Raised Up
Why do families foster children? A Beckerian approach
Cameron Taylor
Review of Economics of the Household, March 2024, Pages 261-293
Abstract:
Less than half of the tens of thousands of older abused and neglected children in foster care are able to find a foster family to take care of them while the rest are placed in restrictive group home settings. This paper proposes that households choose to foster children following a Becker-style model in which households maximize the human capital of the children they care for and can receive human capital flows from both foster children and biological children. The demand for foster children and the age of foster children depends on the number of biological children and the household wage. I test the main predictions of the model using twins as an instrument and a rich set of household observable characteristics. A parameterized version of the model suggests that the substitutability of foster children and biological children is a stronger lever affecting fostering than foster care subsidies, and the wage of a household is almost as important as the subsidy in determining fostering.
Polygenic risk and hostile environments: Links to stable and dynamic antisocial behaviors across adolescence
Erinn Acland et al.
Development and Psychopathology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Adverse environments are linked to elevated youth antisocial behavior. However, this relation is thought to depend, in part, on genetic susceptibility. The present study investigated whether polygenic risk for antisociality moderates relations between hostile environments and stable as well as dynamic antisocial behaviors across adolescence. We derived two antisocial-linked polygenic risk scores (PRS) (N = 721) based on previous genome-wide association studies. Forms of antisocial behavior (nonaggressive conduct problems, physical aggression, social aggression) and environmental hostility (harsh parenting and school violence) were assessed at age 13, 15, and 17 years. Relations to individual differences stable across adolescence (latent stability) vs. time-specific states (timepoint residual variance) of antisocial behavior were assessed via structural equation models. Higher antisocial PRS, harsh parenting, and school violence were linked to stable elevations in antisocial behaviors across adolescence. We identified a consistent polygenic-environment interaction suggestive of differential susceptibility in late adolescence. At age 17, harsher parenting was linked to higher social aggression in those with higher antisocial PRS, and lower social aggression in those with lower antisocial PRS. This suggests that genetics and environmental hostility relate to stable youth antisocial behaviors, and that genetic susceptibility moderates home environment-antisocial associations specifically in late adolescence.
Happiness and Sadness in Adolescents’ Instagram Direct Messaging: A Neural Topic Modeling Approach
Tim Verbeij et al.
Social Media + Society, February 2024
Abstract:
We investigated the expressions of happiness and sadness in adolescents’ direct messages (DMs) on Instagram. Using neural topic modeling (BERTopic), we analyzed 211,778 DMs belonging to 96 adolescents, who donated data from 101 Instagram accounts. Results showed that (1) expressions of happiness were more than four times more prevalent than expressions of sadness; (2) the number of DMs containing expressions of happiness and expressions of sadness were highly correlated; (3) there are temporal trends in the expression of happiness and sadness in adolescents’ DMs, and there are individual differences in these trends; and (4) there is no significant between- or within-person relationship between the number of DMs containing expressions of happiness and sadness and adolescents’ well-being.
Exploring the Fetal Origins Hypothesis Using Genetic Data
Sam Trejo
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
Birth weight is a robust predictor of valued life course outcomes, emphasizing the importance of prenatal development. But does birth weight act as a proxy for environmental conditions in utero, or do biological processes surrounding birth weight themselves play a role in healthy development? To answer this question, we leverage variation in birth weight that is, within families, orthogonal to prenatal environmental conditions: one’s genes. We construct polygenic scores in two longitudinal studies (Born in Bradford, N = 2008; Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, N = 8488) to empirically explore the molecular genetic correlates of birth weight. A 1 standard deviation increase in the polygenic score is associated with an ~100-grams increase in birth weight and a 1.4 pp (22 percent) decrease in low birth weight probability. Sibling comparisons illustrate that this association largely represents a causal effect. The polygenic score–birth weight association is increased for children who spend longer in the womb and whose mothers have higher body mass index, though we find no differences across maternal socioeconomic status. Finally, the polygenic score affects social and cognitive outcomes, suggesting that birth weight is itself related to healthy prenatal development.
Examining timing effects in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depressive symptoms: A genetically informed study
Tong Chen et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present study examined genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental pathways in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety and depressive symptoms from parents to early adolescents (when these symptoms start to increase), while considering timing effects of exposure to parent anxiety and depressive symptoms postnatally. The sample was from the Early Growth and Development Study, including 561 adopted children (57% male, 55% White, 13% Black/African American, 11% Hispanic/Latine, 20% multiracial, 1% other; 407 provided data in early adolescence) and their birth (BP) and adoptive parents (AP). Using a trait–state–occasion model with eight assessments from child ages 9 months to 11 years, we partitioned trait-like AP anxiety and depressive symptoms from time-specific fluctuations of AP anxiety and depressive symptoms. Offspring anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed at 11 years (while controlling for similar symptoms at 4.5 years). Results suggested that time-specific fluctuations of AP1 (mostly mothers) anxiety/depressive symptoms in infancy (9 months) were indirectly associated with offspring anxiety/depressive symptoms at 11 years via offspring anxiety/depressive symptoms at 4.5 years; time-specific fluctuations of AP1 anxiety/depressive symptoms at child age 11 years were concurrently associated with offspring anxiety/depressive symptoms at 11 years. AP2 (mostly fathers) anxiety/depressive symptoms were not associated with offspring symptoms. Genetic and prenatal influences measured by BP internalizing problems were not associated with offspring symptoms. Results suggested infancy and early adolescence as developmental periods when children are susceptible to influences of parent anxiety and depressive symptoms. Preventive interventions should consider time-specific fluctuations in parent anxiety and depressive symptoms during these developmental periods.
Status Externalities in Education and Low Birth Rates in Korea
Seongeun Kim, Michèle Tertilt & Minchul Yum
American Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
East Asians, especially South Koreans, appear to be preoccupied with their offspring's education -- most children spend time in expensive private institutes and in cram schools in the evenings and on weekends. At the same time, South Korea currently has the lowest total fertility rate in the world. Motivated by novel empirical evidence on spillovers in private education spending, we propose a theory with status externalities and endogenous fertility that connects these two facts. Using a quantitative heterogeneous-agent model calibrated to Korea, we find that fertility would be 28% higher in the absence of the status externality and that childlessness in the poorest quintile would fall from five to less than one percent. We then explore the effects of various government policies. A pro-natal transfer or an education tax can increase fertility and reduce education spending, with heterogeneous effects across the income distribution. The policy mix that maximizes the current generation's welfare consists of an education tax of 22% and moderate pro-natal transfers. This would raise average fertility by about 11% and decrease education spending by 39%. Although this policy increases the welfare of the current generation, it may not do the same for future generations as it lowers their human capital.
Comparing disgust sensitivity in women in early pregnancy and non-pregnant women in the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle
Daniela Dlouhá et al.
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Considered a part of the behavioral immune system, disgust functions as a protective mechanism against potential pathogen threat. There is evidence that disgust sensitivity varies depending on immunological and hormonal changes, including those occurring during the menstrual cycle or pregnancy. Although some studies indicate that disgust is elevated in early pregnancy, no study has yet compared disgust sensitivity in pregnant and non-pregnant women. This study aimed to examine differences in disgust sensitivity in pregnant versus non-pregnant women, while investigating whether disgust sensitivity differs depending on the phase of the menstrual cycle in non-pregnant women. The sample included 172 women (aged 21–40) in the first trimester of pregnancy and 354 non-pregnant, naturally cycling women (aged 20–40), out of whom 218 (61.6%) were in the luteal phase. All women filled out the Disgust Scale-Revised and the Three Domains of Disgust Scale. Non-pregnant women also completed the Culpepper Disgust Image Set. We observed that pregnant women had significantly higher pathogen-related and sexual disgust sensitivity than their non-pregnant counterparts (in both the follicular and luteal cycle phases). In non-pregnant women, there was no difference in disgust sensitivity between women in the follicular and luteal phases. When comparing pregnant women, women in the follicular phase, and those in the luteal phase, pathogen-related disgust sensitivity was lowest in the follicular, then in the luteal phase, and the highest in early pregnancy, although the difference between women in the follicular and luteal phase was not significant. Our results provide further evidence for the hypothesis that disgust is elevated when there is a need for increased protection, such as in the critical period of organogenesis in the first trimester of pregnancy.