Disentangling the spatial and social determinants of demographic behaviour

Many studies have focused on whether racism harms the health of targeted individuals. However less is known about whether and how racial prejudice harms the health of all community members including those who harbor such prejudice across time. The aim of this study is to examine racism as a risk factor harmful for the health of communities within which it occurs. We used data from the 1985-2002 General Social Survey (GSS), a representative sample of the U.S. non-institutionalized population that included questions about racist attitudes towards blacks. We prospectively linked the GSS data to mortality data through 2008 via the National Death Index (NDI) and assessed the effect of racial prejudice on all-cause mortality of individuals above age 18 nested within 384 U.S. Primary Sampling Units using multilevel models and age-period-cohort models. The study reveals that both black and white individuals living in communities with higher levels of racial prejudice had increased mortality rates compared to residents living in communities with less racial prejudice. This association was robust to controls for other individual- and community-level socio-economic characteristics.

Despite the global decline in childhood mortality, under-5 mortality remains high in Nigeria. With about 1 in 6 children dying before the age of 5, Nigeria is not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4. While many studies on childhood mortality in Nigeria have established individual level factors as important predictors of infant and child mortality, similar studies on the effects of neighborhood contexts have been minimal. Hence, this study examines the effects of neighborhood contexts on under-5 mortality in Nigeria. The study utilized 2003 and 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data. Cox regression analysis was performed on a nationally representative sample of 6028 (2003) and 28,647 (2008) children, (α=0.05). Results established region of residence, place of residence, ethnic diversity, neighborhood infrastructures, community education and health care contexts as important determinants of infant and child mortality in Nigeria. For instance, findings showed that being born or raised in poor neighborhoods (HR:1.54,P<0.05), rural communities (HR:1.25,p<0.05), North-east (HR:1.56), was associated with elevated hazards of dying before age 5. Policies to achieve under-5 mortality reduction in Nigeria must involve community-level interventions aimed at improving child survival in the deprived neighborhoods.

Researchers have recently relied on person based randomized interventions to estimate the effects of a neighborhood on a variety of outcomes. An alternative strategy is to implement an intervention at the neighborhood level such that whole communities rather than individuals are randomized into better conditions. I explore the efficacy of each approach by decomposing the total intervention effect into natural direct and indirect effects. A comparison of these effects may provide insight into the precise mechanisms that person and place based interventions work through to impact individual well being. Delineating when each type of treatment yields larger effects provides policymakers insight into their appropriateness given overarching goals.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore socio-demographic differentials and peer effects on fertility among foreign wives in Korea. Attention is focused on examining the effects of the number of foreign wives and the ethnic composition of residential area on the level and tempo of fertility of foreign wives. Favorable ethnic composition of the residential area and increased accessibility to other foreign wives are likely to reduce the real or perceived social disadvantages, constraints and insecurities of foreign wives that might otherwise lead to lower fertility. Another question to be examined is whether and to what extent foreign wives show distinctive levels of fertility according to household composition. Micro-data from the 2009 Korean National Multi-culture Family Survey and Marriage and Divorce Registration Data for 2009-2011 are analyzed. Preliminary results of the analysis show that the ethnic composition environment exerts an independent effect on fertility, apart from socioeconomic and demographic variables. Propensity to have children ceteris paribus rises substantially among foreign wives who live in an area with a large population of transnational couples. Peer effects tend to be stronger when a foreign wife lives with her husband’s parents. Further evidence is found to be consistent with peer effects.