The UC Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research
mission is to facilitate non-partisan academic research on
poverty in the U.S., disseminate this research, and train
the next generation of poverty scholars. Our research agenda
includes four themed areas of focus: labor markets and poverty,
children and intergenerational transmission of poverty, the
non-traditional safety net, and immigration.
Experiencing poverty during childhood can lead to lasting harmful
effects that compromise not only children’s health and welfare
but can also limit them to a lifetime of poverty that passes on
to future generations. This cycle of economic disadvantages
weighs heavily not only on these families but also the nation,
reducing overall economic output and placing increased burden on
the educational, criminal justice, and health care systems.
The UC Davis Office of Research is pleased to announce the launch
of the UC Davis Humanities and Social Sciences Stimulating
Exceptional and Essential Discovery (S.E.E.D.) Funding Program,
which aims to provide awards that support research activity
historically underfunded and outside of STEM fields. This call is
open to researchers in all Humanities, Humanistic Social
Sciences, Cultural Sciences and Arts disciplines. Projects may be
in any related field, and requests at all scales of funding
within the limits of the call will be considered.
Dr. Weissman’s paper on the antipoverty programs and income
disparities in brain structure and mental health was published by
Nature Communications. David Weissman is the study’s lead author
and a postdoctoral fellow in McLaughlin’s Stress & Development
Lab at Harvard University. Former CPIR affiliate Dr. Weissman
received his PhD in Psychology from the University of California,
Davis, where he worked under the mentorship of CPIR affiliates
Dr. Paul Hastings and Dr. Amanda Guyer.
Abstract: Macrostructural characteristics, such as cost of living
and state-level anti-poverty programs relate to the magnitude of
socioeconomic disparities in brain development and mental health.
In this study we leveraged data from the Adolescent Brain and
Cognitive Development (ABCD) study from 10,633 9-11 year old
youth (5115 female) across 17 states. Lower income was associated
with smaller hippocampal volume and higher internalizing
psychopathology. These associations were stronger in states with
higher cost of living. However, in high cost of living states
that provide more generous cash benefits for low-income families,
socioeconomic disparities in hippocampal volume were reduced by
34%, such that the association of family income with hippocampal
volume resembled that in the lowest cost of living states. We
observed similar patterns for internalizing psychopathology.
State-level anti-poverty programs and cost of living may be
confounded with other factors related to neurodevelopment and
mental health. However, the patterns were robust to controls for
numerous state-level social, economic, and political
characteristics. These findings suggest that state-level
macrostructural characteristics, including the generosity of
anti-poverty policies, are potentially relevant for addressing
the relationship of low income with brain development and mental
health.
The USA maintains the world’s largest immigration detention system. In two recent studies, we examined the health of detained immigrants in California during detention and following release.
In the first study, we examined confinement conditions (including sleep deprivation, social isolation from family via barriers to visitation, witnessing or experiencing abuse or harassment, and barriers to needed physical and mental health care) and found that each condition increased the likelihood of deleterious physical and/or mental health conditions among study participants.
The UC Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research (CPIR) in
collaboration with 14 California HSIs, invites current
undergraduates to register for the Broadening Participation in
Social Inequality Research (BPSIR) summer program, which
introduces students from these institutions to inequality and
social policy research sciences and helps them develop knowledge
and skills for successful graduate school application,
enrollment, and completion.
Experiencing poverty during childhood can lead to lasting harmful
effects that compromise not only children’s health and welfare
but can also limit them to a lifetime of poverty that passes on
to future generations. This cycle of economic disadvantages
weighs heavily not only on these families but also the nation,
reducing overall economic output and placing increased burden on
the educational, criminal justice, and health care systems.
Dr. Weissman’s paper on the antipoverty programs and income
disparities in brain structure and mental health was published by
Nature Communications. David Weissman is the study’s lead author
and a postdoctoral fellow in McLaughlin’s Stress & Development
Lab at Harvard University. Former CPIR affiliate Dr. Weissman
received his PhD in Psychology from the University of California,
Davis, where he worked under the mentorship of CPIR affiliates
Dr. Paul Hastings and Dr. Amanda Guyer.
Abstract: Macrostructural characteristics, such as cost of living
and state-level anti-poverty programs relate to the magnitude of
socioeconomic disparities in brain development and mental health.
In this study we leveraged data from the Adolescent Brain and
Cognitive Development (ABCD) study from 10,633 9-11 year old
youth (5115 female) across 17 states. Lower income was associated
with smaller hippocampal volume and higher internalizing
psychopathology. These associations were stronger in states with
higher cost of living. However, in high cost of living states
that provide more generous cash benefits for low-income families,
socioeconomic disparities in hippocampal volume were reduced by
34%, such that the association of family income with hippocampal
volume resembled that in the lowest cost of living states. We
observed similar patterns for internalizing psychopathology.
State-level anti-poverty programs and cost of living may be
confounded with other factors related to neurodevelopment and
mental health. However, the patterns were robust to controls for
numerous state-level social, economic, and political
characteristics. These findings suggest that state-level
macrostructural characteristics, including the generosity of
anti-poverty policies, are potentially relevant for addressing
the relationship of low income with brain development and mental
health.
Sociology PhD Candidate, Paola Langer, won the 2023 Population
Association of America Poster Award for her work,
State-Level Spending and Black–White Mortality
Gaps
COVID-19 May Have Been Job Related for One Fourth of
Diagnosed Adults
We catch COVID-19 from each other. The fewer people we
encounter,
the safer we will be. Our desire for fewer encounters was
especially apparent in employment arrangements during the first
two and a half years
of the pandemic. Most workers whom employers allowed to work from
home did so; most whose employers did not allow this reported to
their workplaces.
Objectives: To test for the effects of wages on smoking using
labor unions as instrumental variables. Methods: We analyzed four
waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2013 to 2019
alternate years). The overall sample included workers aged 18 to
70 years in 2013 and subsamples within blue clerical/white-collar
and private/public sector jobs (N = 37,117 to 8446 person years).
We used two instrumental variables: worker’s union membership and
states’ right-to-work laws.
The goal of this UCOP-funded pilot program on Child Health,
Poverty and Public Policy is to lay the foundation for a UC-wide
network of scholars who are committed to rigorous cross-training
in multiple disciplinary-specific skills and “languages” that are
necessary to produce a comprehensive understanding of the
mechanisms by which health and nutrition programs (e.g.
Briana Ballis is currently an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Economics at the University of California-Merced.
Her research interests are in labor economics. Much of her work
focuses on studying the determinants of inequality in education.
Through her work, she seeks to better understand how individuals’
educational investment decisions are shaped by their environments
and backgrounds, and, in particular how policies or programs that
impact vulnerable youth can sere to reduce (or exacerbate)
pre-existing gaps in later life.
Katheryn Russ has expertise in open-economy macroeconomics and
international trade policy. She is a faculty research associate
in the National Bureau of Economic Research International Trade
and Investment Group and Co-Organizer of the International Trade
and Macroeconomics Working Group. She is a Non-Resident Senior
Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and
served as Senior Economist for International Trade and Finance
for the White House Council of Economic Advisors 2015-16.
Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa is an assistant professor of education
and member of the Education and Human Development graduate
groups. She earned a Ph.D. in Education and Psychology and M.A.
in Higher Education at the University of Michigan. Broadly, her
research aims to improve education and well-being outcomes among
youth from historically marginalized communities, with a focus on
racial-ethnic, gender, and economic marginalization.
Robert Faris uses social network analysis to investigate how
health risk behaviors, including bullying, dating violence,
substance use, and delinquency, spread through social ties and
are structured in the social hierarchies of schools.
His recent work shows that adolescents bully their own friends,
as well as schoolmates with whom they share friends, to achieve
higher social status, and examines the moderating role of network
stability in this dynamic.
Rose Kagawa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Emergency Medicine. Dr. Kagawa conducts research on violence
prevention and firearm policy and has particular interest in
understanding how social and environmental contexts influence
violence perpetration and victimization through the life course.
Dr. Au’s research involves the assessment of dietary intakes and
the food environment for the prevention of obesity in low-income,
racially diverse infants and children. Her focus is on
understanding how to promote healthier eating and prevent obesity
in federal nutrition assistance programs, such as the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
and the National School Lunch Program.
Noli Brazil received his doctorate in Demography from the
University of California Berkeley in 2013, and is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Human Ecology. His research and
teaching interests focus on the causes and consequences of
neighborhood inequality. Current research projects include
examining the interactions between neighborhoods and schools,
understanding the determinants of residential mobility and
attainment during young adulthood, and Hispanic US internal
migration.
Dr. Falbe’s research focuses on studying programmatic, policy,
and environmental interventions to prevent chronic disease and
reduce health disparities. Dr. Falbe led an evaluation of the
nation’s first soda tax in Berkeley, California. Her research has
also examined primary care nutrition and physical activity
interventions for youth, healthy retail programs, and
multi-sector community interventions to prevent obesity. Dr.
Falbe received a dual doctorate in Nutrition and Epidemiology in
2013 from Harvard University.
Gail Goodman received her degree in Developmental Psychology from
UCLA in 1977. Her areas of research expertise include welfare
recipients, foster care, and the intergenerational transmission
of attachment insecurity.
Marianne Page is a Professor of Economics and
Co-Director of the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research
at UC Davis. She has authored numerous scholarly articles
focusing on low-income families. A labor economist, she is
an expert on intergenerational mobility and equality of
opportunity in the United States. She has also published on
issues related to the U.S.
1138 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Leticia Saucedo received her degree, cum laude, from
Harvard Law School in 1996. Her research centers on employment
and immigration law, immigrants in low-wage workplaces and the
structural dynamics affecting their entry.
Lisa Pruitt’s areas of research include legal and policy
implications of income inequality along the rural-urban continuum
and legal aspects of declining mobility, with an emphasis on
diminishing access to higher education.
Michal Kurlaender’s work focuses on education policy and
evaluation, particularly practices that address existing
racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequality at various stages of
the educational attainment process.
Ross A. Thompson’s research focuses on the applications of
developmental research to public policy concerns, including
school readiness and its development, early childhood
investments, and early mental health.
Paul Hastings received his degree from the University of Toronto.
His research focuses on the impact of stressors on child and
adolescent well-being, and the effects of poverty on
physiological reactivity, regulation and development of mental
and physical health problems.
Cassandra Hart is associate professor of education policy. She
evaluates the effects of school, state and national education
programs, policies, and practices on overall student achievement,
and on the equality of student outcomes. Hart’s recent work
has focused on school choice programs, school accountability
policies, early childhood education policies, and effects on
students of exposure to demographically similar teachers.
She is also interested in the effects of virtual schooling on
student outcomes, both in K-12 and post-secondary settings.
Giovanni Peri received his degree in Economics from UC Berkeley
in 1998. His research focuses on the determinants of
international migrations and their impact on labor markets,
productivity, and investments.
1140 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Childhood poverty in the United States remains a persistent and
pervasive concern. Considerable research evidence links
childhood experiences of poverty to harmful effects on
developmental outcomes. Yet, less is known about how those
experiencing poverty perceive, interpret, and understand their
economic circumstances. To address this gap, this
qualitative study sought to understand family members’
perspectives of their economic circumstances.
