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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Dan Eisenberg Finds No Association Between Years of Caregiving And Aging in the Philippines

Caring for chronically disabled family members is a stressful experience. In turn, psychosocial stress is linked to premature aging. CSDE Affiliate and Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dan Eisenberg, recently published an article in Psychoneuroendocrinology in which he analyzes telomere length (TL), a biomarker of aging, as a possible mechanism linking psychosocial stress and accelerated aging in the Philippines.

TL was measured in blood samples from 1233 Filipino adults from Cebu, Philippines. Caregiving was measured as chronicity of care, or the sum total number of years an individual was the primary caregiver for any household member with a chronic illness or disability. Linear regression models were used to test for associations between chronicity of care and TL.

Chronicity of care was not associated with TL. Neither did authors find any evidence for caregiving varying in its effect on TL by caregiver sex, age, or relationship to the chronically ill/disabled.This result coupled with a recent study of a similarly sized cohort suggests that previous significant results linking caregiving and TL may be due to very particular types of caregiving populations or are possibly artifacts of small sample sizes

Jennifer Romich Quoted in Bloomberg Article on Walmart’s New Absenteeism Policy

CSDE Affiliate Jennifer Romich, Associate Professor of Social Welfare at the School of Social Work, was quoted in a recent article about Walmart’s new approach to reduce absenteeism, published by Bloomberg. Walmart is making sweeping changes to its employment policies, granting paid sick leave to hourly workers in the U.S., and, at the same time, possibly making it easier to fire those who miss too many shifts. From Walmart’s perspective, the new policies are designed to combat absenteeism both by making it easier for workers to take the time they need and discouraging no-shows. According to Romich, whose research focuses on resource use in low-income working families, “what’s really happening is they are concerned about people abusing paid time off.”

Learning From Other Cities: 2019 Urban Studies Forum (Tacoma, 2/21/2019)

“Learning From Other Cities,” the theme for the 2019 Urban Studies Forum, will bring together key presentations from cities, whose practices could inform our local approaches to governance and community development.

·     Bristol, U.K. (inclusive governance)

·     Leeds, U.K. (child-centered city)

·     New York, NY (coalition building and community development)

·     Long Beach, CA (urban planning in a port city)

All presentations will focus on the role of inclusivity and coalition building in shaping policy, planning, and governance environments that advance urban conditions and create a more participatory decision making process. In addition, keynote speaker Michael J. Rich from Emory University will discuss collaborative governance and urban revitalization.

The selected topics connect with planning and policy issues in the South Puget Sound and will be of interest to our leadership as well as community members.

Spring Graduate Seminar: COM597 A “Interviewing for Social Research”

Matthew Powers (Associate Prof., Communication) will offer a 5-credit graduate seminar, COM 597 A “Interviewing for Social Research” this spring on MW from 10:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

“Interviewing for Social Research” is a methods class that introduces students to the strategies, issues and challenges associated with conducting interview-based research. Students will learn by doing: weekly exercises will help class members to design, develop, conduct, analyze and write-up an interview-based study. Course readings will immerse students in key debates regarding the use of interviews in social research.

Below is a tentative plan for the terrain we will cover over the 10 week quarter. The syllabus is still being made, but I am happy to share it with anyone when it’s complete.

Week 1: Course Overview, Identify RQ for quarter

Week 2: Validity and reliability in interview research

Week 3: Ethics and IRB

Week 4: Recruitment & sampling strategies

Week 5: Preparing for interviews

Week 6: Conducting interviews

Week 7: Issues that arise during interviews

Week 8: Preparing and organizing interview data

Week 9: Analyzing interview data

Week 10: Reporting interview data

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. My email is mjpowers@uw.edu

UW Study About Statistical Analysis Process

Have you conducted experiments and performed hypothesis testing? Are you willing to share your data and analysis scripts with us? If so, we would like to invite you to participate in a study about understanding the process of statistical analysis.

In the study, we will ask you open-ended questions about the statistical analysis decisions in one of your previous projects. If you have concerns about us inspecting your analysis scripts, please rest assured that our goal is not to find flaws and we will not publish anything without your consent. Instead, we seek to understand analysis processes better. The study will take place on UW campus between Jan. 30 and Feb. 13. We expect the study to last around 60 to 90 minutes. As a thank you for your participation, you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card.

If you are interested, please fill out this survey (https://goo.gl/forms/R4hIbqcZrWzUbRV03). We will contact you shortly to set up a time if you are eligible. Feel free to email me (yliu0@cs.washington.edu) if you have any questions!

 

Winter Pop-Up Cafe, The Doorway Project (2/12/2019)

Please join us at our winter pop-up cafe event focusing on advocacy for youth and young adults experiencing homelessness.

12:30 – Advocacy 101 Training with Nancy Amidei

1:00 – Advocacy Panel featuring:

Tim Harris, Director of Real Change News

Alison Eisinger, Executive Director of SKCCH (Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness)

Krystal Koop, Partnership for Native Health

Also including:

– Re-Writing the Media Narrative on Homelessness

– DIY Advocacy Poster Making, with prizes for best posters!

– Free Lunch and Coffee!

Academia’s Promise: Upward Mobility or Elite Revolving Door? Mathieu Dubeau and Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer (Labor Studies Workshare Series, 2/8/2019)

ABSTRACT: Universities market their social science graduate programs as pathways into the exclusive arena of academia or high-paying policy or industry jobs. Yet these promises fail to trickle down to working-class students, further reinforcing the mythology of the American Dream. While there’s been much work done on the effects of socioeconomic status on undergraduates, this paper addresses the impacts of the compounding precarity it creates for those pursuing graduate studies.

UW Interdisciplinary Individual Ph.D. (IPhD) Program

The IPhD program is a small program for exceptionally able graduate students whose objectives for pursuing Ph.D. level graduate study are (1) interdisciplinary and (2) require supervision from faculty in two or more UW programs that offer Ph.D. degrees. Students in this program design an individual course of study with guidance from their interdisciplinary Supervisory Committee.

Good applicants for the IPhD program include students who have or will soon have a master’s degree and are: Passionate about a compelling interdisciplinary research problem that does not fit within the scope of a single campus program that offers a Ph.D. degree; Drawn to working with graduate faculty from multiple departments; Self-starters and highly motivated; Seeking a flexible schedule—either full time or part time.

If you identify possible applicants for this program, please suggest that they read the IPhD program website and contact either the IPhD Program Coordinator (Jean Rogers, jeanp@uw.edu) or the IPhD Program Director (Mark Zachry, zachry@uw.edu) for more information.