Laboratory
Population Health
At a Glance
Projects
Publications
Team
Project
How Does Death in the Family Affect the Life Course?
Emily Smith-Greenaway (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA)
Detailed Description
This project steps away from conventional approaches: It advances a paradigm shift toward an acknowledgment of premature mortality not only as the result of social inequality but also as a potential antecedent of it for those burdened by high levels of mortality in their family, social network, or community. Research questions that guide the trajectory of the project include: How do mortality conditions imprint family systems and social networks? Does higher exposure to the premature death of socially and racially marginalized individuals compound existing health disparities? Do mortality conditions of yesteryear inform contemporary social and demographic processes? Do individuals’ personal experiences disrupt their ability to perceive aggregate mortality change?
The project estimates the burden of maternal loss, analyzing secondary data sources, including Demographic and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, and UN Population data. It also outlines the implications of child loss for the parents who endure it; this is done by analyzing survey data. New data was collected in Balaka, Malawi: Tsogolo la Thanzi-3. With the support of Malawian-based and US-based collaborators, sampling, recruiting, and fielding of a survey to more than 2500 young women in Balaka were carried out. This allows us to answer several of the research questions at the core of the project.
Publications
Smith-Greenaway, E.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.; Trinitapoli, J.; Zagheni, E.:
BMJ Global Health 6:4, e004837–e004837. (2021)
Smith-Greenaway, E.:
Demography 57:2, 445–473. (2020)
Smith-Greenaway, E.; Trinitapoli, J.:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117:8, 4027–4033. (2020)
Smith-Greenaway, E.; Weitzman, A.; Chilungo, A.:
Journal of Marriage and Family 81:5, 1126–1143. (2019)