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A study published on June 8, 2020 in the Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics has shown that early childhood intervention programs can create positive long-lasting effects for participants and their offspring. This study was a decades-long project led by Karl Hill, who is the director of the Problem Behavior and Positive Youth Development Program (PBPYD) at IBS, and also the University of Washington Social Development Research Group.

This recently published study is a long-term follow up of an earlier study started in 1980 which tested an elementary school prevention program that at enhanced teaching, parenting and child social-emotional skills. Earlier publications in the original study showed that participants who had been in the elementary school intervention demonstrated better lifetime academic attainment and were better off financially by their 30s than were non-participants. The current follow up study reported that children of parents who had received childhood intervention had fewer developmental delays and behavioral problems than children whose parents had not undergone the original program in elementary school.  This is the first published study to report differences in the offspring of participants in a preventive intervention provided when the parents were children. These results indicate that positive results from childhood intervention cannot only cascade into adulthood but into the next generation as well.

For more information about the study and its findings read the CU Boulder Today's article.

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Written by Sierra Speegle (Strategic Communication, '21)

Stefan Leyk, an associate professor of Geography at CU Boulder and IBS Fellow, and his colleagues at IBS, Earth Lab and ASU have found a way to understand how and why the United States formed the way it did with the help of Zillow, the real estate website. Leyk, along with many other IBS researchers, published an article in ScienceAdvances, part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  

Up until now, the spatial distribution and rapid population growth of the U.S. had been puzzling researchers for centuries. However, with the help of Zillow’s dataset- the Zillow Transaction and Assessment Dataset (ZTRAX)- Leyk and his fellow researchers, Johannes Uhl, Myron Gutmann and Dylan Connor, created The Historical Settlement Data Compilation for the United States (HISDAC-US). This new source combines land- and population-based methods to show “detailed growth patterns for human settlements.” HISDAC-US is revolutionary because previously, researchers could only study land- and population-based methods separately. The dataset is free and available for anyone to use on the Harvard Dataverse. The Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine article has more information about Leyk and his team’s discoveries.

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Written by Sierra Speegle (Strategic Communication, '21)

Jason Boardman, Director of the Health and Society Program at IBS received the Clifford C. Clogg Award for Mid-Career Achievement through the Population Association of America (PAA). 

Established in 1995, this biennial award originally honored innovative contributions to the design, collection, modeling, or analysis of population survey or census data. Beginning with the 2000 award, the terms were modified to recognize early career achievement in population studies and demography, broadly defined. It honors outstanding innovative scholarly achievements of population professionals who have attained their highest professional degree within the previous 10-20 years.

Congratulations to Jason on this prestigious award.  Please watch this video for more information about the award and to hear Jason’s acceptance speech.  Congrats again!

A little over a month ago, CONVERGE and the Social Science Extreme Events Research Network (SSEER), both part of the Natural Hazards Center that is funded by the National Science Foundation, partnered with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to create the COVID-19 Global Research Registry for Public Health and Social Sciences. The effort seeks to connect researchers worldwide who are studying the social and behavioral impacts of COVID-19 and to log their COVID-19 related projects with the registry.  You can read more about the SSRC’s efforts in this newsletter.

Even though COVID-19 has forced people apart, the registry aims to keep people connected through research and help us understand more together than we would on our own. COVID-19-related research projects focus on everything from the virus’ influence on mental health to the role of tech in our lives. SSRC president Alondra Nelson says, “We are honored to partner with the Natural Hazards Center to continue the SSRC’s longstanding mission to support researchers and to advance and mobilize research for the public benefit—a mission that is most urgent today.” Please read the full press release. The registry was born after Lori Peek held a CONVERGE virtual forum in mid-March to discuss the global pandemic and realized how many projects were already in progress around the world. Peek is the Natural Hazards Center Director at the Institute of Behavioral Science and a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The unique registry is the first of its kind and the registration form is currently offered in English, Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese. In the future, entries will be accessible to journalists, funding agencies and philanthropists who are searching for story ideas and benefactors.

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This article written by Sierra Gonzalez Speegle, CU Boulder Strategic Communications Major.

As noted in the CNN article “Forget ‘social distancing,’” the WHO and other health experts would prefer that the term “physical distancing” would be used to describe what we have all been doing, staying home, avoiding large gatherings, six feet distance, etc. The intent is that a move away from the term “social distancing” would highlight that it is still very important to be socially connected, while we also need to be physically distant from each other.

Lori Peek, Director of the Natural Hazards Center here at IBS, was asked to comment on this change, and while she admires the WHO’s efforts to clarify that we still need social connection during this time, she worries about making the change to “physical distancing” at this moment in the pandemic.   

“My main concern is that this switch in terminology—in the midst of the crisis—violates one of the key principles of effective risk communication, which is to ensure that there is clarity and consistency in messaging…" Lori Peek, as quoted in CNN’s “Forget ‘social distancing,’” article. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/world/social-distancing-language-change-trnd/index.html

Lori Peek gave the following full statement to CNN’s Harmeet Kaur. 

“I deeply admire the WHO’s efforts to clarify that we need to maintain socially connected even as we are physically apart. That reasoning is based on sound social science. But we have now become familiar with the term “social distancing.” This represents a risk communication success, in that the public has learned the term and many are adjusting their behaviors accordingly and as possible. My main concern is that this switch in terminology—in the midst of the crisis—violates one of the key principles of effective risk communication, which is to ensure that there is clarity and consistency in messaging. I just don’t want to see members of the public become confused or frustrated during what is already such an uncertain and frightening moment for so many.”  Lori Peek

IBS Graduate Student Caitlin McShane (GEOG, advisor Stefan Leyk) was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and another IBS Graduate Student, Erica Jackson (SOCY, David Pyrooz), received an Honorable Mention. A total of 26 CU students were awarded the fellowship.

These awards come with a generous 3-year annual stipend plus monies to the institution to cover tuition and fees. From the GRFP website, "The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions." Read more about the awards on the GRFP website.

CARTTS, with support from IBS, provides a yearly NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Application Proposal Workshop, you can find more information at this link.

CUPC Affiliate Matt McQueen was interviewed for the Daily Camera article about Boulder County’s low fatality rate from COVID-19, especially compared to neighboring counties.  McQueen, who is an epidemiologist and associate professor of Integrative Physiology at UCB attributes the difference to the younger population in Boulder County.  There have been fewer “infection clusters,” there are less vulnerable population groups, and it is easier to isolate in a younger community. 

“In Boulder County we have not had any (infection) clusters that have settled in to a population that is maybe carrying a higher risk, such as nursing homes or retirement communities,” McQueen said…

…McQueen referenced a statistical “population pyramid,” which showed that 20-year-olds easily comprise Boulder County’s largest age bracket, roughly triple the number who are 70 and far more than those who are 75 or older.

Daily Camera article "Boulder County's coronavirus fatality toll falls well short of metro neighbors."

Read the full article here.

Dr. John O'Loughlin and his colleagues published an article about the Crimean response to Russia's annexation of the territory in 2014.  The article titled "To Russia With Love: The Majority of Crimeans Are Still Glad for Their Annexation." was published on April 3, 2020 in Foreign Affairs magazine and was written by Drs. John O'Loughlin, Gerard Toal, and Kristin M. Bakke.  

The article flushes out the complicated reality of how Crimean's view the annexation compared to the international community's view of what was considered an illegitimate takeover. The researchers surveyed Crimean residents in 2014 and followed up in 2019.  The researchers acknowledge that "[t]here is no doubt that human rights abuses occur in the peninsula. Life is difficult in the territory for activists and those still opposed to the annexation."  However, the researchers also want to refute the claim that all Crimea residents are "living under occupation."  

But when Ukrainian activists and Western politicians claim that the residents of Crimea are “living under occupation,” they mistake the experience of some for the experience of all. The majority of Crimeans do not experience Russian rule as oppressive, alien, or unwelcome.

"To Russia With Love: The Majority of Crimeans Are Still Glad for Their Annexation." 4/3/2020, Foreign Affairs magazine  

David Pryooz (IBS, SOCY) and his research colleague Scott Decker (ASU) published an article available via The Conversation on their research with gang members behind bars.  Read the full article here.  The article has been picked up by over a dozen news sources and counting, from YahooNews to SFGate.  

Prisoners today will eventually become the neighbors, religious congregants and employees of tomorrow. We want people to leave prison in a condition better than they arrived. That means effective responses to gangs.

From "We spoke to hundreds of prison gang members…" https://theconversation.com/we-spoke-to-hundreds-of-prison-gang-members-heres-what-they-said-about-life-behind-bars-132573