One of CSDE’s newest affiliates Zack Almquist and his colleagues were just awarded an NSF RAPID grant titled “Coupled Contagion, Behavior-Change, and the Dynamics of Pro- and Anti-Social Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Almquist with colleagues from Stanford, Simon Fraser University, UC-Merced and UC-Davis will pursue a longitudinal study through probability sample of Americans in three waves, assessing risk-reduction behaviors, compliance with public-health mandates, and hypothesized predictors of response including trust in various institutions, social capital, and sources of news and information.

They will construct mathematical and simulation-based models that jointly track the dynamics of virus transmission and change in behavior, which they will parameterize with data collected through the survey. These models may provide insights for improving public-health interventions, motivating compliance, and stemming the spread of misinformation regarding the epidemic.

Virginia, among other states, is considering criminal justice reforms amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. One of these reforms concerns the practice of suspending driver’s licenses over court debt. Therefore, CSDE Affiliate Alexes Harris provided her expertise on the effects of such reforms and the criminalization of poverty in a recent article for The Appeal’s Political Report. Harris explains how “if someone is unemployed, or underemployed, unsheltered, or has a family, regularly paying fines and fees, much less paying them off, is extremely difficult.” Further, adding the burden of a driver’s license suspension can exacerbate the consequences of constant debt collection.

The brewing economic crisis from the Covid-19 pandemic is making court debt collection practices especially difficult for individuals with multiple financial obligations. Therefore, Harris called on public authorities to “immediately stop sentencing fines and fees and collecting fines and fees, no interest or added collection fees or late penalties should be added to what they already owe…People should be allowed to use whatever income they have to feed their families and provide shelter.”

In a new study titled “Long-Run Changes in Underrepresentation After Affirmative Action Bans in Public Universities” published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), CSDE Affiliate Mark Long and Nicole Bateman demonstrate the consequences of states’ affirmative action bans on racial compositions in universities. Through multiple analyses, Long and Bateman find that in states that have banned affirmative action, the share of underrepresented minorities among students admitted to and enrolling in public universities has lost ground relative to changing demographic trends among high school graduates. Their results imply that alternative policies were unable to fully replace race-based affirmative action.

As a means to conclude the study and state recommendations for policymakers, Long and Bateman emphasize that “public administrators need to maintain sustained attention to racial and ethnic inequality. They should be mindful of the policy research and interventions that show promise.”

Dr. Nicole Errett, CSDE Affiliate, is seeking insights about disaster research responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In 2021, the University of Washington will be the site of the next National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Disaster Research Response Workshop. This workshop aims to enhance capacity to conduct disaster research response at UW and across the federally funded research enterprise. They are hoping to learn from UW faculty and staff about their COVID-19 research experience to improve tools and processes to enhance disaster research response as part of our workshop activities. Their survey can be found here. They are requesting surveys be completed by next Monday, May 4. Feel free to share it with anyone who may be interested in participating. Any questions can be directed to rpeck1@uw.edu.

The US Census Bureau has received emergency approval from OMB to email/text an online survey link to 13.8M homes over 12 weeks to measure employment, spending, food/housing security, education disruptions, physical/mental wellbeing during COVID-19 pandemic […] Some 13.8 million people in the U.S. may start receiving an official Census Bureau email or text like this about the new “Household Pulse Survey” as early as April 20, 2020. Documents are available here

If you have a current NICHD grant you may apply for an administrative supplement to address COVID-19 impacts on vulnerable populations. NICHD has particular interests in COVID-19-related research on vulnerable populations falling within the NICHD scientific mission area, including pregnant and post-partum women, infants, children, and adolescents; individuals with physical and/or intellectual disabilities; and children who are homeless or in foster care.

NICHD also has particular interest in outcomes falling within its mission, including child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, learning outcomes, maternal, infant, child, and adolescent morbidity and mortality, changes in fertility and pregnancy outcomes, and access to health care, including reproductive health care.

Additional research topics of interest to NICHD that fall within the scope of this NOSI include, but are not limited to:

• The roles of living arrangements and family and household characteristics and processes, social and community influences, and social networks on COVID-19-related vulnerabilities, responses, and outcomes.
• Differential impacts of and responses to COVID-19, COVID-19 mitigation efforts and downstream effects mitigation on specific subpopulations, for example, groups defined by age, race/ethnicity, urban/rural location or socioeconomic status.
• Studies of increased usage of telemedicine for routine well baby and pediatric health and developmental screenings and their impact on immunization schedules on child and adolescent health outcomes.
• Studies of the digital divide – children and families without reliable access to the internet now that schools and libraries have closed, and impact on health behaviors and outcomes as well as health care access.
• Studies on increased screen time, digital media use and rapid conversion to homeschooling/distance learning on child and adolescent cognitive and social-emotional development, peer interactions and family functioning.
• Studies examining risk factors, resilience and coping for families experiencing multiple stressors (e.g., health, economic and emotional) and symptomology (e.g., anxiety, depression) and the short and long-term sequelae for child, adolescent and family functioning.