Psychosocial Mechanisms Underlying Older Black Men’s Health

Objectives: To evaluate the psychosocial mechanisms underlying older Black men's self-rated health, we examined: (a) the individual, cumulative, and collective effects of stressors on health; (b) the direct effects of psychosocial resources on health; and (c) the stress-moderating effects of psychosocial resources. Method: This study is based on a nationally representative sample of Black men aged 51-81 (N = 593) in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models of the psychosocial determinants of self-rated health draw on data from the HRS 2010 and 2012 Core datasets and Psychosocial Modules. Results: Each of the six measures of stressors as well as a cumulative measure of stressors are predictive of worse self-rated health. However, when considered collectively, only two stressors (chronic strains and traumatic events) have statistically significant effects. Furthermore, two of the five psychosocial resources examined (mastery and optimism) have statistically significant protective effects, and prayer moderates the harmful effects of traumatic events on self-rated health. Discussion: Conventional measures of stressors and coping resources-originally developed to account for variance in health outcomes among predominantly white samples-may not capture psychosocial factors most salient for older Black men's health. Future research should incorporate psychosocial measures that reflect their unique experiences

Using Multiple-hierarchy Stratification and Life Course Approaches to Understand Health Inequalities: The Intersecting Consequences of Race, Gender, SES, and Age

This study examines how the intersecting consequences of race-ethnicity, gender, socioeconomics status (SES), and age influence health inequality. We draw on multiple-hierarchy stratification and life course perspectives to address two main research questions. First, does racial-ethnic stratification of health vary by gender and/or SES? More specifically, are the joint health consequences of racial-ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic stratification additive or multiplicative? Second, does this combined inequality in health decrease, remain stable, or increase between middle and late life? We use panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 12,976) to investigate between- and within-group differences in in self-rated health among whites, blacks, and Mexican Americans. Findings indicate that the effects of racial-ethnic, gender, and SES stratification are interactive, resulting in the greatest racial-ethnic inequalities in health among women and those with higher levels of SES. Furthermore, racial-ethnic/gender/SES inequalities in health tend to decline with age. These results are broadly consistent with intersectionality and aging-as-leveler hypotheses

Wave III College Mobility Data Documentation

At Wave III of the Add Health survey, respondents were asked if they were currently enrolled in a postsecondary institution. Respondents who answered in the affirmative were then asked to report the institution in which they were currently enrolled. Using this information on current enrollment, data from the Mobility Report Card: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility (Chetty 2017) were linked to the Add Health respondents. For variables C4CMR01-C4CMR11M, data came from the Preferred Estimates of Access and Mobility by College dataset (Chetty et al. 2017). These data were collected from a sample of college students who were born between 1980 and 1982 and who attended a college or university in the early 2000’s. These students were between the ages of 19 and 22 at the time of their entry into college. Further information on how the original researchers collected the data for these variables can be found here: http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/data/college/Codebook%20MRC%20Table%201.pdf For variables C3FIN01-C3MAJ08, Chetty and colleagues drew these data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Information for each of these variables were collected for the years 2000 and 2013 (unless otherwise stated). For all variables there were some instances where colleges were grouped together, for instance when multiple colleges made up a State University-System. For these colleges, data values for the variables are enrollment-weighted means of the underlying values for each of the colleges being grouped together. Though the variables available on the College Mobility data at Wave III are the same as those on the College Mobility data at Wave IV, the way in which respondents were asked to self-report college or university attendance was different between the two waves, and interpretation of these contextual data is slightly different as a result. At Wave III, respondents were asked to report if they were currently enrolled in a college of university, and information on the institution in which they were currently enrolled was collected. Information on institutions was collected regardless of the degree that the respondent was currently seeking. At Wave IV, respondents were asked to report the name of the college or university from which they received a degree. Additionally, this question was only asked if respondents reported receiving a bachelor’s degree. See “Documentation for College Mobility Data: Wave IV” (Gaydosh et al. 2019) for more information on linked college- and university-level data for this wave. In addition to the data available here, previously created contextual data on Wave III postsecondary institutions is also available. See “Wave III Education Data: Postsecondary Contextual Component Codebook” (Riegel-Crumb et al. 2008) for further information

Wave III Tobacco Tax Data Documentation

These data are meant to supplement the County Health and Mobility Data available for Waves I & IV1. Tobacco tax information is at the state level. Data were matched to the state that the Add Health respondent was living in at the time of the Wave III interview. Data were matched to respondents so as to ensure that these contextual variables correspond as closely as possible to the year in which the Add Health respondents were interviewed at Wave III (2001)

Wave IV County Health and Mobility Data Documentation

The following is a list of data that were collected from secondary data sources and merged to Wave IV of Add Health. These variables are available at the county or state level. Data was matched to the county or state that the Add Health respondent was living in at the time of the Wave IV interview and data was matched to respondents so as to insure that these contextual variables correspond as closely as possible to the year in which the Add Health respondents were interviewed at Wave IV (2008)

Wave II Tobacco Tax Data Documentation

These data are meant to supplement the County Health and Mobility Data available for Waves I & IV1. Tobacco tax information is at the state level. Data were matched to the state that the Add Health respondent was living in at the time of the Wave II interview. Data were matched to respondents so as to ensure that these contextual variables correspond as closely as possible to the year in which the Add Health respondents were interviewed at Wave II (1996)

Wave I County Health, Mobility, and Tobacco Tax Data Documentation

The following is a list of data that were collected from secondary data sources and merged to Wave I of Add Health. These variables are available at the county or state level. Data were matched to the county or state that the Add Health respondent was living in at the time of the Wave I interview. Data were matched to respondents so as to ensure that these contextual variables correspond as closely as possible to the year in which the Add Health respondents were interviewed at Wave I (1994/1995)

2003 AAPP Monograph Series

It is significant that the African American Professors Program (AAPP) at the University of South Carolina is producing the third edition of its annual monograph series at this time-the fifth anniversary of AAPP. The program graciously accepts the challenge of putting into place a requirement for the scholars to produce quality research papers worthy of publication. This provides widespread visibility for them and enhances their curriculum vitae concurrently. Scholars who have contributed manuscripts for this monograph are to be commended for adding this additional responsibility to their academic workload. Writing across disciplines adds to the intellectual diversity of these papers. From neophytes, relatively speaking, to an array of very experienced individuals, the chapters have been researched and comprehensively written. Founded in 1997 through the Department of Educational Leadership and Policies in the College of Education, AAPP was designed to address the underrepresentation of African American professors on college and university campuses. Its mission is to expand the pool of these professors in critical academic and research areas. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and the South Carolina General Assembly, the program recruits students with bachelor\u27s, master\u27s, and doctoral degrees for disciplines in which African Americans currently are underrepresented. An important component of the program is the mentoring experience that is provided. Each student is assigned to a mentor/professor who guides the student through a selected academic program and provides various learning experiences. When possible, the mentor serves as chair of the student\u27s doctoral committee. The mentor also provides opportunities for the student to team teach, conduct research, and co-author publications. Students have the advantage of attending committee, faculty, and professional meetings, as well as engaging in a range of activities that characterize professional life in academia. Scholars enrolled in the program also are involved in programmatic and institutional workshops, independent research, and program development. The continuation of this monograph series is seen as responding to a window of opportunity to be sensitive to an academic expectation of graduates as they pursue career placement and, at the same time, one that allows for the dissemination of AAPP products to a broader community. The importance of this monograph series has been voiced by one of our 2002 AAPP graduates, Dr. Shundelle LaTjuan Dogan, a recent Harvard Administrative Fellow at Harvard University and now Program Officer for the Southern Education Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Dogan wrote: One thing in particular that I want to thank you for is having the African American Professors Program scholars publish articles for the monograph. I have to admit that writing the articles seemed like extra work at the time. However, in my recent interview process, organizations have asked me for samples of my writing. Including an article from a published monograph helped to make my portfolio much more impressive. You were right on target in having us do the monograph series. We hope that you will read this monograph of the African American Professors Program with enthusiasm or enlightenment. John McFadden, Ph.D. The Benjamin Elijah Mays Professor Director, African American Professors Program University of South Carolinahttps://scholarcommons.sc.edu/mcfadden_monographs/1006/thumbnail.jp

A measurement of the tau mass and the first CPT test with tau leptons

We measure the mass of the tau lepton to be 1775.1+-1.6(stat)+-1.0(syst.) MeV using tau pairs from Z0 decays. To test CPT invariance we compare the masses of the positively and negatively charged tau leptons. The relative mass difference is found to be smaller than 3.0 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.

Predicting the Clinical Outcome of Severe Falciparum Malaria in African Children: Findings From a Large Randomized Trial

Four predictors were independently associated with an increased risk of death: acidosis, cerebral manifestations of malaria, elevated blood urea nitrogen, or signs of chronic illness. The standard base deficit was found to be the single most relevant predictor of death