being. Guided by stress theory, the life course framework, and biopsychosocial perspectives, this study examines the relationship between ELS, sleep health, and cognition among older Black Americans. Data are drawn from the Health and Retirement Study (2006-2018). First, latent class analysis (LCA) is used to identify early life stress profiles, followed by regression analyses to determine whether these profiles predict later life sleep health and cognition.

Presenter: Dr. Nicole Kreisberg

Title: Legal Status and Latino Immigrants’ School-to-Work Transitions

Abstract: This research evaluates the role of legal status in the school-to-work transitions of Latinxs. Specifically, it examines how gatekeepers in schools and workplaces make sense of legal status when administering resources unequally across immigrants.

Presenter: Dr. Ligia Reyes

Title: Value Priorities in Food Acquisition for Children

Abstract: Values and how they are prioritized in food choice are not well understood. The objective of this study was to understand mothers’ value priorities in food acquisition for their children in the local food environment. In-depth interviews with mothers of children ages 1-5 years old (n=46) and market observations at food sources (n=12) were conducted in three rural communities in Mexico. Interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method, and coding of market observations complemented interview analysis to verify characterization of the local food environment. The local food environment consisted of market and non-market food sources. Nourishment and happiness emerged as two prominent value priorities in mothers’ food acquisition, which created tension in the types of foods they intended to offer to children (i.e., nutritious) and those they acquired (i.e., nutritious and energy-dense, nutrient poor (EDNP)). The tension between mothers’ value priorities in their food acquisition, combined with children’s environmental exposure to EDNP foods, underscores the need to better understand value priorities and the exposures that food environments create.

Presenter: Dr. Julia Szabo

Title: Finding La Raza in the Suburbs: What motivates families to live in a Latino-majority suburb?

Abstract: As suburbs diversify, ethnic suburban neighborhoods or ethnoburbs are emerging as a residential option for Latino families in the United States. Much of the research on ethnoburbs has focused on Asian and Black families, so less is known about the processes and motivations underlying the choice of Latino-majority suburbs. To address this gap, I ask what motivates families to live in a Latino-majority suburb of Houston, Texas. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 70 parents of middle school aged children I find that family, co-ethnicity, and schools drew families to the same Latino-majority suburb, but the factors discussed varied by immigrant generation. Latino immigrant families came to the suburb because they had family or close ties living there, while U.S.-born and 1.5-generation Latino parents bundled family, co-ethnicity, and schools in their residential decisions, drawing on their lived experiences in U.S. neighborhoods and schools to contextualize their choice of a Latino-majority suburb. These findings highlight the continued salience of race in residential decision-making and challenge predictions of how immigrants and their children are spatially incorporating into U.S. metropolitan areas.

A light lunch will be provided for in-person attendees. Please register.