PRI Associate

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…

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…

The Americans Already Suffering Most From the Fall of Roe

Aug 11, 2022

SSRI cofund and CSA Director Guangqing Chi and Jessica Miller wrote this opinion peice for The Slate on limiting access to abortion increases social inequality and puts disproportionate burdens on women of lower income and minorities. Read more here.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.