SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: W4001 : Social, Economic and Environmental Causes and Consequences of Demographic Change in Rural America
- Period Covered: 10/01/2018 to 09/30/2019
- Date of Report: 11/27/2019
- Annual Meeting Dates: 09/27/2019 to 09/28/2019
Participants
See Summary of Minutes
Accomplishments
The collective work of W-4001 and its predecessors was instrumental in our receipt of a National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging R24 grant to develop an interdisciplinary network on rural population health and aging. The PI (Jensen) and 2 of the Co-PIs (Monnat and Green) are W-4001 members. Through multiple mechanisms (pilot grants, working groups, annual meetings, mentoring activities, methods training), the proposed Network will bring together scientists with expertise in various health and aging outcomes (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, chronic diseases, behavioral health, mortality), social determinants of health, rural economies, population and environment, and policy, along with data and methods across multiple sources, levels, and dimensions of health and aging to study the multilevel and multidimensional exposures shaping and being shaped by health and aging trends among different rural populations and regions. The Network will disseminate findings to academic, policy, and public audiences through presentations, academic publications, public research briefs and webinars, and congressional briefings, and will develop and disseminate data and analytic resources and training materials to ensure sustained and powerful impact in the area of rural population health and aging.
PUBLICATIONS. Members published over 50 refereed-journal articles in line with project objectives (see list of publications). Over 40 presentations were made to fellow researchers at annual meetings of professional associations and other research conferences, including Population Association of America, Rural Sociological Society, American Association of Geographers, American Agricultural Economics Association, Southern Demographic Association, and the Penn State Family Symposium.
OUTREACH. During its second year, project members engaged in significant outreach and research dissemination. Members published over 25 policy briefs, fact sheets, research reports, web data products, and newspaper articles or editorials aimed at providing policy-relevant demographic information to a wide audience (see publications list). Members consulted at the highest levels of federal policy as members of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Office of Management and Budget’s Committee on Metropolitan and Micropolitan Standards, and the National Academies of Sciences Committee on Rising Midlife Mortality. Members conducted over 20 briefings, workshops and consultations to state and federal policymakers, extension officials, community organizations, and other stakeholder groups, including: USDA Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett, USDA Rural Development State Directors, National Academies of Sciences, Health and Human Services Office of Rural Health Policy, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, New Hampshire State Legislators, and Cooperative Extension officials in Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
MEDIA OUTREACH. Members communicated research findings to the public with numerous interviews through many media outlets, including in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, US News & World Report, NPR, Daily Yonder, Bloomberg News, USA Today, BBC World Service, Wisconsin Public Radio, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
NEW FUNDING. Members received external funding to extend and build on research to meet project objectives:
National Institute on Aging, 2019-2024. “Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging.” Leif Jensen (PI), Shannon Monnat, Lori Hunter, and John Green. ($1,616,856).
National Institute on Aging, 2019-2024. “Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America” Shannon Monnat, Jennifer Karas Montez, Jennifer Ailshire, Sarah Burgard, & Robert Hummer. ($1,871,732).
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Policies for Action. 2018-2020. “Local Initiatives, State Preemption, and Public Health.” Shannon Monnat, Doug Wolf & Jennifer Karas Montez. ($150,000).
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). 06/01/18-05/31/22. “Understanding Opioid Risks in Rural and Micropolitan Communities: Economic Restructuring, Social Disorganization, and Local Responses.” Shannon Monnat. ($498,401).
David Rothwell: “The Oregon Poverty Measure: A Proposal to Create a More Accurate Measure of Poverty in Oregon.” The Ford Family Foundation and the Providence/OSU Foundation: $200,000 (2018-2020).
David Rothwell: “Are Rural Americans Disadvantaged? Inequalities in Life Course Trajectories across the Rural-Urban Divide” Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Insight Grants: $175,024 (2019-2024).
David Rothwell, M. Edwards and S. Grutzmacher: “Explaining SNAP Enrollment Among Young-Old and Older Americans.” University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research $293,000 (2019-2022).
Green, John J., Jamiko Deleveaux, and Lynn Woo (Co-PIs on University of Mississippi subcontract). “Mississippi 2020 Count Review” U.S. Census Bureau as part of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates. ($32,087)
Green, John J. and Lynn Woo (Co-PIs on University of Mississippi subcontract). “Mississippi YOU Count 2020 Census Initiative and Amplifying Rural Voices for the 2020 Census Initiative.” The Mississippi Kids Count Program with originating funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. ($10,000) 2018 through 2019.
AWARDS.
Helen Berry received the Lifetime Award for Service and Research from the Utah State Center for Women and Gender.
John Green received the Lift Every Voice Award, Black Faculty and Staff Organization and Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement, University of Mississippi.
Daniel Veroff received the 2019 Randy Gustafason Memorial Award for outstanding service to the State Data Center Program and the U.S. Census Bureau. Dan also received the Distinguished Extension Outreach Specialist awarded by University of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Shannon Monnat received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections Program Thought Leadership Award in Outreach and Communications.
Members received the Highly Commended Paper, 2018 Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence, for: Tim Slack, Michael R. Cope, Leif Jensen, Ann R. Tickamyer. 2017. “Social Embeddedness, Formal Labor Supply, and Informal Work.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 37: 248-264.
David Rothwell received the Annie E. Casey Foundation Rural Poverty Research Fellow (2018-2019).
Impacts
- Published research on the social and economic factors driving geographic differences in opioid and other drug mortality rates led to an invitation to join the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Technical Expert Panel to develop a Rural Prosperity Index. This index could help policymakers better understand the factors that make rural communities vulnerable or resilient to public health crises.
- Research on the distribution of persons with disabilities in the U.S., raised awareness and increased knowledge about the links between migration and the places where persons with disabilities are found. New knowledge generated by the study shows that migration has less of an impact on the distribution of disabilities than do the characteristics of places: where accommodations for people with disabilities are fewer, the likelihood of identifying as disabled is higher. Policy implications include stressing the need to create accommodations for persons with disabilities because accommodating disability essentially erases its impact on the individual and on the places where they live.
- Research on poverty, employment, and informal work raised awareness and increased knowledge about rural livelihood strategies.
- Research on geographic trends (particularly rural-urban and within-rural disparities) in health and mortality led to an invitation to join the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Rising Midlife Mortality and Socioeconomic Disparities. At the request of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Committee is currently conducting a consensus study on the topic of rising midlife mortality rates and socioeconomic disparities.
- Research and work as part of inter-disciplinary multi-university teams helped raise awareness of the linkages between demographic change and landcover change, particularly in rural areas.
- Contributed expertise led to successful grant proposals incorporating demographic data into research on the impacts of Cyanobacterial blooms on inland lakes in rural areas.
- Engagement in research and policy discussions with legislators, public and NGO policy makers raised awareness and provided insights into recent demographic change, including in New Hampshire, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Oregon.
- Educated the public and media through frequent interaction with major media outlets discussing recent demographic trends in rural and urban America.
- Engaged in participatory scholarship in collaboration with stakeholders in rural communities focused on collaborating with public power utilities, village administrators, and planners using community engaged research methods to understand and design opportunities for community solar programs in remote rural communities.
- Research on the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which was set to expire in 2019, informed discussions and debates in Oregon about how to renew the state EITC. The policy was renewed and slightly expanded.
- Work on the Oregon Poverty Measure and the EITC raised awareness among Extension and community practitioners of poverty and how families across the state’s diverse geography access the social safety net.
- Research on the Oregon Poverty Measure and related to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Poverty Research Fellowship informed state policymakers and current debates around the cost of living and geographic adjustment in the Supplemental Poverty Measure.