2005 Poverty Research Small Grants
Funded research
Exploring Socioeconomic Gradients in Early Child Health by Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity.
Lenna Nepomnyaschy, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Columbia University School of Social Work.
Description
Using newly available data from the first wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), I will examine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and early child health across race, ethnic and immigrant groups in the United States. While the link between SES and health for adults and children has been well-established, there has been scant research on the SES health gradient across minority groups. Prior research has identified two minority groups, Mexicans and immigrants, with very good birth outcomes (birthweight and gestational age) despite being economically disadvantaged and having poor access to prenatal care, but little is known about other groups. The ECLS-B, with its oversample of racial and ethnic groups that have been rarely observed in prior national studies (American Indians,
Chinese, and other Asians), detailed measures of child health, and rich set of individual and family characteristics provides a unique opportunity to understand how poverty and minority group membership interact in their relationship with birth outcomes and subsequent child health.
I will first describe and compare birth outcomes across several different minority groups in the U.S. I will then adjust these outcomes by a variety of SES measures to identify which groups experience unexpected advantages in child health at birth. Next, I will examine the relationship between birth outcomes and subsequent measures of child health across racial, ethnic and immigrant groups. Finally, I will explore the interaction between SES and minority group membership in their association with child health trajectories. This research will provide one of the first opportunities to explore the interactions between socioeconomic status, minority group membership, and early child health. Estimating these relationships will contribute to understanding the mechanisms through which poverty contributes to disparities in child health trajectories.
