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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Social Science Research Coordinator

JOB PURPOSE

Looking for a dynamic person to join the project team of Dr. Tanya Luhrmann in the Department of Anthropology. The project sets out to understand how cultural variation in ideas about the mind shapes the way people seek and experience the supernatural through a large comparative project. This is a six month fixed-term position.

This is a data support position, reporting to the Project Manager and will assist with data collection, data entry, and data coding. The position will require working independently on some data collection and in tandem with the data entry team and the Project Manager in other data specific areas. This individual will work closely with the Project Manager to expedite the data entry coding progress once the data collection is completed and be critical to the final data analysis. Attention to detail and strong data coding skills are preferred, BA preferred.

CORE DUTIES*

  • Prepare correspondence, documents and reports.
  • Maintain and file forms and documents, including consent forms and master subject logs.
  • Assist with the screening, recruiting, and obtaining consent of study participants. Perform telephone or in-person interviews to gather data, as needed. Schedule and/or call subjects for appointments.
  • Prepare, distribute, administer and process questionnaires and tests, score test measurements and questionnaires, and code data for computer entry. Perform quantitative review of forms, tests, and other measurements for completeness and accuracy.
  • Type, edit and organize data. Prepare data for input into statistical databases.
  • Apply formulas and calculations to research data using basic statistical programs. Review and verify accuracy of database information and assist in making necessary corrections according to specific guidelines.
  • Order and maintain equipment and supplies.
  • Process study compensation payments and thank you letters to subjects upon completion of trial activities. Assist with post-study activities, as needed.

* – Other duties may also be assigned

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Education & Experience:

Two year college degree and one year of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of experience, education, and training.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

  • General understanding of scientific theory and methods.
  • General computer skills and ability to quickly learn and master computer programs.
  • Ability to work under deadlines with general guidance.
  • Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to complete detailed work accurately.
  • Effective oral and written communication skills.
  • Ability to work with human study participants

CSSCR Spring Quarter Course/Workshop Offerings

 

Below you will find our listing of workshops for the quarter and some new data sources. We may add a few more courses later in the quarter depending on requests.We are developing a few new workshops given we have a set of new consultants this year with new programming talents but we will still continue to offer our old standby courses as well.

As always, registration is open and free to anyone in the UW community. Please let your colleagues, staff, and students know by sharing this newsletter. Individuals can subscribe to the newsletter here, and our newsletter archive is found here.

 

Short Course/Workshop Offerings Spring 2018 Quarter (listed in order of scheduled appearance)

Introduction to R using Rstudio

This class will teach you how to get started with R using the free integrated development environment called Rstudio. The course will cover the basic organization of R and RStudio, where to find good help references, and how to begin a basic analysis. This class is ideal for users who have little or no experience with R.

Instructor: Yunkang Yang, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Monday, 2 April 2018
Time: 10:30am – 11:30am
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

Introduction to GIS

This course will provide students with a broad overview of what geographic information systems (GISs) are and how social scientists can benefit from using them in their research. Students will explore basic GIS concepts through hands-on exercises using ArcGIS, a widely used GIS software package, as well as freely available data sets.

Instructor: Will Brown, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Thursday, 5 April 2018
Time: 9:30am – 10:30am
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

 

Introduction to SPSS

This courses introduces the SPSS statistical package including reading in datafiles as well as basic data management and introductory statistical procedures. Additional topics include computing and recoding variables and selecting and filtering cases.

Instructor: Aya Masilela, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Friday 6 April 2018
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

 

Introduction to R using Rstudio

This class will teach you how to get started with R using the free integrated development environment called Rstudio. The course will cover the basic organization of R and RStudio, where to find good help references, and how to begin a basic analysis. This class is ideal for users who have little or no experience with R.

Instructor: Jasmine Jiang, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Monday, 9 April 2018
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

 

Data Wrangling in R

This course will cover some of R’s useful tools for data management and exploration. Most of class will be devoted to learning Hadley Wickham’s excellent “tidyr” and “dplyr” packages. Attendees are assumed to have basic familiarity with R.

Instructor: Stephanie Lee, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Thursday, 12 April 2018
Time: 9:30am – 10:30am
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

 

Introduction to SPSS

Description:

This courses introduces the SPSS statistical package including reading in datafiles as well as basic data management and introductory statistical procedures. Additional topics include computing and recoding variables and selecting and filtering cases.

Instructor: Galen Kerrick, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Thursday, 19 April 2018
Time: 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

 

Introduction to Qualitative Research and ATLAS.ti

Description:

This course provides a brief, practical introduction to working in ATLAS.ti, covering basic terminology and functionality of the program. This will include importing text documents, coding and annotating documents, and exploring relationships through analysis and query tools. Time permitting, we may also briefly discuss best practices for data management. The course assumes no prior use of Atlas-ti.

Instructor: Will Brown, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Monday, 23 April 2018
Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

 

Introduction to STATA

Description:

This course will introduce you to the basic Stata statistical package including reading in STATA datasets, basic data manipulation in Stata, and common statistical procedures.

Instructor: Stephanie Lee, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Tuesday, 24 April 2018
Time: 9:30am – 10:30am
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

 

Using R for Analyses of Time Series Data

Description:

This class assumes some familiarity with R (at least some basics from prior CSSCR workshops) and will tackle problems of time series data set-up and some basic statistical procedures for analyzing data in this format.

Instructor: Jasmine Jiang, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Monday, 14 May 2018
Time: 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Place: Savery 121
Register here.

 

Making Maps with Tableau

This courses explores the use of Tableau’s mapping features. The course requires no prior experience though prior exposure to GIS is helpful.

Instructor: Aya Masilela, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Time: 9:30am – 10:30am
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

 

Intermediate SPSS

This courses builds from CSSCR’s introductory SPSS classes and includes additional data management topics as well as more statistical procedures.

Instructor: Gabby Gorsky, CSSCR Consultant
Date: Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Time: 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Place: Savery 117
Register here.

To register for the above classes, follow this link.

PAA Trainee Presentations

Rebecca Rebbe – “Child Protection Reports and Placements of Infants Prenatally Exposed to Substances”

Presented alongside Joseph Mienko, Emily Brown, and Ali Rowhani-Rahbar

Abstract: Research has indicated that substance exposure during pregnancy is dangerous often affecting infants’ health. But it is unclear how hospitals and CPS respond to these infants. This study examines differences in hospital and CPS system initial responses within the neonatal period by type of prenatal substance exposure and race. Children born in Washington State from 2006-2013 whose birth records indicated prenatal substance exposure through ICD-9 codes were included in the study (n=12,276). Birth records were linked with CPS records. The initial response by the hospital and CPS was examined using multinomial logit models with interactions of substance exposure and race. Predicted probabilities were then simulated to enhance interpretability. Overall, we found that few infants prenatally exposed to substances were removed from their parents initially, but exposure types were treated differently. We found that minority substance-exposed infants were not reported to CPS or placed out-of-home more than white infants.

Rebecca earned her MSW at Boston College and her master’s in education in Risk & Prevention from the Harvard University.  She has a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Portland and has served as an AmeriCorps member working with adolescents. Rebecca has over 7 years post-MSW experience working with families involved with the child welfare system. She worked as an in-home family crisis clinician in Boston before working for the Washington State public child welfare system in Seattle as an ongoing case worker, a CPS investigator, and a permanency and adoptions supervisor with adolescents.  Rebecca studies the responses to child maltreatment through systems, laws, and policies.

Lee Fiorio – “Understanding Patterns of Human Mobility at Different Time Scales”

Presented alongside Emilio Zagheni, Guy Abel, Johnathan Hill, Gabriel Pestre, Emmanuel Letouze, and Jixuan Cai

Abstract: Recent decades have seen an explosion in the quantity of behavioral data generated by human interaction with digital devices. A growing body of literature has focused on the value and potential pitfalls of leveraging these “digital trace data”‘ to analyze social processes including human migration and mobility, but blind spots remain. One challenge, well known to migration scholars, is to standardize and compare different kinds of movements across different time and geographic scales. In this paper, we develop a methodology for parsing the population-level migration signal from individual-level point-in-time data using flexible time-scales. We propose a stochastic model for simulating patterns in digital trace data and test it against three datasets: geo-tagged Tweets and Gowalla check-ins in the U.S.; cell phone call detail records in Senegal. Similar patterns observed across all three empirical datasets demonstrate the utility of our approach for studying migration via digital trace data.

Lee is a graduate student in the department of geography and CSDE fellow. His work focuses on neighborhood change and migration in the US context with an emphasis on methodology and data visualization.

Connor Gilroy – “Extending the Demography of Sexuality With Digital Trace Data”

Presented alongside RidhiKashyap

Abstract: A core challenge in the demography of sexuality is accurate and detailed measurement of sexual preferences in the population. We approach this challenge using digital trace data from Facebook’s advertising platform to obtain aggregate estimates for sexuality in the United States, stratified by age, gender, geography, and relationship status. We find our data to be a good predictor of variation in other sources of sexual minority prevalence, Gallup and the American Community Survey. We then go beyond these sources to characterize our population in terms of age, gender, and bisexual or same-gender interest. We find a higher willingness to disclose sexuality among younger cohorts than older, and among heterosexual men than women. Conversely, we find large numbers of young bisexual women. Ultimately, 4.2 million or 2% of Facebook users in the United States disclose non-heterosexual interests, encompassing a large proportion of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals in the US.

Connor is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, and has research interests at the intersection of Sociology, Demography, and Data Science. As part of his fellowship, Connor will be studying the relationship between online and offline LGBTQ communities. The project is intended to combine online and offline data to understand the impact of the development of online communities on offline behavior. It is an important topic that is tied to the well-being of populations, which is a central research theme at CSDE. Connor’s CSDE Affiliate mentors are Kate Stovel and Emilio Zagheni.

Equitable Development Monitoring Graduate Intern

The Office of Planning & Community Development is seeking a graduate intern to assist with the work of the Research & Analysis Division within the Office of Planning & Community Development. This position will assist with research and public engagement to help design indicators and analyze data for our new Equitable Development Monitoring Program. Other work may include helping to respond to demographic data requests.

Educational Benefit to Student:

The  student will gain experience and apply knowledge in a professional local government work environment; refine skills in analysis, presentation, and organization of data; learn about and advance the importance of race and social equity in urban planning; get experience in community engagement; and have an opportunity to develop work that may be included in the student’s portfolio and/or contribute to their degree project.

CSDE Affiliates Examine Equity Issues Associated with Tolled Roads

Last week, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed instituting a toll on downtown roads to curb congestion. The Seattle Times examined the potential benefits and implications of the toll. In unpacking the possible equity issues, the Times turned to a 2009 study conducted by Affiliate Jennifer Romich, Associate Professor at the School of Social Work; Affiliate Robert Plotnick, Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance; and Matthew Dunbar, Assistant Director at CSDE and GIS Specialist. Their research concluded that, in general, low-income drivers use tolled roads less frequently than high-income drivers. But for a small portion of the low-income population who had no alternative but to use tolled roads, the costs could absorb up to 15% of their annual income.

The study contends that some low-income drivers would pay at “a rate four times higher than that for a median-income family. Devoting 15 percent of income to tolls would force large reductions in other types of expenditures and, hence, substantially reduce the economic well-being of poor households.” You can learn more about the current toll proposal and  the 2009 study below.

Oxford Symposium on Population Migration and the Environment (8/2-8/3)

The Oxford Symposium  is a special interest meeting of London Symposia, an organization devoted to scholarly research, writing, and discourse. This interdisciplinary conference is an opportunity for scientists and policy makers to present papers and engage in discussion relevant to sustainability, human welfare, and progress.

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to bring to the table academics and professionals from the realms of environmental studies, economics, education,  the built environment, sociology, political science, gender equity, ethics and other related fields, to present papers and engage in discourse relevant to global environmental issues and the effects on human welfare and progress.

You are invited to present a paper on an aspect of research, or you may wish to attend as an observer. If you wish to present a paper, you will be requested to submit a brief abstract for review by the Programme Committee.

Abstract Submission and Registration is now open for ALL 2018 Symposia. Abstracts are reviewed on a rolling basis and notifications sent within ten days of submission.

The deadline for abstract submissions for the Summer Session is 10 July 2018.

CSDE at PAA 2018

At the upcoming 2018 PAA meeting, 39 CSDE Fellows, Trainees, and Affiliates are scheduled to participate as presenters, chairs, and discussants. Our scholars tackle a wide range of demographic issues, represented in the varied presentations, listed below.

In addition, CSDE is pleased to host a reception at Denver Dazzle Jazz Club for those traveling to PAA 2018. CSDE fellows, students, affiliates, alumni, supporters, and friends are invited to join us for drinks and light fare on Friday, April 27 from 6-9pm. View the invite here – and we hope to see you there!

 

FELLOWS (current and former still at UW)


Esposito, Michael

Fiorio, Lee

Gilroy, Connor

O’Brien, Michelle

 

TRAINEES (current and former still at UW)


Fan, Xinguang

Hess, Christian

Lanu, Kim

Leibbrand, Christine

Magarati, Maya

Marquez, Neal

Vignau Loria, Maria

 

UW AFFILIATES

 

Allard, Scott

Brines, Julie

  • Co-Author: Beyond the Urban Core: Examining Variation in Divorce Filing Rates across the Rural-Urban Continuum, in Session 171: Urbanization, Friday, 1pm

Burt, Callie

Crowder, Kyle

Curran, Sara

Darroch, Jacqueline

Flores, René

Foster, Andrew

Goodreau, Steven

Lee, Hedwig

Long, Mark

Martinson, Melissa

Meijer-Irons, Jacqueline

Mienko, Joseph

Mokdad, Ali

Portner, Claus

Raftery, Adrian

Rebbe, Rebecca

Romich, Jennifer

Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali

Thomas, Tim

Tolnay, Stewart

Toomet, Ott

Vigdor, Jacob

Wang, Haidong

Wu, Zheng

Williams, Nathalie

Zagheni, Emilio

Co-Author: Understanding Patterns of Human Mobility at Different Time Scales, in Session 62: Methods for the Analysis of Human Spatial Behavior, Thursday, 1:20pm

CSDE Welcomes New Affiliates

CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to welcome ten new affiliates!

  • Gregg Colburn – Assistant Professor, Kennedy Associates Endowed Professorship in Real Estate Studies, Real Estate
  • Alison Roxby – Assistant Professor, Global Health and Medicine/Allergy & Infectious Diseases
  • Dan Brown – Corkery Family Director and Professor, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
  • Jane Simoni – Professor, Psychology
  • Ariel Rokem – Senior Data Scientist, eScience
  • Carey Farquhar – Professor, Departments of Global Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology
  • Alison Drake – Assistant Professor, Global Health
  • Brandon Guthrie – Assistant Professor, Global Health
  • Nicole Errett – Lecturer, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences
  • Vince Wang – Research Manager, Grounded Solutions

These affiliates bring a wealth of knowledge and unique approaches that enhances our community of demographers and collectively advances population science. We look forward to supporting each of them as they pursue their research. You can learn more about their individual research interests by visiting their affiliate pages, linked above.

If you are interested in becoming an affiliate or you know of someone who should become one, you can invite them to do so by directing them to this page.  Affiliate applications are reviewed quarterly, by CSDE’s Executive Committee.

Panel on Youth Violence

“Social Disadvantage, Cognitive Schemas, and Propensities to Violence: An Evolutionary Developmental Perspective” — Callie Burt
“Youth and Gun Violence: Can We Save Lives?” — Ali Rowhani-Rahbar
“Risk and protective factors, and effective prevention programs for youth violence: Next Steps” — Richard Catalano, Jr

Callie Burt‘s research interests include children, youth, and families; criminology, deviance, and social control; health disparities; life course; race and ethnicity; social psychology; social stratification/inequality; and biopsychosociology.

Dr. Ali Rowhani-Rahbar joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 2012. His substantive area of research is violence epidemiology with a focus on trauma-crime nexus to inform interventions that promote healing and prevent recidivism. He investigates violence victimization and perpetration with an integrated public health and public safety approach. He has been involved in studies of violent injury and crime before and after firearm-related hospitalization, interventions to promote safe gun storage, firearm access in relation to mental illness, and influences of policies on firearm injury. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a cluster randomized trial of a dual hospital-based and community-based intervention to improve the health and well-being of gunshot wound victims. He has served on the American College of Emergency Physicians Technical Advisory Group on Firearm Violence Research, and the Firearms Subcommittee of Washington State Safer Homes Task Force for Suicide Prevention. Methodologically, he has contributed to the field of injury prevention and control by examining the epidemiology of traumatic brain injury, drowning, burns, adverse events following medical interventions, and a number of other traumatic outcomes. Dr. Rowhani-Rahbar is a Core Investigator, the Leader of the Violence Prevention Section, and the Director of the Research Methods Core at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center. He is also an Affiliate Investigator at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and an editor for the journal Injury Prevention.

Dr. Richard F. Catalano is Professor and the Director of the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work and adjunct Professor of Education and Sociology. For over 25 years, he has led research focused on discovering risk and protective factors for positive and problem behavior, designing and evaluating programs to address these factors, using this knowledge on etiology and efficacy to understand and improve prevention services systems. He is the co-developer of the Social Development Model, a theory of antisocial behavior. He is also the co-developer of the parenting programs “Guiding Good Choices,” “Supporting School Success,” and “Parents Who Care,” of the school-based program, “Raising Healthy Children,” and of the community prevention approach, ‘Communities That Care.’ He has published over 200 articles and book chapters. His work has been recognized by practitioners (1996 National Prevention Network’s Award of Excellence); criminologists (2007 August Vollmer Award by the American Society of Criminology, 2003 Paul Tappan Award from the Western Society of Criminology, and Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology); and prevention scientists (2001 Prevention Science Award from the Society for Prevention Research).

Ali Rowhani-Rahbar appointed Bartely Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence

Congratulations to Affiliate Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, who was recently appointed to the Bartley Dobb Professorship for the Study and Prevention of Violence.  The current holder of this professorship is fellow Affiliate Richard Catalano. Established in 1997, this five-year endowment funds an appointed University of Washington (UW) faculty member for their work in the study and prevention of violence through resolution of conflict.

“I am honored and thrilled,” said Rowhani-Rahbar. “This professorship catalyzes our scholarship to study violence and enables us to design and evaluate new violence prevention programs. It provides invaluable support for our work to reduce the heavy burden of violence in our society.”