Unplanned Costs and Benefits: Gender and Spousal Spillover Effects of Retirement on Health.

Objective: Our study assesses how women and men's health indicators are shaped by their spouse's retirement. Background: The retirement process can reshape the health of a retiree, but these effects can also extend onto the health of spouses. Although past research has largely focused on how men's retirement might negatively shape their wife's health outcomes, it is possible that wives' retirement has detrimental effects on their husband's health as well. Method: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we employ a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify the causal effects of spousal retirement on indicators of physical and mental health in married older adults. Results: Our results suggested that men, not women, experience the most negative spousal spillover effects of retirement on their health outcomes. We found the most support for spillover effects on spouses' physical health outcomes. Additionally, men who are not working when their spouse retires experienced the most negative health effects. Conclusion: Women and men's health is differentially affected by spousal retirement, where men might be the most negatively affected by their spouses' transition in the U.S. context. These results contradict conventional wisdom that undergirds numerous untested assumptions underlying prior research on this significant life transition.

Standing on Their Own Two Feet: How the New Public Charge Rules Could Impact Non-European LPR Applicants.

In February 2020, the U.S. government began to implement a new Public Charge rule that greatly expands the definition of "public charge" when determining admissibility for legal permanent residency (LPR). The rule seeks to determine not only whether applicants used public benefits in the past, but also whether they are likely to use them in the future. However, predicting future use based on characteristics measured at the time of application, such as English language proficiency and income, is difficult. We evaluate the risk of being deemed inadmissible as well as the likelihood of using public assistance by regional group. Using a sample of recently arrived LPRs in the 2013-2017 American Community Survey, we find that Mexicans/Central Americans face disproportionate risk of being deemed a public charge despite their relatively low public assistance use. This increased risk would likely alter the composition of newly admitted LPRs with relatively fewer Mexican/Central American LPRs.

The Impact of Public Charge on Immigrants.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, over one million individuals obtain lawful permanent resident (LPR) status each year. However, beginning in February of 2020, LPR applicants became subject to new Public Charge Rules that seek to bar admission to anyone who "is likely at any time to become a public charge" (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(4)). Motivated by the misconception that immigrants overuse U.S. welfare benefits, the rules seek to employ unnecessary vetting criteria that are both unfair and unsafe.

Targeted High-Risk Youth in Missouri PREP: Understanding Program Impacts on Youth Sexual Behavior Intentions.

BACKGROUND: Missouri Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) provides sexual health education programs to youth with goals of reducing unintended teen pregnancies. Theories of change provide that youth improve their sexual health knowledge, intentions, attitudes, and behaviors as a result of program implementation. Program evaluations are needed to assess the degree to which PREP programs are meeting their goals of improving youth outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to examine youth sexual intentions to use a condom, engage in sexual behavior, and abstain from sex as a result of Missouri PREP program implementation. We evaluate the effectiveness of the Missouri program in modifying youth intentions toward healthier planned behaviors. METHODS: All programs required youth to take pre- and post-program surveys. For this study, we evaluate a sample of 1,335 youth's pre- and post-survey intentions related to condom use, sex, and abstention. We utilize t-tests as well as a lagged logistic regression approach to account for youth's respective pre-intentions. RESULTS: Youth's scores on intentions, knowledge, and attitudes rise from pre- to post-survey. Knowledge gains are salient while attitudes remain relatively high and stable. Intentions to use condoms differ from those in intentions to have or abstain from sex. Program change in intentions to use a condom are highest among the three intention outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Missouri PREP saw improvements in knowledge, attitudes, and intentions as a result of program implementation. Findings suggest that the Missouri PREP program is effective at positively influencing youth intentions to engage in risky or sexual behavior.

Leapfrogging the Melting Pot? European Immigrants' Intergenerational Mobility across the Twentieth Century.

During the early twentieth century, industrial-era European immigrants entered the United States with lower levels of education than the U.S. average. However, empirical research has yielded unclear and inconsistent evidence about the extent and pace of their integration, leaving openings for arguments that contest the narrative that these groups experienced rapid integration and instead assert that educational deficits among lower-status groups persisted across multiple generations. Here, we advance another argument, that European immigrants may have "leapfrogged" or exceeded U.S.-born non-Hispanic white attainment by the third generation. To assess these ideas, we reconstituted three-generation families by linking individuals across the 1940 Census, years 1973, 1979, 1981-90 of the Current Population Survey, the 2000 Census, and years 2001-2017 of the American Community Survey. Results show that most European immigrant groups not only caught up with U.S.-born whites by the second generation, but surpassed them, and this advantage further increased in the third generation. This research provides a new understanding of the time to integration for 20th century European immigrant groups by showing that they integrated at a faster pace than previously thought, indicative of a process of accelerated upward mobility.