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The unabated influx of Mexican immigrants and their dominant concentration in the southern U.S have made some scholars question whether Mexican immigrants assimilate into the Anglo-Protestant mainstream at the same pace as other immigrant populations do. Using cumulative data from the 1972-2004 General Social Survey (GSS), in this study we seek to assess the pace of cultural assimilation by Mexican Americans by comparing their gender-role attitudes and their changes over generations to the American mainstream. The findings suggest that Mexican Americans do assimilate into the American mainstream in terms of gender-role attitudes. For five out of the eight gender questions considered in the study, third or later generation Mexican Americans in the sample show a more liberal or egalitarian gender-role attitudes than first or second generation. Results from the multivariate analysis also suggest that these changes are robust irrespective of the effects of year of the survey, age, gender, education, and marital status. A comparison between Mexican Americans and the Anglo-Protestant mainstream suggests that Mexican Americans in the sample have more conservative gender-role attitudes than the mainstream regarding division of labor at home and women's participation in politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I used a hierarchical data (student level and school level) from 44 high schools in Ohio to investigate how the organizational properties of schools and school communities influence the risk of marijuana use among adolescents. The results from the two-level Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models indicate that, after adjusting for important individual background differences among students across schools, school-level characteristics such as the demographic composition, public or private, safety measures adopted, and the poverty rate of school community all have significant effects on the risk of marijuana use. There is also evidence suggesting that the effects of individual-level attributes on marijuana use can be mediated by school-level organizational properties. Policy implications of this study as well as future research needs were discussed in the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have assessed the relation between income inequality and obesity across countries. Based on recent data from the CIA World Factbook and the World Health Organization Global Infobase, this study assessed the relation between income inequality and obesity prevalence in 2010 across 31 OECD countries. The findings suggest that income inequality explains more of the variation in obesity prevalence among OECD countries than absolute income. Income inequality alone, as measured by Gini index, explains respectively 16 and 35 percent of variation in male and female obesity rates across OECD countries. This effect of Gini index remains significant after adjusting for differences in GDP per capita, urbanization, literacy, and poverty across OECD countries. The association between Gini index and obesity prevalence is more salient among females than among males. The results also suggest a close relation between income inequality and changes in obesity rates over time. On average, countries with a higher level of income inequality in the 2005-2010 period experienced a more rapid increase in obesity prevalence from 2002 to 2010 than those otherwise. The potential pathways from high levels of income inequality to the alarmingly high rates of obesity in the cases of U.S. and Mexico warrant further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Geographic proximity to Mexico allows U.S. border residents easy access to Mexican health services that are usually more affordable. This study seeks to assess the relation between U.S. health insurance plans and the use of health services in Mexico. Methods. Using data from a population-based telephone survey (N=1,405) administered to residents of the U.S. Texas-Mexico border area in 2008, we examined the relation between U.S. health insurance coverage and the use of medication, dental, and physician services in Mexico. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to assess the relation between specific U.S. health insurance plans and the use of health services in Mexico during the 12 months prior to the survey. Results. One third of the sample reported no health insurance coverage. Lack of health insurance was associated with the highest chance of purchasing health services in Mexico. Respondents with Medicare were least likely to visit Mexico for these services. Between the two extremes were those with Medicaid or private insurance plans. Conclusions. Addressing unmet health care needs in the U.S.-Mexico border area requires initiatives that target not only the uninsured population but also the large underinsured population on Medicaid or with self-purchased coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]