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Purpose: This paper aims to assess the economic impact of uniform COVID-controlling policies that were implemented by the US government in 2020 and compare it with hypothetical targeted policies that consider the heterogenous effect of COVID-19 on different age groups. Design/methodology/approach: The author began by showing that the adjusted SEQIHR model is a good fit to the US COVID-induced daily death data in that it can capture the nonlinearities of the data very well. Then, he used this model with extra parameters to evaluate the economic effects of COVID-19 through its impact on the job market. Findings: The results show that targeted COVID-controlling policies could reduce the US death rate and GDP loss to 0.03% and 2%, respectively. By comparing these results with uniform COVID-controlling policies, which led to a 0.1% death rate and 3.5% GDP loss, we could conclude that the death rate reduction is 0.07%. Approximately 378,000 Americans died because of COVID-19 during 2020, therefore, reducing the death rate to 0.03% means saving a significant proportion of the COVID-19 casualties, around 280,000 lives. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first study to assess the economic impacts of COVID-controlling policies by using the multirisk SEQIHR model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a divisive issue in the United States, and most research has focused on partisan differences, thereby leaving the impact of social identities on climate change attitudes underexplored. However, research has shown that the strength of varying and overlapping identities is key to understanding political attitudes. In this paper, we introduce Millennial Generation/Generation Z ("MillZ") as a meaningful social identity that influences political attitudes. Moreover, we contend that Latino*MillZ is an identity that has explanatory value for understanding climate change beliefs. While Latino and Millennial/Generation Z identities are not perfectly aligned, members of the Millennial Generation and Generation Z include a relatively high proportion of Latinos. Furthermore, since Latinos are disproportionately affected by climate change (i.e. the "climate gap") the MillZ identity should generate increased concern for the environment. We utilize an original national survey to explore the interplay of Latino and MillZ identities on attitudes about climate change. Results show that Latino and MillZ identities are both associated with heightened climate change concern and that strong attachment to one identity is sufficient to induce concern when the other is weak. These findings point to the importance of exploring multiple identities and offer evidence that social identities are activated in different ways to influence climate change attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vasectomy remains a safe, simple, and effective contraceptive option. Conflicting data on the trend of vasectomy use among men have been described previously at various snapshots in time over the last two decades. Objectives: This paper seeks to describe the trend of vasectomy utilization in the last 15 years using a nationally representative US survey. Materials and methods: We analyzed data from male respondents aged 18 to 45 years of the Cycle 6 (2002), 2006–2010, 2011–2013, 2013–2015, and 2015–2017 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) surveys. Population estimates are calculated based on the official NSFG instructions, accounting for the complex survey design. Multivariate logistic regression models are used to study demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with vasectomy use in men. Results: Baseline characteristics for men undergoing vasectomy do not differ significantly across survey years. Increased age, White race, marital status, higher education level, birthplace within the United States, higher household income, non‐Catholic affiliation, and higher number of biological kids have significant positive associations with vasectomy use. After accounting for factors associated with vasectomy utilization, there was a significant temporal decline in vasectomy utilization rates in all age groups across survey years which remained in subgroup analyses of all men greater than 25, 30, and 35 years of age. Discussion: This is the first population‐based analysis of US data to observe a decline in vasectomy utilization over the past two decades. The decline was statistically significant after accounting for all demographic and socioeconomic factors. Conclusion: There is a steady decline in the prevalence of vasectomy use in men from 2002 to 2017. Given the limited contraceptive options for men and the importance of contraception and family planning in the United States, further research is needed to understand the temporal decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes normative data for newly collected exemplar responses to 70 semantic categories described in previous norming studies (Battig & Montague, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 80(3, pt.2): 1–46, 1969; Van Overschelde, Rawson, & Dunlosky, Journal of Memory and Language, 50(3): 289–335, 2004; Yoon et al., Psychology and Aging, 19(3), 379–393, 2004). These categories were presented to 246 young (18–39 years), middle (40–59 years), and older (60 years and older) English-speaking adults living in the United States who were asked to generate as many category exemplars as possible for each of the 70 categories. In order to understand differences in normative responses, we analyzed these responses a) between age groups within the current sample and b) in comparison to three previously published sets of norms. Experimental studies using such norms typically assume invariance of normative likelihoods across age and historical time. We replicate previous findings such that exemplar frequency correlations suggest moderate stability in generated category members between age groups and cohorts for many, but not all, categories. Further, analyses of rank-order correlations highlight that the traditional measure of typicality may not capture all aspects of typicality, namely that for some categories there is high consistency in the frequency of exemplars across age groups and/or norms, but the ordering of those exemplars differs significantly. We include a cluster analysis to aid in grouping categories based on relative stability across time, cohort, and age groups. These results emphasize the importance of maintaining and updating age-differentiated category norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the high prevalence of preterm births and its impact on infant mortality in the US have been widely acknowledged, recent data suggest that even full-term births in the US face substantially higher mortality risks compared to European countries with low infant mortality rates. In this paper, we use the most recent birth records in the US to more closely analyze the primary causes underlying mortality rates among full-term births.Methods and Findings: Linked birth and death records for the period 2010-2012 were used to identify the state- and cause-specific burden of infant mortality among full-term infants (born at 37-42 weeks of gestation). Multivariable logistic models were used to assess the extent to which state-level differences in full-term infant mortality (FTIM) were attributable to observed differences in maternal and birth characteristics. Random effects models were used to assess the relative contribution of state-level variation to FTIM. Hypothetical mortality outcomes were computed under the assumption that all states could achieve the survival rates of the best-performing states. A total of 10,175,481 infants born full-term in the US between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2012, were analyzed. FTIM rate (FTIMR) was 2.2 per 1,000 live births overall, and ranged between 1.29 (Connecticut, 95% CI 1.08, 1.53) and 3.77 (Mississippi, 95% CI 3.39, 4.19) at the state level. Zero states reached the rates reported in the 6 low-mortality European countries analyzed (FTIMR < 1.25), and 13 states had FTIMR > 2.75. Sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) accounted for 43% of FTIM; congenital malformations and perinatal conditions accounted for 31% and 11.3% of FTIM, respectively. The largest mortality differentials between states with good and states with poor FTIMR were found for SUDI, with particularly large risk differentials for deaths due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (odds ratio [OR] 2.52, 95% CI 1.86, 3.42) and suffocation (OR 4.40, 95% CI 3.71, 5.21). Even though these mortality differences were partially explained by state-level differences in maternal education, race, and maternal health, substantial state-level variation in infant mortality remained in fully adjusted models (SIDS OR 1.45, suffocation OR 2.92). The extent to which these state differentials are due to differential antenatal care standards as well as differential access to health services could not be determined due to data limitations. Overall, our estimates suggest that infant mortality could be reduced by 4,003 deaths (95% CI 2,284, 5,587) annually if all states were to achieve the mortality levels of the best-performing state in each cause-of-death category. Key limitations of the analysis are that information on termination rates at the state level was not available, and that causes of deaths may have been coded differentially across states.Conclusions: More than 7,000 full-term infants die in the US each year. The results presented in this paper suggest that a substantial share of these deaths may be preventable. Potential improvements seem particularly large for SUDI, where very low rates have been achieved in a few states while average mortality rates remain high in most other areas. Given the high mortality burden due to SIDS and suffocation, policy efforts to promote compliance with recommended sleeping arrangements could be an effective first step in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on various research papers published in the 2005 issue of the periodical "Journal of Adolescent Research." It also highlights the author's wish to evaluate the progress toward making the vitality criterion the standard for publication in the periodical, for the benefit of its readers. One of the papers demonstrates persuasively the value of making the voices of adolescents and emerging adults a standard and even essential part of research papers on the age groups. The author stated that he has used the vitality criterion as the guide as he has reviewed and reached decisions about manuscripts. Another paper presented the voices of adolescents and emerging adults. According to the author, the voices of the adolescents and emerging adults in the papers are vivid and memorable, whether they are speaking about sibling relationships, life after high school or the meaning of democracy. The author stated that the papers that had the most vivid cultural context were mostly from outside the United States.

The goal of this paper is to estimate peer influence in video gaming time among adolescents. Using a nationally representative sample of the U.S. school-aged adolescents in 2009–2010, we estimate a structural model that accounts for the potential biases in the estimate of the peer effect. Our peer group is exogenously assigned and includes one year older adolescents in the same school grade as the respondent. The peer measure is based on peers’ own reports of video gaming time. We find that an additional one hour of playing video games per week by older grade-mates results in .47 hours increase in video gaming time by male responders. We do not find significant peer effect among female responders. Effective policies aimed at influencing the time that adolescents spend video gaming should take these findings into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common policy approach to reducing childhood obesity aims to shape the environment in which children spend most of their time: neighborhoods and schools. This paper uses richly detailed data on the body mass index (BMI) of all New York City public school students in grades K-8 to assess the potential for place-based approaches to reduce child obesity. We document variation in the prevalence of obesity across NYC public schools and census tracts, and then estimate the extent to which this variation can be explained by differences in individual-level predictors (such as race and household income). Both unadjusted and adjusted variability across neighborhoods and schools suggest place-based policies have the potential to meaningfully reduce child obesity, but under most realistic scenarios the improvement would be modest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “fetal origins” hypothesis suggests that fetal conditions not only affect birth characteristics such as birth weight and gestational age, but also have lifelong health implications. Despite widespread interest in this hypothesis, few methodological advances have been proposed to improve the measurement and modeling of fetal conditions. A Statistics in Medicine paper by Bollen, Noble, and Adair examined favorable fetal growth conditions (FFGC) as a latent variable. Their study of Filipino children from Cebu provided evidence consistent with treating FFGC as a latent variable that largely mediates the effects of mother’s characteristics on birth weight, birth length, and gestational age. This innovative method may have widespread utility, but only if the model applies equally well across diverse settings. Our study assesses whether the FFGC model of Cebu replicates and generalizes to a very different population of children from North Carolina (N = 705) and Pennsylvania (N = 494). Using a series of structural equation models, we find that key features of the Cebu analysis replicate and generalize while we also highlight differences between these studies. Our results support treating fetal conditions as a latent variable when researchers test the fetal origins hypothesis. In addition to contributing to the substantive literature on measuring fetal conditions, we also discuss the meaning and challenges involved in replicating prior research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies with a focus on the interrelationships among health information seeking behavior (HISB), and health status or use of preventive health measures for U.S. adults both with and without a high school diploma. Key results of ordinal and binary logistic regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for demographic factors, (1) adults with a high school diploma use more text-based health information sources while adults without a high school diploma use more oral sources, (2) using the Internet as a source of health information is more strongly related to reporting excellent/very good health status than having a high school diploma, (3) those without a high school diploma who use the Internet report the largest increase in health status over any other health information source, and (4) for those with learning disability or vision problem, a high facility in reading English is an important predictor of whether the Internet is used as a health information source. The Internet appears to play a key role in both enhancing health status and enabling use of preventive measures for those with and without a high school diploma; although, individuals without a high school diploma who use the Internet for health information derive substantial benefit in health status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists who study contemporary Jewry are engaged in an intense debate over trends in American Jewish attachment to Israel. The dominant view has been that age-related differences reported in surveys indicate intergenerational decline, with successive birth cohorts less emotionally attached to Israel than their predecessors. An alternative view has been that age-related differences reflect stages of the lifecycle, with members of each birth cohort becoming more emotionally attached to Israel as they grow older. Drawing on evidence from four sets of surveys administered to comparable samples at ten-year intervals, the present paper weighs the evidence for the 'generational' versus 'lifecycle' hypotheses about the nature of changes in attachment. The findings indicate that, across the four sets of surveys, emotional attachment increased between Time 1 (the first survey, administered in the 1990s) and Time 2 (the second survey, administered in the 2000s). The increases were for respondents as a whole as well as most age cohorts. In each of the four surveys sets, the largest increases occurred as respondents transitioned from their 30s to their 40s, i.e., from young adulthood to mature adulthood. Although increasing attachment to Israel throughout the period as a whole complicates the analysis, we conclude that the preponderance of evidence supports the view that emotional attachment to Israel increased over the lifecourse rather than declined across the generations. That said, future trends may be influenced by new dynamics including increased intermarriage, more widespread Israel travel, and a highly fluid political situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is highly prevalent in patients with bipolar disorder (BD). Little research has evaluated the risk profile of MetS and cardiovascular disease in different gender and age groups in these patients. Our aim is to evaluate the prevalence of MetS in Italian patients with BD stratified by gender and age, and to determine the correlates of MetS. Subjects with BD were included and stratified by sex and age according to the following age groups: <30; 30-39; 40-49; 50-59; ≥60 years. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, lifestyle information, and comorbidity for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes were collected. MetS was diagnosed according to National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III modified criteria. MetS was evaluated in 200 patients, with a prevalence of 26.5%. Men had higher rates of hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia, women had more abdominal obesity. Women had a peak of prevalence in the ≥60 years group, while men displayed high rates even in the young age groups. In young patients, MetS was associated with Cluster B personality disorders and less physical exercise. Our paper highlights the importance of evaluating MetS even in young patients with bipolar disorder, especially males. The strong association with lack of physical exercise suggests that the implementation of healthy behaviors might be relevant in order to prevent MetS and future adverse cardiovascular outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We provide a review and analysis of much of the published literature on binocular rivalry that is relevant to the design and use of head-worn displays (HWDs).Background: This review draws heavily from both the basic vision literature and applied HWD literature in order to help provide insight for minimizing the effects of binocular rivalry when HWDs are worn.Method: Included in this review are articles and books found cited in other works as well as articles and books obtained from an Internet search.Results: Issues discussed and summarized are (a) characteristics of binocular rivalry, (b) stimulus factors affecting rivalry, (c) cognitive variables affecting rivalry, and (d) tasks affected by rivalry.Conclusion: This paper offers a set of recommendations for minimizing the effects of binocular rivalry when HWDs are used as well as recommendations for future research.Application: Considerations of the basic vision literature on binocular rivalry will provide insight for future design solutions for HWDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has documented a need for the development of a sex education programme in Turkish schools in terms of adolescence readiness and the presence of misconceptions regarding critical aspects of sexual issues. Currently no school-based sex education is available for Turkish adolescents. This paper presents the development of a contemporary sex education programme for 12-year-old to 14-year-old adolescents, entitled 'The Human Development Program for 12-14 Year Old Adolescents'. A five-step programme development model was used including reviewing internationally recognised sex education programmes for this age group. Sexuality Information and Education Council of United States guidelines were chosen as an educational framework, and Turkish cultural values were integrated into the curriculum. The sex curriculum consists of an eight-session interactive programme in which parental permission and involvement is required. Five units are presented: human development, relationships, sexual behaviour, sexual health, and society/culture. The programme and a related knowledge assessment tool were reviewed by a group of Turkish professionals and the validity of the educational content was received. The programme was piloted with a group of Turkish adolescents with positive results. Future recommendations include school counsellors implementing this sex educational programme into Turkish schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2001 U.S. Supreme Court Case of Falvo v. Owasso School System (Owasso Independent School District No I-011 v. Falvo) has focused national attention on the common classroom practice of peer-grading. In a unanimous decision the court reaffirmed the popular view that students grading each others' tests is valuable, saving teachers' time and augmenting student learning. Our study puts these presumed benefits to the test in 4 middle school science classrooms. We compared teacher-assigned grades to those awarded either by students to themselves or by their peers. By training students to grade with the help of a scoring rubric, a very high correlation was obtained between students and their teacher on test questions (r = 0.91 to 0.94). We found patterns of bias when students assigned grades. When grading others, students awarded lower grades to the best performing students than their teacher did. When grading themselves, lower performing students tended to inflate their own low scores. Performance on an unannounced, 2nd administration of the same test 1 week later measured the degree to which student-grading resulted in any increased understanding. Students who graded their peers' tests did not gain significantly more than a control group of students who did not correct any papers but simply took the same test again. Those students who corrected their own tests improved dramatically. Self-grading and peer-grading appear to be reasonable aids to saving teachers' time. Self-grading appears to result in increased student learning; peer-grading does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the substantial literature devoted to examining the causes of US Black–White residential segregation by race, there is little evidence on the persistence of residential segregation outcomes across generations. This paper examines the following two questions: Do households reside in neighbourhoods with racial compositions that resemble the household head's childhood neighbourhood? Do residential segregation outcomes persist across generations, controlling for household-level determinants of residential location choice? The empirical work relies on household-level data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) matched to the racial composition of the household's census tract of residence to estimate regression models where the dependent variable is a measure of own-race residential segregation in 1980 and 1990 for each household head in the sample. The independent variables include various contemporaneous household characteristics, characteristics of each household head's parents in 1968 and the lagged 1968 neighbourhood racial composition of the household head's childhood residence. Results from several regression models suggest that households choose to reside in neighbourhoods with racial compositions that resemble the household head's childhood neighbourhood. Observable parental characteristics, particularly measures of parental interracial contact, explain much of the intergenerational persistence in segregation among African American households. Among Whites, the intergenerational persistence of residential segregation remains even in models with an extensive set of controls. Across both racial groups, the neighbourhood social ties of parents living in more integrated neighbourhoods are shown to reduce the propensity for children to choose segregated neighbourhoods upon reaching adulthood. These findings suggest that interracial contact may reduce the persistence of residential segregation over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the "tree ring" hypothesis that reaching young adulthood during certain historical periods raises or lowers attitudes above and beyond the contribution of demographic variables and long-term cohort trends. It examines the deviations from long-term, linear, cohort trends for twenty-eight National Opinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Survey (GSS) attitude items in birth cohorts reaching age 16 in the 1950s, 1960s, and post-1960s. Long-term cohort trends are estimated from regressions of attitudes on cohorts reaching age 16 from 1917 to 1950 (net of year and five demographics). Popular impressions are supported in that "rings" (residuals) are more liberal for Americans reaching age 16 in the 1960s. However, those reaching age 16 in the l950s are more liberal than their immediate predecessors, not more conservative. Furthermore, the three periods are not strikingly distinctive as the items showing positive rings tend to be the same in each period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze changing patterns in overdose deaths that occurred between 1990 and 1997 in 27 of the largest US cities. Drug induced deaths reported by the CDC have increased by 57% in the United States during these years -- from 9463 to 15973 (3.8/ 100,000 in 1990 to 6.0/100,000 in 1997). This trend has been observed in all regions of the United States, among both men and women, and in all ethnic and age groups. But there are important local differences in these trends that can be seen in the largest US cities: those with the lowest rates in 1990 have increased to levels equal to or greater than some of the cities that had the highest rates in 1990. And, while users >30 years of age account for the majority of cases (and most of the overall increase), for those cities with the greatest overall increases, the OD rates have increased sharply among younger people (20-24). This coincides with an expansion of drug markets (for heroin) in a group of smaller US cities and increased heroin use by youth in those cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a myriad of potentially harmful developmental outcomes associated with infant digital media use. Studies revealing risk associated with early media use have informed the current American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations that discourage most digital media use among children under 18 months of age. Recent research advances, however, suggest potential benefits of technology engagement in this age group. Additionally, surveys of parents reveal that most infants engage with digital media for at least 30 min a day, exceeding the AAP recommendations. In response to these discoveries and cultural trends, some scholars have made compelling cases to adapt the AAP guidelines for infants. A helpful model for developing infant digital media use guidelines for families may be the harm reduction approach. The intent of this review is to suggest adaptations to the AAP guidelines for infant media engagement using a harm reduction framework. This review describes the challenge of restrictive guidelines, briefly summarizes the harm reduction approach, provides a review of risks and benefits associated with infant media use in each developmental domain (physical, cognitive, and socioemotional), summarizes correlates of infant screen media use, and examines intervention strategies for reducing screen time. The paper concludes with examples of possible adaptations to current AAP infant media use recommendations using harm reduction and bioecological frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how U.S. children were mobilized during the World War II. During World War II, the U.S. government called on children to perform a variety of tasks that included buying and selling war saving stamps, tending victory gardens and collecting scrap materials. Schools, voluntary organizations and the media aided the government by helping to organize and motivate the children. The most important task girls and boys performed was collecting scrap. Youngsters were asked to participate in scrap drives for psychological and material reasons. Psychological necessities included improving children's character by encouraging diligence, enhancing patriotism, developing a sense of common purpose, lessening younger children's fears and insecurity and preventing delinquency. The material necessity was to mitigate the nation's shortages of scrap rubber, metal, paper and other items. Adults motivated children to participate through the communal feeling of the brooding omnipresence of the peer group. Adults used children's formal and informal organizations and their pervasive culture as a fulcrum and the child's desire to be perceived as a valued member of the group as a lever. Officials had to make scrap collecting voluntary because child labor was illegal in most U.S. states and was repugnant to reformers.

This paper presents a method to measure two types of tempos: 1) the tempo of elderly age concentration, the rate of change in the elderly proportion in a region; and 2) the tempo of elderly geographical concentration, the rate of change in a region's share of the national elderly population. The two measurements are applied to historical data for the United States. The results reveal that both tempos vary spatially and temporally. Relative tempos are also introduced to compare the indices between different age groups and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]