Demographers identify the causes, challenges of a rapidly aging Puerto Rico
Feb 8, 2023
The Puerto Rican population is aging rapidly, with the percentage of older adults on the island the 10th highest in the world. Penn State researchers are discovering, for the first time, the causes of population aging and how it will negatively impact Puerto Rico. Amílcar Matos-Moreno, postdoctoral…
New T32-funded postdoctoral position
Feb 1, 2023
The Population Research Institute at Penn State is delighted to announce an opening for a Postdoctoral position in its T32-funded program in Social Environments and Population Health. Please help us get the word out about this fabulous opportunity! Applicants must have a Ph.D. in demography,…News Topics: PRIPostdoctoral
PRI Visiting Scholar Program
Jan 20, 2023
Penn State's Population Research Institute (PRI) is delighted to announce a new Visiting Scholars Program. Candidates will receive support from PRI to prepare a grant for submission to NIH/NICHD. The Visiting Scholars will visit Penn State’s University Park campus for one week of intensive writing…
Frankenberg named among top RHSU Edu-Scholars
Jan 10, 2023
PRI Associate Erica Frankenberg, professor of education (educational leadership and demography) and director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights (CECR), is included in the 2023 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, ranking the university-based scholars in the United States who did…
Long-term impacts of famine include health and socioeconomic challenges - Researchers study survivors of the ‘Dutch Hunger Winter’ famine identify numerous long-term consequences
Oct 4, 2022
Millions of children are exposed to extreme hunger each year, but children who experience malnutrition are more likely to have poorer health and developmental delays that persist into old age, according to previous research findings. Researchers at Penn State recently examined the results of early-…
Alexis Santos appointed to Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee
Sep 23, 2022
Alexis Santos, assistant professor of human development and family studies and co-funded faculty member in the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State, has been appointed to the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee (NAC). The committee considers issues related to hard-to-reach…
Study finds white children more likely to be overdiagnosed for ADHD
Sep 13, 2022
A new study led by Paul Morgan, Harry and Marion Eberly Faculty Fellow and professor of education (educational theory and policy) and demography, and published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, examines which sociodemographic groups of children are more likely to be overdiagnosed and…
Social Science Research Institute welcomes Jessica Ho as cofunded faculty member
Sep 11, 2022
Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) recently announced new cofunded faculty member Jessica Ho, who will join the institute in the 2022-23 academic year. Ho is an associate professor of sociology and demography and an associate of the Population Research Institute and comes to Penn…
In Rural America, Older Adult Vaccination Rates were Higher in Counties with More Aging and Disability Services
Aug 10, 2022
In this Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion research brief, PRI's Danielle Rhubart and Yue Sun describe how aging and disability services (ADS) played an important role for older adults in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, including sharing information, providing transportation, and serving…
The Russia-Ukraine war will hurt millions in Central Asia. Here's why.
Aug 8, 2022
by Guangqing Chi and Erin Hofmann, For The Inquirer The past three years haven’t been easy for Central Asian migrant workers in Russia like Murat and Aigul, a Kyrgyz couple who have worked in Moscow since 2018. In 2020, due to the pandemic lockdown in Moscow, the couple was confined for more than a…
Insecure: New study links tap water avoidance and food insecurity
Aug 4, 2022
Many Americans take tap water for granted. Water bills are often less expensive compared to people’s other bills, and tap water has been a part of most Americans’ lives since they were born. For nearly 61 million Americans, however, tap water is either unavailable or untrusted. New research from…
Race matters in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, research finds
Jul 27, 2022
Hispanic and Black Americans have suffered higher rates of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 than white Americans. A new Penn State study analyzed data collected when COVID-19 vaccines first became available to determine whether these racial and ethnic disparities are related to vaccine…
Losing spouse to COVID may be worse for mental health than other causes of death
Jul 26, 2022
Losing a spouse can be a devastating experience for anyone. A new study found that experiencing the death of a spouse due to COVID-19 may be worse for mental health than deaths from other causes. Penn State researchers found that while there were strong associations between the recent death of a…
High incarceration rates may not help U.S. citizens feel safer
Jul 13, 2022
The U.S. is the world leader in incarceration rates, spending $80 billion a year to imprison two million people. But despite these practices aiming to help Americans feel safer, a new Penn State study suggests they may not result in the intended effect. In a study comparing feelings of safety in…News Topics: PRICriminology
Suicide vulnerability index, machine learning model help predict counties’ risk
Jun 29, 2022
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, but the models that have been used to predict suicide rates weight risk factors equally and rely on data for large geographic areas, limiting the precision of the predictions, according to Penn State researchers. Now, the researchers have…
Unemployment associated with worse mental and physical health later in life
Jun 23, 2022
When and how often a person experiences unemployment in their 20s, 30s and 40s has serious implications for their health later in life, which could be in part due to a lack of access to health care while unemployed, according to new research. The researchers found that people who had little…
Older adults more likely to have multiple health ailments than prior generations
Jun 22, 2022
Later-born generations of older adults in the United States are more likely to have a greater number of chronic health conditions than the generations that preceded them, according to a study conducted by Penn State and Texas State University. According to the researchers, the increasing frequency…
Losing a grandmother may trigger rise in depression for some of her survivors
Jun 17, 2022
Losing a beloved family member is never easy, but a new study suggests the loss of a grandmother in particular may have repercussions for the loved ones she leaves behind. The researchers found that for up to seven years after the death of their grandmother, adolescent boys had a 50% increase in…
PAA’s annual meeting features strong Penn State presence
May 9, 2022
Many researchers from Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and Population Research Institute (PRI) participated in the Population Association of America’s (PAA) annual meeting, which took place recently in Atlanta. This year’s conference featured 235 sessions from a variety of…
Gen Z does not dream of labor
May 2, 2022
PRI Associate Director Sarah Damaske was quoted in a Vox.com article about how over the past two years, young millennials and members of Gen Z have created an abundance of memes and pithy commentary about their generational disillusionment toward work. The jokes, which correspond with the rise of…News Topics: PRI
Penn State social scientists anticipate Ukrainian refugees’ needs, challenges
Mar 24, 2022
In one of the largest mass migration flows in recent history, approximately 3.4 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine since late February. Most are women and children, and many families have been torn apart because the Ukraine State Border Guard Service has prohibited men ages 18 to 60…
Aging and Disability Services are Unequally Distributed Across the United States
Feb 22, 2022
The U.S. population is aging rapidly, but 15% of U.S. counties have no aging and disability services organizations. This research brief by Syracuse University’s Claire Pendergrast and Penn State's PRI Associate Danielle Rhubart shows that rural counties and counties with the highest rates of…
Researchers examine link between residential and school segregation
Feb 9, 2022
School segregation has remained a hot-button political issue since Brown vs. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the justices ruled that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional. New research from a Penn State…
Joint Lerner/PRI brief on rural working-age adults' health vs. urban workers
Feb 8, 2022
Self-rated health is considered a strong predictor of chronic disease risk and premature mortality. This brief by Shannon M. Monnat, Syracuse University, and Danielle Rhubart, PRI associate at Penn State, analyzes data from the National Wellbeing Survey (NWS), a sample of approximately 4,000 U.S.…News Topics: PRI
Shenk named AAAS Fellow
Jan 31, 2022
Congratulations to PRI Associate Mary Shenk, one of five Penn State faculty members named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society. Story in Penn State News.News Topics: PRIPRI Associate