Browsing by Author "Gassman-Pines, Anna"

Rising demographic diversity and persistent social inequality are two defining features of youths’ social worlds, and schools and neighborhoods are key developmental contexts where this component of contemporary life plays out. This dissertation aimed to better understand the developmental implications of these twin phenomena, focusing specifically on adolescence, a critical period of development characterized by profound neurobiological and social cognitive changes. Across three studies, I asked, (1) how does exposure to different types of diversity and inequality in schools and neighborhoods relate to adolescent mental health and academic engagement? and (2) how do these relations differ across contexts and according to individual socioeconomic and racial-ethnic identity?The first chapter examined the relation between how schools say they value diversity and adolescent belonging, mental health, and academic engagement across racial groups. Results indicate that when schools’ mission statements conveyed explicit support for diversity (versus exhibiting color-evasive ideologies), racial disparities in mental health, educational aspirations, and reading achievement were smaller. However, when there was a mismatch between how schools said they value diversity and how such values were put into practice, schools’ proclaimed support for diversity was negatively associated with mental health, especially among White youth. The second chapter examined how exposure to rising inequality within neighborhoods—vis-à-vis gentrification—may impact educational outcomes. I found small positive associations between living in a gentrifying (versus chronically disinvested) neighborhood and 12th grade cumulative grade point average, intentions to pursue higher education, and one dimension of school quality: exposure to experienced teachers. However, these potential benefits of gentrification were concentrated among youth who were not economically disadvantaged and White youth. Further, for Black youth, the relation between gentrification and postsecondary plans varied according to the degree of racial turnover occurring in gentrifying neighborhoods—Black gentrification was positively associated with intentions to pursue college, but White gentrification was not. The third chapter examined two psychological mechanisms through which living in a gentrifying neighborhood may impact reading and math achievement: educational aspirations and psychological distress. Overall, there was a positive direct association between gentrification and achievement, and limited evidence of mediation. However, the pathways linking gentrification to educational aspirations, psychological distress, and achievement differed across socioeconomic and racial groups in nuanced ways that illuminate the potential costs and benefits of living in a changing neighborhood during adolescence. These three studies contribute to advancing the education, adolescent, and neighborhood literatures by examining understudied aspects of schools and neighborhoods. Findings suggest that the relation between context, identity, and development is more nuanced than is often assumed, with policy implications for how schools and neighborhoods can better address rising demographic diversity and persistent inequality.

What people choose to eat is a public policy and health concern. Fresh produce and similarly healthy foods are often less preferred to unhealthy foods. Unhealthy foods can at times be cheaper and more accessible than healthy foods, making it difficult for consumers to avoid temptation at grocery or convenience stores. This dissertation is an analysis of two different pilot programs which aim to increase the purchase of healthy foods, specifically produce. The first pilot program is a financial incentive known as "Double Up Food Bucks". The program is targeted towards SNAP participants, encouraging them to purchase more fresh produce by effectively doubling purchasing power. The second pilot program is a set of three behavioral nudges designed to increase the purchase of bananas in a convenience store environment. The impact of each pilot program was measured using a pre- and post-experiment difference-in-differences design. The results of both pilots are modest and support a growing body of evidence that traditional interventions, like financial incentives, and behavioral interventions, like nudges, can successfully increase healthy food purchases at the margin.

In this dissertation, I propose, operationalize, and test a novel model of identity fragility using fragile masculinity as a case study. To date, identity research has largely focused on understanding how people’s membership in different social categories (e.g., gender, race) shapes their experiences, self-concept, and behavior. I contend that when (i) a social category is high-status and (ii) its corresponding norms are especially rigid—as is often the case with masculinity—people in this category may feel pressured to uphold its norms in order to maintain their status. To the extent that identities are pressured, I argue that they are “fragile”, in turn eliciting compensatory, stereotypical responses (e.g., male aggression) to perceived threats aimed at maintaining status. Supporting the proposed model, I found that young men’s (Study 1) and post-pubertal boys’ (Study 3) aggressive cognition post-threat was directly related to the extent to which their masculine behavior was extrinsically motivated (pressured). In Study 2, I found that straight men’s anti-gay bias was again predicted by a combination of extrinsic pressure and threat, which was partially mediated by men’s endorsement of gender-inversion stereotypes (e.g., gay = feminine). Finally, as one possible pathway to reduce these adverse pressures and compensatory aggression, in Study 4, I found that identity-salient events like U.S. presidential elections can loosen masculinity norms from the “top-down” to mitigate certain men’s sociopolitical aggression.

Most research on the effects of economic hardship on children and parents has only considered the effects of income poverty, while ignoring the roles of two other dimensions of economic hardship - subjective financial stress and material deprivation. In this dissertation, I fill that gap in the literature by examining the effects of these underexamined dimensions of economic hardship on children's social-emotional outcomes from an international perspective. I also expand on the extant literature by examining the effects of economic hardship on parenting at the community, rather than the family, level. Together, the three chapters of this dissertation add a more nuanced and global perspective to a growing body of literature on the multiple dimensions of economic hardship and their impacts on children and parents.

The first chapter examines the multiple possible manifestations of economic hardship at the family level and their associations with children's social-emotional outcomes. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative longitudinal study of children born between 2000 and 2001 in the United Kingdom, I find that half of the families who experienced economic hardship were not income poor, but nevertheless experienced material deprivation, subjective financial stress, or both. Moreover, all manifestations of economic hardship, including those without income poverty, were associated with higher levels of behavior problems for children. I interpret these findings to indicate that income poverty is a necessary but insufficient measure of economic hardship and that future research on the effects of economic hardship should consider all of the possible manifestations of economic hardship.

The second chapter more deeply investigates the association between material deprivation and children's social-emotional outcomes holding income constant. I use data from the Parenting Across Cultures Project to identify whether the association between material deprivation and children's behavior problems found in the first paper is also observable among families in nine diverse countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. I find that even when income remained stable, parents' perceived material deprivation was associated with children's externalizing behavior problems. I also find that parents' disciplinary practices explain a small but significant share of the association between parents' perceived material deprivation and children's behavior problems. There were no differences in these associations between mothers and fathers or between high- and low- and middle-income countries. These results provide further evidence that material deprivation influences children's social-emotional outcomes at any income level and suggest that this association is significant in diverse political, cultural, and economic contexts.

The third chapter examines the effect of economic hardship on parenting behavior at the community, rather than family, level. Using longitudinal state-level US administrative data on mass layoffs and child maltreatment investigations, this chapter tests whether economic shocks at the state level are associated with community-wide increases in child maltreatment. I show that job losses are associated with a significant increase in investigations for physical abuse, but not in the overall rate of investigations. Moreover, job losses also predict an increase in the share of reports that was substantiated. These findings underscore the need to consider economic hardship at the community level in addition to the family level when studying economic disparities in children's outcomes and experiences.

During the past 20 years, immigration enforcement increased dramatically in the U.S. interior. There is a growing recognition that immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior has spillover effects onto U.S. citizens, particularly the family of unauthorized immigrants. U.S. citizen children in mixed status families are particularly likely to be affected. Over 5 million children are estimated to have at least one unauthorized parent, and 80 percent of these children are U.S. citizens. These chapters contribute to a full accounting of the costs of immigration enforcement by investigating its impacts on educational outcomes, which have long-term ramifications for the United States.

I focus on the effects of partnerships between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement. Although raids by ICE agents, whether at worksites or in the community, are particularly salient, the majority of arrests by ICE result not from direct arrests by ICE agents but from transfers to ICE from federal, state, or local custody. In my first chapter, I use the staggered rollout of Secure Communities, a biometric sharing program activated in every U.S. county between 2008 and 2013. I examine this program's effects on county-level academic achievement and school enrollment. In my second and third chapters, I examine the impacts of another type of partnership between ICE and local law enforcement, 287(g) programs, on achievement, attendance, out-of-school suspensions, and school mobility within North Carolina. In North Carolina, nine counties were approved to establish 287(g) programs, and another fifteen applied but were not approved to participate. I use a triple difference strategy in which I compare educational outcomes for different groups of students in these two sets of counties before and after activation of 287(g) programs.Together, these studies provide evidence on how partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE affect educational outcomes for students, as well as which students are likely to experience impacts.

I find that the activation of 287(g) programs decreases school engagement by decreasing attendance. This effect is concentrated at the top of the distribution, increasing chronic absenteeism (missing 15 or more days per year), and is driven by high school students. In contrast, I find more mixed results for the effects of both types of partnerships on math and English Language Arts (ELA) achievement in grades 3-8. Although I observe a small decline in ELA achievement for Hispanic students following the activation of Secure Communities, this decline may result from other factors correlated with activation. I observe no effect of 287(g) programs on achievement.