Research Projects

Ongoing and recent research can be found closer to the top of this page while completed or published research, with links, can be found farther down the page.

 

Conceptualizing ubiquitous uncertainty in U.S. unemployment and fertility

In this study, we operationalize economic uncertainty as a component part of modern daily life (rather than as a shock or absolute value as has often been done in previous studies) and examine how it is related to age-specific fertility rates (ASFR). We do this by first generating estimates of month-year-FIPS-ASFRs in the United States. These ASFRs are estimated over a 17-year period for five-year age groups of women of reproductive age (15-44) using restricted* birth data and annual estimates of age and sex-specific populations. We measure economic uncertainty by generating monthly running averages of the standard deviations of unemployment rates over different time ranges starting at 9 months prior to calculated conception dates. These standard deviations are used to estimate age-group stratified multilevel longitudinal generalized linear models, where ASFRs are predicted by the average standard deviation of the unemployment rate for durations of 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months starting at 9 months prior to conception. In our preliminary results, we find a significant and positive relationship between increased variability in monthly unemployment rates in U.S. counties and ASFRs for women under 25-years old. This relationship attenuates among older groups of women. Additionally, we see that short-term economic uncertainty has a different relationship with fertility than long term economic uncertainty, a phenomena which should be further explored by age, race, and educational status.

*Data shown in the 2023 PAA presentation is using public use birth data.

Related Presentations:

Wright KQ & Myrskylä M. (2023). “Conceptualizing ubiquitous uncertainty in US Unemployment and Fertility.” Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2023. Poster. New Orleans, LA.

How do intergenerational characteristics of couples’ immigrant status contribute to Finland’s fertility regime?

Since 2010, a falling fertility trend has emerged in the Nordics; this is partially accounted for by quantum decline in first births, long term declines in marriage rates, and increasingly uncertain connections to social institutions. Additionally, the number of people immigrating into Finland has increased over 150% since 1990, with almost 10% of Finland’s population having some type of immigrant background in 2021. In this project we address the impact of the changing composition of immigration status within couples on fertility and union regimes in Finland to examine whether and how compositional changes within and across generations and couple nativity-typologies are related to outcomes. We use Finnish register data to establish an index generation of women of reproductive age between 15-44 in 2020. We link these women to 1) both their biological parents, 2) any partners with whom they have had children, and 3) their registered births. We then characterize all biological parental dyads, in both the index and the parental generation, according to their nativity-immigrant status. We examine the fertility and union characteristics of 1st, 2nd, and 2.5th generation immigrants compared to each other and to native Finns, while accounting for intergenerational changes in composition, parental gender, household structures, and immigrant time in country to explore various measures of fertility and union dynamics. In the context of very low fertility, an aging population, and political polarization in recent elections where successful candidates have campaigned on anti-immigration platforms, understanding these dynamics will be essential to offer scientific and policy guidance on education and sustainability of Finland’s existing democracy and welfare system.

Related Presentations:

Wright KQ, Trigos-Raczkowski C, Loi S, Pitkänen J, Myrskylä M & Martikainen P. (2023). “How do intergenerational characteristics of couples’ immigrant status contribute to Finland’s fertility regime?” European Association for Population Studies Working Group on Migrant and Minority Fertility in Europe. Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups: Current Research and New Approaches in Times of Crisis Conference 2023. Wiesbaden, Germany.

Trigos-Raczkowski C, Wright KQ, Myrskylä M, Martikainen P, Pitkänen J, & Moustagaard H. (2023). “How do intergenerational characteristics of couples’ immigrant status contribute to union formation and union dissolution in Finland?” European Association for Population Studies Working Group on Migrant and Minority Fertility in Europe. Fertility and Family Dynamics in Migrant and Minority Groups: Current Research and New Approaches in Times of Crisis Conference 2023. Wiesbaden, Germany.

Exposure to extreme heat and intersectional inequalities in birth outcomes in the United States

We know that environmental inequality is intrinsically related to racial inequality in the U.S., whether through the inability to move to an environmentally secure geographic area or through differential access to resources during environmental crises. To integrate a reproductive and environmental justice perspective, we use twenty years of restricted-use birth record data and high resolution meteorologic data to predict the probability of experiencing a birth that is either/both preterm and low birth weight using maternal self-identified race/ethnicity, Medicaid use at birth (as a proxy for socioeconomic status), and exposure to extreme heat (as an indicator of environmental exposure to climate change). We implement a variety of measures, both absolute and relative, to instrument exposure to extreme heat, and stratify analyses by NOAA Climate regions in the U.S. We find that relative measures of exposure to extreme temperatures appear to better predict birth inequalities across race-ethnicity and class groups. However, the magnitude of effect-size for exposure to extreme heat is relatively low compared to effect sizes for race-ethnicity and Medicaid variables. When these variables are interacted with exposure to extreme heat across different trimesters, extreme heat rarely remains a significant predictor for worse birth outcomes. These findings suggest that, across climate regions - with the exception of the Southeast of the United States - the story of heat exposure and birth outcomes appears to be one of geographic selection.

Related Presentations:

Wright KQ & Conte-Keivabu R, & Vachuska K. (2023). “Exposure to extreme heat and intersectional inequalities in preterm and low birthweight births.” Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2023. Poster. New Orleans, LA.

Wright KQ. (2022). “Changes in Black-White time-to-conception under varying scenarios over the next 50 years: The role of compositional change due to climate.” Population Association of America Annual Meeting 2022. Session 823: Stratified Reproduction and Reproductive Justice. Atlanta, GA.

Nobles J, Green T, and Wright KQ. “Structural Racism and Black Reproduction in the U.S.” Population Association of America 2021 Meeting, Session 1017: Structural Racism and Health. Virtual.

“It changed the atmosphere surrounding the baby I did have”: Making sense of reproduction during the COVID-19 pandemic

Wright, KQ. (2022). “It changed the atmosphere surrounding the baby I did have”: Making sense of reproduction during the COVID-19 pandemic using heteronormative, affective, and medical schemas. Journal of Marriage and Family. 84(4), 1105-1128.

In this study, I show how individuals use specific schemas in a time of prolonged social upheaval to maintain, reassess, or relinquish their expectations for reproductive experiences. Despite a robust body of literature that quantitatively describes population fertility responses to crises—both long and short—we know less about how individuals make sense of their reproductive experiences within these scenarios. In this study, I use a unique qualitative dataset—29 in-depth interviews with women of reproductive age interviewed 7-8 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, prior to the development of a successful vaccine—to offer insights into the research question: “How do adult women make sense of their reproductive experiences in the context of prolonged uncertainty?” In exploring women’s narratives, I show how the material experience of the pandemic reveals the heteronormative, affective, and medical schemas that women use to normatively make sense of reproduction. I demonstrate that these schemas have real consequences for experiences of reproduction.

Contraceptive Selection and Practice: Associations with Self-Identified Race and Socioeconomic Disadvantage

Wright, KQ. 2020. Contraceptive Selection and Practice: Associations with Self-Identified Race and Socioeconomic Disadvantage. Social Science and Medicine. 266:113366.

Many researchers and policymakers have linked contraceptive programs to improvements in women’s and children’s socioeconomic outcomes. However, these studies have overlooked how socioeconomic status may be an initial driver of contraceptive choice and behavior. Here, I examine the relationship between a comprehensive measure of socioeconomic disadvantage, self-identified race, and contraceptive method selection at enrollment in a unique longitudinal study of contraceptive clients who received a new type of method at no cost. I then examine whether socioeconomic disadvantage has an association with contraceptive switching or discontinuation. These findings offer an important insight for implementation in contraceptive programs: eliminating financial barriers to access contraceptive services does not eliminate the socioeconomic contexts that influence method selection and use that occur as part of everyday lived experiences. Taken cumulatively, these results suggest that contraceptive services should be offered to women in ways that ensure access to reproductive justice without obscuring the need for social changes in the institutions that create disadvantage and shape contraceptive use itself.

A Rapid Review on Pleasure at First Sexual Encounter. (Equal Authorship with Victoria Boydell, Consultancy for the Durex Global Advisory Board)

Boydell V, Wright KQ, and Smith RD. 2021. A Rapid Review on Pleasure at First Sexual Encounter(s). The Journal of Sex Research. 58(7),850-862.

While researchers have thoroughly studied the who, what, and when of first sexual experiences, we know much less about how people construct, experience, and proceed (or not) with sexual pleasure in first sexual experiences and beyond. To address this knowledge gap, the Global Advisory Board for Sexual Health and Wellbeing (GAB) coordinated a rapid review of the existing literature. We have conducted a rapid review of published peer-reviewed research to determine what is currently known about sexual pleasure in first sexual experiences. We found 23 papers exploring a wide range of topics related to this subject and its intersections with sexual health and sexual rights. The results of this review reveal significant gaps in erotic education, gender equity, vulnerability and connection, and communication efficacy, and highlight important domains to consider in future research. Our findings suggest that sexual education programs that promote erotic pedagogy may be effective for promoting health and enjoyable and consensual first sexual experiences.

Understanding the measurement of human rights and person-centered principles in abortion and contraceptive care using systematic review methodology

Global efforts to increase access to sexual and reproductive health services have proliferated over the last 60 years. There is still a long way before these services are offered in a manner that respects, protects, and fulfils patients’ rights. One barrier is the inability to measure whether services respect and protect rights. In this paper, we used systematic review methods to identify measures of human rights and person-centrered principles applied in assessing the provision of abortion and contraceptive care. A total of 120 papers were included out of 12,081 records. We identified measures pertaining to 15 themes (acceptability; accessibility; autonomy; availability; communication; dignity; non-discrimination; informed decision-making; legality; privacy and confidentiality; quality; quality of life; participation; satisfaction; social support; supportive care; and trust). Specific dimensions received more attention than others, particularly quality of care and informed choice, which have had a historical focus within sexual and reproductive health services. Other dimensions, like communication and informed choice, were validated more frequently across sites, while many dimensions are idiosyncratically measured based off of historical precedents. Renewed efforts to measure human rights and person-centered principles in sexual and reproductive health services should focus on consistent, reliable, and valid measurement to ensure rights.

Wright KQ and Boydell V. A review of the measurement of human rights in global sexual and reproductive health research using systematic review methodology.

[Appendix table with included studies forthcoming here]

Forging Silver Bullets: Linking unintended pregnancy, poverty, and race as political fact

In this study I investigate the discursive strategies employed in two congressional hearings focused on pregnancy in welfare reform. I use historical discourse analysis and the concept of governmentality to frame how various actors in these hearings articulate and validate problem statements, use facts and evidence to support or challenge their versions of the issues, and propose solutions that are alternatively preventative or punitive. The hearings frame pregnancy and welfare as interconnected "problems" linked to societal decline and child harm, with suggested solutions ranging from preventive to punitive measures. The construction of these problems in these hearings is distinctly gendered and racialized, with discourses about social decline using the language of cultural racism to describe young, single, mothers as responsible for a decline in morality and young fathers as lacking accountability. Throughout the hearings, speakers utilize narratives of welfare pregnancies causing harm to children to present their proposed policies as the “kindest” or “most compassionate.” The findings highlight that policymaking process in welfare reform tends to rely on a normative portrayal of a White, middle-class, heterosexual, consumption-based family unit, regardless of evidence presented to the contrary. This raises concerns about the assumption that scientific facts will be readily accepted and taken up by congressional committee members, as evidence suggests that lawmakers often prioritize opinions, anecdotes, and evidence that align with their preferred policymaking approaches while discrediting or discarding alternative perspectives.

Related Presentations:

Wright KQ. (2020). “Unintended Pregnancy and Contraceptive Programs and Policies As Poverty Regulation Devices in the U.S.: A Genealogy.” European Association for the Study of Science and Technology/Society for the Social Studies of Science Joint Conference 2020. Prague/Virtual.

 

Group Authored Research

Additional publications on contraceptive acceptability from the HER Salt Lake Contraceptive Initiative

Additional publications on human rights and patient-centered principles in global sexual and reproductive service delivery

Other work on contraception and sexual and reproductive health