Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper deals with weighting issues in Web surveys of the general population. A common way of conducting such surveys is to recruit a volunteer panel of Web users from which quota samples are selected. Inference from such non-probability samples relies heavily on the existence of good weighting procedures. A weighting procedure examined here is the propensity score method, which with certain assumptions has a potential for reducing selection bias in survey estimates substantially. In this procedure, a parallel probability-based survey – usually a telephone survey – is used to estimate the propensities of being in the Web sample based on a vector of covariates (“lifestyle” variables) measured in both modes. Critical for the method is an appropriate choice of the life-style questions.

We compare the propensity score method with conventional weighting techniques for a data set collected in 2001 by the Danish marketing research company Zapera in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The data were in each country collected parallel from Zapera’s volunteer Web panels and from independent phone number samples. Two groups of variables were studied: (i) the use of various hygiene articles and (ii) attitudes to local banks. In both samples a number of “modernity” statements were added, which the respondents could agree or disagree to. These statements are used as lifestyle variables for the propensity score weighting.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Adolescence is a stage in the life course characterized by increasing cognitive abilities and independence and a heightened sensitivity to peers. In this paper, we investigate the relationships between adolescent girls’ growing sense of self and their heightened susceptibilities to peer influences within the school context by focusing on a salient issue for girls: body weight. We explore the roles of schoolmates and coursemates on adolescent girls’ weight perception and weight control using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and the new Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA). We find that schoolmates’ and coursemates’ behaviors and attributes affect how girls perceive their weight and their attempts at weight loss. Girls surrounded by female coursemates or schoolmates who are attempting weight loss are significantly more likely to be attempting unnecessary weight loss net of prior weight control, BMI, and all other control variables. Girls with coursemates who perceive themselves as overweight are also significantly more likely to perceive their own weight as overweight even when they are not. Additionally, girls who are surrounded by many overweight girls (in their schools or courses) are less likely to misperceive their own weight as overweight.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In American society, weight is a physical characteristic with social meaning. In this way, it plays a role in networks of social relations through a variety of social psychological mechanisms. To investigate this phenomenon, this study focused on high school peer networks by estimating multilevel network models with longitudinal data from the saturated school sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. These longitudinal p2 models revealed that, as body mass index increased, the likelihood of being nominated by schoolmates as friends decreased but that the likelihood of nominating others as friends did not decrease. Moreover, matching on body mass index was a strong predictor of friendship formation. These findings were not explained by correlates (e.g., academic achievement, emotional distress) of both weight and friendship dynamics. Thus, the connection between weight and social relations was largely a function of the stigmatization of heavier body sizes and homophily.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Childhood obesity and, concomitantly, food insecurity and hunger, are issues that disproportionately affect children with absent fathers. In this study, we investigate the relationship between nonresident father involvement and adolescent weight, specifically adolescents’ risk of being under- and overweight, using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Our results indicate that the relationship depends on family income and fathers’ obesity, and varies for boys versus girls. Among poor children, involvement with a nonresident father at wave 1 significantly reduces a child’s chances of being underweight at wave 2 of the survey (boys and girls). Poor children with overweight fathers experience further reductions in their risk of being underweight. Among higher income children, girls (but not boys) who are involved with an overweight father at wave 1 have an increased risk of being overweight at wave 2. Child support payments are not associated with being at risk of overweight or underweight. Policy efforts aimed at improving child well-being should continue to encourage nonresident father involvement, but should take into account the potentially negative effects of nonresident fathers’ obesity on children.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research analyzes 30 interviews with a diverse group to understand how women experience their bodies and appearances after menopause in an androcentric and heterosexual culture. Women mostly focus on weight gain and gray hair but do so differently by sexual identity. Heterosexuals’ accounts reflect accommodation to femininity and beauty norms; in contrast, lesbians and some heterosexual women of color redefine dominant understandings of femininity based on body acceptance or negotiation of body norms to attain self-acceptance and self-reliance. Future research is needed to illuminate the constraints and advantages of embodied aging for women by sexuality, race, and class.