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The Carolina Population Center is seeking a highly skilled and motivated individual to join our team as a Research Scientist in the population sciences. This position will involve working on the NIH-funded National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a critical project in understanding health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.

Position: Research Scientist
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Duration: Full-time

The selected candidate will play a pivotal role in understanding the complex design of Add Health, developing weights for analytic files, preparing and documenting data sets for public release, addressing analytic questions from users, assisting with data analysis and presentations, writing analytic user’s guides, conducting workshops on effectively using Add Health data, and contributing to grant applications and publications.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements:

Relevant post-Baccalaureate degree required (or foreign degree equivalent); for candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity, will accept a relevant bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. May require terminal degree and licensure.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience:

• Degree in Demography, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Sociology, or related field.
• Experience in data analysis.
• Familiarity with large-scale complex population-based surveys, including design, weighting, and analysis.
• Demonstrated experience in academic analysis and writing, public speaking and presentation, and quantitative research methodologies.
• Substantial experience using SAS and/or Stata.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience:

• Experience in population-based data analysis.
• Familiarity with large-scale complex population-based surveys, including design, weighting, and analysis.
• Experience working on NIH grant proposals.
• Experience working with data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health).

Job posting open until April 3, 2024. To apply, please use this link: https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/276009

In recent decades, the pervasive issue of mass incarceration in the United States has cast a long shadow, affecting not only those imprisoned but also their families. However, little attention has been given to how parental incarceration impacts the hopes and ambitions of children. In response, a study by Baker (2023) used Add Health’s parental incarceration data from Wave I and Wave IV to analyze the effects of this adversity on children’s expectations and aspirations.

Baker’s study revealed a strong association between paternal incarceration and a notable decline in youth expectations and aspirations, shedding light on a critical pathway through which mass incarceration perpetuates intergenerational inequality. Despite controlling for variables, the research found that children whose fathers had been in prison reported feeling significantly worse about their future and the things they think they can achieve.

As paternal incarceration remains prevalent, particularly among marginalized communities, policymakers should look into targeted interventions that address the systemic challenges underlying the issue and provide support and resources for affected children to encourage positive aspirations and break the cycle of inequality.

Author(s)

Garrett Baker, PhD Candidate

Citation

Baker, Garrett (2023). Shattered Dreams: Paternal Incarceration, Youth Expectations, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Disadvantage. Sociological Science. vol. 10 (20). https://doi.org/10.15195/v10.a20

The abstract submission deadline for the 2024 Add Health Users Conference is fast approaching. While any papers using Add Health data including both substantive and methodological topics are welcome, we strongly encourage abstracts that:

• Use Wave V data
• Examine health disparities and/or focus on racial/ethnic minoritized populations
• Study genetic and environmental influences on health and behavior
• Use biomarker data
• Use longitudinal social, behavioral, and environmental data
• Use cognitive data
• Study life course trajectories of health, family, education, and labor force participation
• Use data from the Add Health Parent Study

Abstracts must be submitted by Thursday, February 29, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Please use the abstract submission form on the Users Conference Website here. For more information, view the full Call for Papers.

Conference registration is free and open until May 31, 2024. Click here to register.

The Kohli Foundation for Sociology awarded Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris the prestigious Infrastructure Prize for Sociology 2023 for her work on Add Health.

The Kohli Foundation, known for its commitment to recognizing and promoting excellence in sociology and its interdisciplinary connections, acknowledged Dr. Harris’s exceptional efforts in shaping the infrastructure of sociological research. The Infrastructure Prize for Sociology not only celebrates her past achievements but also reflects confidence in her continued leadership and contributions to sociology. The award ceremony took place at the European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy.

Dr. Harris has made outstanding contributions to the field of sociology and has been an integral part of Add Health, having served as its director from 2004 to 2021. She is the James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

To read the full announcement, visit the Kohli Foundation’s website.

Add Health is now accepting abstracts for the 2024 Users Conference. Any papers using Add Health data are welcome, include both substantive & methodological topics. We strongly urge abstracts that:

• Use Wave V data
• Examine health disparities and/or focus on racial/ethnic minority populations
• Study genetic and environmental influences on health and behavior
• Use biomarker data
• Use longitudinal social, behavioral, and environmental data
• Use cognitive data
• Study life course trajectories of health, family, education, and labor force participation
• Use data from the Add Health Parent Study

Abstracts must be submitted by Thursday, February 29, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Please use the abstract submission form on the Users Conference Website here. For more information, view the full Call for Papers.

Conference registration is also open until May 31, 2024. Click here to register.

Add Health will be attending the Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) annual meeting this week on November 8-11, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. Learn how the health of this aging cohort is impacted by various factors such as social, economic, and environmental conditions over the life-course as well as recently added cognitive measures to the current wave of data collection. Visit the Add Health booth #211 during exhibit hours to speak with AH staff and learn about our incredible data.

For more information on this year’s meeting, visit the GSA website.

Air pollution is a global environmental challenge that continues to pose significant threats to human health. While the harmful effects of air pollution on respiratory health are well documented, emerging research now highlights its profound impact on cardiovascular health as well. A recent study, drawing upon data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) and the Fused Air Quality Surface using Downscaling (FAQSD) archive, sheds light on the long-term consequences of air pollution exposure on the cardiovascular and metabolic health of young adults between the ages of 24 and 34.

Mercedes A. Bravo et al. analyzed multi-year estimates of exposure to ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5µm or less (PM2.5) for Add Health participants to determine the associations between these air pollution exposures and various biomarkers of cardiometabolic health including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, body mass index (BMI), diabetes, C-reactive protein, and metabolic syndrome. The study considered data from 2002 to 2007, aligning these exposures with measurements taken at Wave IV of the Add Health study in 2008 to 2009 and included adjustments for age, race/ethnicity, and sex. The findings suggest that young adults exposed to elevated levels of O3 and PM2.5 are at a heightened risk of developing cardiovascular issues like hypertension, obesity, and diabetes as well as metabolic syndrome. The study also observed race/ethnicity differences in the exposure to PM2.5 and O3, with Non-Hispanic Black participants having the highest exposure to both O3 and PM2.5

The longitudinal design of the Add Health data from Wave I to V allows researchers to develop a clearer picture of how health throughout the life course is affected by demographics, social and familial environments, behavior, biomarkers, anthropometric measures, and genetics.

Mercedes A. Bravo, PhD

Fang Fang, PhD

Dana B. Hancock, PhD

Eric O. Johnson, PhD

Kathleen Mullan Harris, PhD

Bravo, Mercedes A.; Fang, Fang; Hancock, Dana B.; Johnson, Eric O.; & Mullan Harris, Kathleen (2023). Long-term air pollution exposure and markers of cardiometabolic health in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) Study. Environment International.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107987

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Add Health is excited to attend the 2023 IAPHS Conference, “Gender, Sexuality, and Health Across the Life Course: Current Challenges and Opportunities for Population Health and Health Equity,” from Monday, October 2, 2023, to Thursday, October 5, 2023. Staff members will be at the Add Health booth in the Exhibit Hall daily to answer your questions. For more information, visit the IAPHS conference website.

The following data are now available to Add Health contract researchers.

All Coded Causes of Death File, Including Entity-Axis Codes, 2021

This file contains all underlying cause of death and entity-axis codes appearing in the National Death Index (NDI) source file through 2021. Functioning as dummy variables, zero represents the absence of a code on the decedent’s death certificate, while one denotes the presence of one. N=647

All Coded Causes of Death File, Including Record-Axis Codes, 2021

This file contains all underlying cause of death and record-axis codes appearing in the National Death Index (NDI) source file through 2021. Functioning as dummy variables, zero represents the absence of a code on the decedent’s death certificate, while one denotes the presence of one. N=647

Individual Vital Status and Underlying Cause of Death File, 2021

This file contains one record for each of the 20,745 Add Health sample members from Wave I. It provides the vital status of each sample member through 2021 as well as the National Death Index-provided underlying cause of death code in ICD-10 format for each decedent. The month and year of the most recent Add Health interview are provided for living sample members, while the month and year of death are provided for decedents. N=20,745

Ordered Cause of Death File, 2021

This file contains entity- and record-axis codes reported by the National Death Index (NDI) for each decedent in the Add Health sample through 2021. The file is arranged hierarchically, by axis code; therefore, each decedent may have multiple records depending on the maximum number of entity- and record-axis codes recorded by NDI. The sequence of the decedent’s records reflects the order in which the entity- and record-axis codes were reported in the NDI record. N=2,123

Current Add Health investigators can log in to the CPC Data Portal and use the “Request More Data” button to order this dataset.

For more information on the CPC Data Portal, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page. 

Save the date! The 2024 Add Health Users Conference will take place on Monday, June 17, 2024, and Tuesday, June 18, 2024, at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. More information will be provided later this fall, along with a Call for Papers available on November 1, 2023. Visit the 2024 Add Health Users Conference website for additional details.

We hope to see you there!