Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item SHAPE OF CARE: PATTERNS OF FAMILY CAREGIVING ACTIVITIES AMONG OLDER ADULTS FROM MIDLIFE TO LATER AGES IN CHINA AND THE U.S.(2022) Duan, Haoshu; Chen, Feinian; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation consists of three papers that investigate the long-term family caregiving patterns among Chinese and American older adults. Family caregiving has long been an essential fabric of long-term care services. Due to the prolonged life expectancy and the declined family size, older adults today are more likely to care for multiple family members for longer years than the previous cohorts. However, studies on caregiving predominately focus on singular care experiences over a short period time. As older adults transition into and out of multiple care roles, the overall caregiving patterns are overlooked. Leveraging two rich longitudinal datasets (the China Health and Retirement Study and the Health and Retirement Study), this dissertation aims to fill this current research gap by developing long-term family caregiving typologies. The first paper develops a care typology for Chinese older adults, and thoroughly assesses how gender, hukou status, living arrangement, and significant life transitions are associated with the long-term caregiving patterns. In the second paper, using linear mixed-effects models, I continue exploring the positive and negative health consequences of each caregiving pattern among Chinese older adults. The third paper focuses on developing a long-term family caregiving pattern for American older adults. In addition to prolonged life expectancies and the decline in family size, the U.S. has experienced complex transitions in family structures over the past few decades, leading to more diverse family networks and international relations in later life. After establishing the long-term care typology, the third paper pays closer attention to the variations of family caregiving patterns across the War Babies cohort, Early Baby Boomer, and the Middle/Late Baby Boomer cohort. Moreover, I explore how gender, race, and socioeconomic status are linked with these patterns. In the context of global aging, this dissertation highlights the heterogeneity in the family caregiving experiences and identifies the most vulnerable demographic groups who shoulder the heaviest care burden over time. In the end, the findings from the dissertation provide guidance for the investment and design of long-term care services in rapidly aging contexts.Item Inclusion, Exclusion, Agency, and Advocacy: Experiences of Women with Disabilities in China(2021) Hu, Luanjiao; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research has repeatedly shown that women with disabilities are more disadvantaged than both disabled men and non-disabled women due to the impacts of sexism and disability discrimination in different societies. In this dissertation study, I aim to add to the global body of literature and empirical research in the field of disability and gender. Currently, there is relatively little research focusing on the lives of women with disabilities in China. By examining the life courses and experiences of six Chinese women with disabilities, I explore how societies impact people’s experiences and how the disabled women negotiate their identities and deal with the multiple oppressions situated in their respective social positions. Research questions that guide this dissertation include: What is the general situation for women with disabilities in China? What are the experiences for women with disabilities in different aspects of their life, e.g., education, relationships, employment, family life, and social activism? To answer these questions, a qualitative multi-case study approach was adopted. Data collection consisted of multiple individual interviews, in order to study challenges that women with disabilities face, as well as their aspirations in their life courses. An overlapping conceptual framework combining a feminist perspective, critical disability lens, symbolic interactionism, and life course perspective was used to conduct a close examination of the issues concerning disabled women. The study traces important developments within the historical context for women with disabilities in China. The findings of the study reveal deeply embedded biases and discriminations in the social, political, economic, and educational systems of China; these biases and resultant discrimination manifest in disabled women’s everyday life experiences. The study also documents key life events and factors that empower women with disabilities to exert agencies in their educational and career courses. Findings of this study will be useful for government, disabled persons’ organizations, related civil society organizations engaged in disability and gender work, and disabled women in general.Item Examining Maternal Experiences of Food Insecurity on Birth and Early Childhood Outcomes(2020) De Silva, Dane André; Thoma, Marie E; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Food insecurity, or the inadequate access to nutritionally-acceptable food, has been increasingly recognized as a distal determinant of poor health outcomes. While 11.1% of U.S. households suffer from food insecurity, specific populations are disproportionately affected, including pregnant women and single mothers. From a life course perspective, growth trajectories may be influenced by both prenatal exposures and postpartum practices, such as breastfeeding. Since food insecurity is associated with stress and poor nutrition, when occurring during critical periods of development, the fetus may be programmed to have poor future health. Other research on developmental origins have identified patterns that exhibit sex differences, particularly around growth. Therefore, this investigation sought to examine maternal food insecurity on: (i) low birthweight and sex-specific differences; (ii) breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding duration; and (iii) obesity at age two and sex-specific differences. In Aim 1, mothers experiencing prenatal food insecurity had a higher odds of delivering a low birthweight infant, though much of the association was explained by sociodemographic factors after adjustment (OR 1.10 [95%CI 0.98, 1.25]), with female infants showing OR 1.21 (95%CI 1.02, 1.43). For Aim 2, food insecurity did not appear to deter women from initiating breastfeeding (OR 1.41 [95%CI 0.58, 3.47]), and minimal differences in exclusive breastfeeding duration between food insecure and food secure women were found (TR 0.89 [95%CI 0.57, 1.39]). Finally, Aim 3 revealed that sociodemographic factors explained much of the association between maternal food insecurity and childhood obesity at 2 years (OR 1.15 [95%CI 0.75, 1.75]), though male offspring showed a stronger magnitude (OR 1.54 [95%CI 0.86, 2.74]). Maternal food insecurity is a multi-faceted exposure that is related to other covariates, which may interact in multiple ways to influence health outcomes through both biologic and behavioral pathways. This preliminary investigation highlights the importance of exploring exposures occurring during critical periods, including food insecurity, on birth and childhood outcomes, and how it may affect the later health of offspring differently by sex. Additional longitudinal data with accurate measures of food insecurity are needed to fully ascertain how it affects the health of mothers and children, and to identify possible mediating pathways.Item The Changing Nature of the Retirement Transition for Dual Earning Couples(2015) Jackson, Jonathan; Kahn, Joan R; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)My dissertation examines how dual-earning couples navigate the retirement transition differently now that women's and men's work lives have become more similar. As the retirement transition has become more complex, understanding how and when people retire requires researchers and policymakers to be attuned to the family lives in which individuals are embedded. The decision to retire is an individual choice but one's family circumstances, particularly one's spouse, can influence the process. Couples must often factor in spouses' age, health, pension assets, and health insurance coverage, especially since the work lives of many women have become much more similar to men. Whereas men's retirement decisions were seen to depend on their employment situation and women's' on their husband's, women's rising attachment to the labor force means their work lives should be increasingly important in understanding the retirement transition of couples. This dissertation fills a gap in retirement research by utilizing a life course perspective to systematically study change across cohorts in how marital partners manage the retirement transition amidst rapid structural changes in the economy. Analyses use multiple waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study, applying a variety of modeling techniques to investigate the way that couples move from employment to retirement. Specifically, I focus on retirement expectations and timing, looking at whether dual earning couples influence and synchronize each other's retirement and how this may change across cohorts. Results suggest that coordination between couples may be declining, as both husbands and wives influence their respective partners' retirement expectations less in later cohorts. Analysis of the degree to which dual-earning couples synchronize their retirement expectations show that such couples expect to retire together when they both have the pension resources to do so. Results from event history models further indicate that the retirement trajectories have changed for the leading baby boom cohort, as evidence implies they are delaying retirement longer than previous cohorts. The findings provide mixed support for the notion that wives are influencing their husbands' retirement timing more in later cohorts or that the influence of husbands on wives' retirement timing has declined across cohorts.Item IMPROVING SURVEY MEASUREMENT QUESTIONS FOR SEXUAL MINORITIES AND THE TRANS POPULATION: TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED NATURE OF THE TRANS LIFE COURSE(2013) Ryan, John Michael; Milkie, Melissa; Moghadam, Linda; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Sexual minorities are a hidden population who are difficult for social researchers to analyze well. One specific group of sexual minorities, the transgender population, and how they understand their sometimes changing identities, may be especially complex to study. Not only is this sometimes a hidden population, but they may only identify as transgender at certain points in the life course, preferring other identity categories at different life stages and in different circumstances. I use the shortened term "trans" to refer to all members of what the hegemonic gendered order would consider gender non-conforming. Using the overarching sociological concepts of social constructionism and classification and drawing on a life course perspective, this dissertation explores how the self-identity of members of the trans community might shift across the life course. The goal then is to better understand trans identity awareness and developments across the life course in order to make better sense of existing survey data as well as to improve future questions related to trans identity. Analysis for this dissertation drew upon data collected from 139 in-depth cognitive interviews in both English and Spanish from a project related to testing a new sexual identity question for the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory at the National Center for Health Statistics to explore how survey wording affects what researchers know, or think they know, about sexual identity distribution, particularly as it relates to trans identity. It also drew upon data collected from 10 in-depth qualitative interviews done with members of the trans community in order to explore how an understanding of the trans life course enables us to make better sense of the ways in which this group identifies on official surveys. A sociological approach, one particularly embedded in social constructionism, was used to address the improvement of a survey research question.Item Mothers' Transitions to the Empty Nest Phase(2012) Thorn, Elizabeth Kathleen; Kahn, Joan; Bianchi, Suzanne M; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Much of the sociological research on women as mothers focuses on the transition into motherhood or the work and pleasure of raising children. This dissertation uses mixed methods to examine a rarely studied aspect of motherhood - the transition out of day-to-day parenting and into the empty nest stage of the life course. Three very different data sources and analysis techniques are used to develop a rich understanding of how women's daily routines are affected by this transition, as well as what these changes mean to the individual women going through them. The first analytic component draws on time diary data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to explore two transitions - the initial transition into motherhood and the gradual changes that occur as children grow. This analysis focuses on labor force engagement, care work, and leisure activities of women as they move through the childrearing years. The second analysis, based on a series of 12 in-depth interviews with women whose children have recently left home, concentrates on the perceived meaning of the transition into the empty nest phase. New sources of meaningful activity and the effect of this transition on women's relationships are also described. In the third substantive section, longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey-Young Women (NLS-YW) are used to investigate differences in labor force, helping work, and psychological well-being outcomes between empty nest mothers, mothers with young adult children living at home, mothers with adolescent children living at home, and women without children. Together, these three analyses paint a picture of the transition into the empty nest as one dominated by emotional changes - lower levels of depressive symptoms, new feelings of freedom, and changes in relationships. While some evidence of new activity was found, especially among the women interviewed for the qualitative analysis, the transition to the empty nest is not typically associated with substantial changes in labor force engagement or other activities.Item TURNING POINTS IN LATE ADOLESCENCE: A STUDY OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION AND ADULT OFFENDING IN A LIFE COURSE FRAMEWORK(2010) Liu, Weiwei; Petras, Hanno; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Guided by the general theoretical paradigm of life course criminology, this study investigates the relationship between high school graduation and adult offending. This dissertation builds upon the idea of turning points in reducing offending behavior and extends this idea from adulthood to late adolescence/early adulthood, and considers high school graduation as a turning point in reducing adult offending behavior. This dissertation identifies the research gap on the high school graduation/dropout-delinquency relationship, that is, most previous studies could not reject the alternative hypothesis, i.e. not graduating from high school and adult offending can both be explained by prior processes. This dissertation investigates the causal relationship between high school graduation, as a turning point that opens up future opportunities, and early adult offending. After establishing a causal relationship between graduation and adult offending, this study further explores the mechanisms of the graduation effect. In particular, this study investigates whether and to what extent turning points in adulthood, i.e. employment and intimate relationships, mediate such a causal relationship. The sample used in this dissertation consists of 460 males from the data collected by Johns Hopkins Prevention Intervention Research Center (JHU PIRC). The analytical methods used in this study include propensity score matching, sensitivity analysis (to address selection bias due to possible omitted covariates), and mediation analysis. In terms of the causal relationship between graduation and offending, it was found that high school graduates are 93% less likely to have an adult offending record than dropouts similar on early processes. Such a finding is robust to selection bias due to possible omitted covariates. It was concluded that for those who are at great risk for dropping out, staying in school and finishing their education provides a turning point in reducing adult offending. In terms of the mechanisms of the graduation effect, it was found that post graduation experiences, employment in particular, help explain the graduate-dropout differences in offending during early adulthood. For dropouts, employment may be another turning point. Implications for life course criminology and policy are discussed.Item Are Immigrants Crime Prone? A Multifaceted Investigation of the Relationship between Immigration and Crime in Two Eras(2010) Bersani, Bianca; Laub, John H.; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Are immigrants crime prone? In America, this question has been posed since the turn of the 20th century and more than 100 years of research has shown that immigration is not linked to increasing crime rates. Nevertheless, as was true more than a century ago, the myth of the criminal immigrant continues to permeate public debate. In part this continued focus on immigrants as crime prone is the result of significant methodological and theoretical gaps in the extant literature. Five key limitations are identified and addressed in this research including: (1) a general reliance on aggregate level analyses, (2) the treatment of immigrants as a homogeneous entity, (3) a general dependence on official data, (4) the utilization of cross-sectional analyses, and (5) nominal theoretical attention. Two broad questions motivate this research. First, how do the patterns of offending over the life course differ across immigrant and native-born groups? Second, what factors explain variation in offending over time for immigrants and does the influence of these predictors vary across immigrant and native-born individuals? These questions are examined using two separate datasets capturing information on immigration and crime during two distinct waves of immigration in the United States. Specifically, I use the Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency data and subsequent follow-ups to capture early 20th century immigration and crime, while contemporary data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. Three particularly salient conclusions are drawn from this research. First, patterns of offending (i.e., prevalence, frequency, persistence and desistance) are remarkably similar for native-born and immigrant individuals. Second, although differences are observed when examining predictors of offending for native-born and immigrant individuals, they tend to be differences in degree rather than kind. That is, immigrants and native-born individuals are influenced similarly by family, peer, and school factors. Finally, these findings are robust and held when taking into account socio-historical context, immigrant generation, immigration nationality group, and crime type. In sum, based on the evidence from this research, the simple answer to the question of whether immigrants are crime prone is no.Item Are Leavers and Returners Different? Determinants of Coresidence After Adult Children Leave Home(2008-08-07) Chan, Chaowen; Iceland, John; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The paper examines the determinants of coresidence between parents and adult children. Using 34 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1968 to 2005 and event history models, I find that there is an unambiguous distinction between nest leavers and nest returners. Marital status and employment status of adult children are the most important time-dependent determinants of nest-returning, and older cohorts have a higher propensity to return home. Parents in good health support their children returning home when significant life events endanger the adult children's ability to live alone. Therefore I argue that coresidence is a rational support but not a competition between children's need and parent's need. Further cohort comparisons also show adult children's life events matter for older cohorts, but parents' marital disruption matters for younger cohorts.Item Causal Inference with Group-Based Trajectories and Propensity Score Matching: Is High School Dropout a Turning Point?(2006-04-28) Sweeten, Gary Allen; Bushway, Shawn D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Life course criminology focuses on trajectories of deviant or criminal behavior punctuated by turning point events that redirect trajectories onto a different path. There is no consensus in the field on how to measure turning points. In this study I ask: Is high school dropout a turning point in offending trajectories? I utilize two kinds of matching methods to answer this question: matching based on semi-parametric group-based trajectory models, and propensity score matching. These methods are ideally suited to measure turning points because they explicitly model counterfactual outcomes which can be used to estimate the effect of turning point events over time. It has been suggested that dropout is the end result of a process of disengagement from school. In order to assess the effect of the event of dropout, it is necessary to separate dropout from the processes that lead to it. The extent to which this is accomplished by matching is assessed by comparing dropouts to matched non-dropouts on numerous background characteristics. As such, it is desirable to use a wide range of measures to compare the two groups. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to address this question. Delinquency is measured in two ways: a six-item variety scale and a scale based on a graded-response model. Dropout is based on self-reports of educational attainment supplemented with official transcripts provided by high schools. Because of the breadth of topics covered in this survey, it is very well-suited to matching methods. The richness of these data allows comparisons on over 300 characteristics to assess whether the assumptions of matching methods are plausible. I find that matching based on trajectory models is unable to achieve balance in pre-dropout characteristics between dropouts and non-dropouts. Propensity score matching successfully achieves balance, but dropout effects are indistinguishable from zero. I conclude that first-time dropout between the ages of 16 and 18 is not a turning point in offending trajectories. Implications for life course criminology and dropout research are discussed.