Adolescent social marginalization and psychological distress across the transition to adulthood

Adolescence is a developmentally rich stage of the life course during which young people lay the foundation for future adjustment, functioning, health, and well-being. Adolescents experience profound changes to their brains and bodies, individuate from their parents, traverse the complex social systems of U.S. high schools, and ascribe increased importance to their relationships with peers. The confluence of these changes means that young people who become socially marginalized or disconnected from peers in high school face psychological distress in the short term. Moreover, the implications of adolescent marginalization for mental health may reverberate and cascade across the transition to adulthood, jeopardizing trajectories of psychological well-being. In this spirit, this dissertation asks: will adolescent social marginalization leave permanent scars on mental health, and if so, for whom? To explore these questions, I draw on a developmental life course framework and apply structural equation modeling techniques to longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 10,869). Results from my analyses revealed that adolescence is a sensitive period of the life course during which marginalization from peers triggers problematic mental health trajectories into adulthood regardless of post-high school experiences and despite accessing social resources in high school that would otherwise buffer youth from unhealthy psychological trajectories. These patterns were more distinct among girls than boys. Additionally, trajectories of distress were closely connected with trajectories of binge drinking among marginalized youth in general, and particularly among boys. The bi-directionality of these trajectories suggests that the social ups and downs of high school affect adjustment, functioning, and behaviors well into adulthood. Overall, this dissertation informs theoretical understanding of risk and resilience by pointing to adolescence as a sensitive developmental moment during which social risks are particularly influential on long-term trajectories of health and well-being.Sociolog

Educational attainment and the clustering of health-related behavior among U.S. young adults

We documented health-related behavior clustering among US young adults and assessed the extent to which educational attainment was associated with the identified clusters. Using data from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we performed latent class analysis on 8 health-related behaviors (n = 14,338), documenting clustering of behavior separately by gender. Subsequently, we used multinomial logistic regression and estimated associations between educational attainment and the health-related behavior clusters. Twenty-eight percent of young women grouped into the most favorable health behavior cluster, while 22 percent grouped into a very high-risk cluster. A larger percentage of young men (40 percent) grouped into the highest risk cluster. Individuals with educational attainment at the college and advanced degree levels exhibited much lower risk of being in the unhealthy behavioral clusters than individuals with lower educational attainment, net of a range of confounders. Substantial fractions of US young adults, particularly those with less than college degrees, exhibit unhealthy behavior profiles. Efforts to improve health among young adults should focus particular attention on the clustering of poor health-related behavior, especially among individuals who have less than a college degree

Uncovering the domestic factor in the Sino-Russian energy partnership

What explains the differences in the Sino-Russian oil and gas cooperation? Overall, I suggest, the several trajectories are explained by the dissimilarities of oil and gas as commodities and potential foreign policy tools. These differences, along with other factors, such as corporate culture and individual personalities, shed light on the strategies of Russia’s gas conglomerates, Gazprom and Rosneft. Yet, if a more nuanced understanding of variation within these energy markets illuminates the reasons behind the sequencing of oil and gas cross-border pipeline projects, what explains the particular timing of the landmark 2014 gas deal? Why after 15 years of stalemate in the Sino-Russian gas cooperation did breakthroughs occur in 2014? And what explains the modesty of the record in gas cooperation to date? Many factors are undoubtedly involved, both economic and political; however, I contend that the conclusive factor can be found in underlying domestic politics.The article outlines the role of national narratives in driving both Russia and China’s energy foreign policy and goes on to argue that the Sino-Russian gas breakthrough in 2014 was due to the peculiar way in which domestic factors paired with international circumstances to produce the outcome at that particular moment.Political Culture and National Identit

After the fall: steppe strongmen in a post-oil era

This paper focuses on shifts in foreign energy policy in key Central Asian petrostates in the context of the global energy transition. It draws attention to the interconnections between hydrocarbon rents, regime stability, and new foreign policy strategies in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The paper advances the argument that, instead of reducing economic overdependence on hydrocarbons for Central Asian petrostates, the global energy transition has spurred the desperate search for new hydrocarbon customers. This is due to the continued, and often unchecked, power of hydrocarbon elites, and leads to structural and economic distortionsthat are not easily undone, even by the current oil crash.History and International Relation

Russia’s foray into Asia’s energy market

History and International Relation

Political Transition on the Great Steppe: The Case of Kazakhstan

President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s successor may not have the experience or charisma necessary to ensure Kazakhstan’s continued stability.History and International Relation

‘Steppe-ing’ out of Russia’s shadow: Russia’s changing ‘energy power’ in post-Soviet Eurasia

This essay analyses the evolving character of Russia’s energy relationships in the post-Soviet space by looking at the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the past, due to the historic legacy of Russia-controlled pipelines, Moscow was able to exert influence by manipulating structural asymmetries in regional natural gas value chains. This has changed with China’s entry as the region’s major market alternative and the breakthroughs of the global energy transition. The initial phase of Russia’s declining ‘energy power’ vis-à-vis China in Central Asia came to an end as the Crimea crisis was unfolding, an event that has drastically changed the risk perception of Russian gas in Europe, setting off a chain of consequences that led to a re-evaluation of Russia’s energy power in post-Soviet Eurasia. The essay also shows, however, that Russia maintains influence in post-Soviet Eurasia through inter-elite networks and shared concerns among hydrocarbon-exporting countries about the energy transition.History and International Relation

Gender and Health Behavior Clustering among U.S. Young Adults

U.S. trends in population health suggest alarming disparities among young adults who are less healthy across most measureable domains than their counterparts in other high-income countries; these international comparisons are particularly troubling for women. To deepen our understanding of gender disparities in health and underlying behavioral contributions, we document gender-specific clusters of health behavior among U.S. young adults using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We find high levels of poor health behavior, but especially among men; 40 percent of men clustered into a group characterized by unhealthy behavior (e.g., poor diet, no exercise, substance use), compared to only 22 percent of women. Additionally, women tend to age out of unhealthy behaviors in young adulthood more than men. Further, we uncover gender differences in the extent to which sociodemographic position and adolescent contexts inform health behavior clustering. For example, college education was more protective for men, whereas marital status was equally protective across gender. Parental drinking mattered for health behavior clustering among men, whereas peer drinking mattered for clustering among women. We discuss these results in the context of declining female advantage in U.S. health and changing young adult social and health contexts

The dual transformation in development finance: Western multilateral development banks and China in post-Soviet energy

History and International Relation

Depression of the ULF geomagnetic pulsation related to ionospheric irregularities

We consider a depression in intensity of ULF magnetic pulsations, which is observed on the ground surface due to appearance of the irregularities in the ionosphere. It is supposed that oblique Alfven waves in the ULF frequency range are downgoing from the magnetosphere and the horizontal irregularities of ionospheric conductivity are created by upgoing atmospheric gravity waves from seismic source. Unlike the companion paper by Molchanov et al. (2003), we used a simple model of the ionospheric layer but took into consideration the lateral inhomogeneity of the perturbation region in the ionosphere. It is shown that ULF intensity could be essentially decreased for frequencies f = 0.001-0.1 Hz at nighttime but the change is negligible at daytime in coincidence with observational results