IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v108y2012i3p421-440.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Simplified Indicator of Social Well-Being in the United States: Examining the Ecological Impact of Family Formation within a County Level Framework

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy Porter

Abstract

In 1995, a study entitled “Does Marriage Matter?” was published by Linda Waite in the journal of Demography, which was concerned with the direction of such causal relationships. While Waite’s examination of the causal relationships associated with marriage, and most other analyses of this type, is primarily concerned with the individual level effects of marriage on a variety of outcomes, little is understood concerning the ecological effect of community marriage rates on levels of aggregate well-being. This study aims to contribute to this gap through the implementation of a recent conceptualization of social well-being as a multi-dimensional measure incorporating both biological, operationalized as average life expectancy, and social phenomena, operationalized as, community level crime rates (Raphael, Making the links: what do health promotion, crime prevention, and social development have in common? in 2004 ). It is important to understand such aggregate level effects in the face of the existing literature, which relies heavily on relational associations which could be subject to ecological fallacy. Analytic techniques incorporate Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis and spatial regression techniques, due to the high existence of spatial autocorrelation often evident in census data, as a way of understanding the effect of the aggregate level marriage rate on the constructed social well being indicator. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy Porter, 2012. "A Simplified Indicator of Social Well-Being in the United States: Examining the Ecological Impact of Family Formation within a County Level Framework," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(3), pages 421-440, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:108:y:2012:i:3:p:421-440
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-011-9884-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11205-011-9884-8
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-011-9884-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manzoli, Lamberto & Villari, Paolo & M Pirone, Giovanni & Boccia, Antonio, 2007. "Marital status and mortality in the elderly: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 77-94, January.
    2. Lo, Celia C. & Zhong, Hua, 2006. "Linking crime rates to relationship factors: The use of gender-specific data," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 317-329.
    3. Thiess Buettner, 2003. "Local Determinants of Crime: Distinguishing Between Resident and Non-resident Offenders," ERSA conference papers ersa03p396, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Lynch, J. & Harper, S. & Kaplan, G.A. & Smith, G.D., 2005. "Associations between income inequality and mortality among US states: The importance of time period and source of income data," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(8), pages 1424-1430.
    5. Crepaz, Markus M. L. & Crepaz, Nicole, 2004. "Is Equality Good Medicine? Determinants of Life Expectancy in Industrialized Democracies," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(3), pages 275-298, December.
    6. Luc Anselin, 2001. "Spatial Effects in Econometric Practice in Environmental and Resource Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 705-710.
    7. Linda Waite, 1995. "Does marriage matter?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(4), pages 483-507, November.
    8. Linda J. Waite & Evelyn L. Lehrer, 2003. "The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States: A Comparative Analysis," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 29(2), pages 255-275, June.
    9. Anselin, Luc, 2002. "Under the hood : Issues in the specification and interpretation of spatial regression models," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 247-267, November.
    10. Dennis Hogan, 1978. "The effects of demographic factors, family background, and early job achievement on age at marriage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 15(2), pages 161-175, May.
    11. Lloyd Potter, 1991. "Socioeconomic Determinants of White and Black Males’ Life Expectancy Differentials, 1980," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 28(2), pages 303-321, May.
    12. Thomas De Graaff & Raymond J.C.M. Florax & Peter Nijkamp & Aura Reggiani, 2001. "A General Misspecification Test for Spatial Regression Models: Dependence, Heterogeneity, and Nonlinearity," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 255-276, May.
    13. Porter, Jeremy R. & Purser, Christopher W., 2010. "Social disorganization, marriage, and reported crime: A spatial econometrics examination of family formation and criminal offending," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 942-950, September.
    14. Noreen Goldman, 1993. "Marriage selection and mortality patterns: Inferences and fallacies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 30(2), pages 189-208, May.
    15. Paul Voss & David Long & Roger Hammer & Samantha Friedman, 2006. "County child poverty rates in the US: a spatial regression approach," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 25(4), pages 369-391, August.
    16. Semaan, Salaam & Sternberg, Maya & Zaidi, Akbar & Aral, Sevgi O., 2007. "Social capital and rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in the United States: Spatial regression analyses of state-level associations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(11), pages 2324-2341, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Porter, Jeremy R. & Purser, Christopher W., 2010. "Social disorganization, marriage, and reported crime: A spatial econometrics examination of family formation and criminal offending," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 942-950, September.
    2. Jeremy Porter, 2012. "Religion and politics: understanding the effects of conservative origins on contemporary patterns of sub-national relative human development," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1359-1376, August.
    3. Berntsen, Kjersti Norgård & Kravdal, Øystein, 2012. "The relationship between mortality and time since divorce, widowhood or remarriage in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2267-2274.
    4. Michael Rendall & Margaret Weden & Melissa Favreault & Hilary Waldron, 2011. "The Protective Effect of Marriage for Survival: A Review and Update," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(2), pages 481-506, May.
    5. María Elena Martínez & Jonathan T Unkart & Li Tao & Candyce H Kroenke & Richard Schwab & Ian Komenaka & Scarlett Lin Gomez, 2017. "Prognostic significance of marital status in breast cancer survival: A population-based study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Huang, Wei, 2019. "Forest condition change, tenure reform, and government-funded eco-environmental programs in Northeast China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 67-74.
    7. Baylis, Kathy & Paulson, Nicholas D. & Piras, Gianfranco, 2011. "Spatial Approaches to Panel Data in Agricultural Economics: A Climate Change Application," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 325-338, August.
    8. Espinosa, Javier & Evans, William N., 2008. "Heightened mortality after the death of a spouse: Marriage protection or marriage selection?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1326-1342, September.
    9. Michael Geruso, 2012. "Black-White Disparities in Life Expectancy: How Much Can the Standard SES Variables Explain?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(2), pages 553-574, May.
    10. Kathleen P. Bell & Timothy J. Dalton, 2007. "Spatial Economic Analysis in Data‐Rich Environments," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 487-501, September.
    11. Dasgupta, Susmita & Hammer, Dan & Kraft, Robin & Wheeler, David, 2014. "Vyāghranomics in space and time: Estimating habitat threats for Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan and Sumatran tigers," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 433-453.
    12. Maria Francesca Cracolici & Miranda Cuffaro & Peter Nijkamp, 2007. "Geographical Distribution of Unemployment: An Analysis of Provincial Differences in Italy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 649-670, December.
    13. Johannes Schuenemann & Holger Strulik & Timo Trimborn, 2020. "The Marriage Gap: Optimal Aging and Death in Partnerships," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 158-176, April.
    14. Christopher S. Fowler & Rachel Garshick Kleit, 2014. "The Effects of Industrial Clusters on the Poverty Rate," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(2), pages 129-154, April.
    15. Ayllón, Sara & Ferreira-Batista, Natalia N., 2015. "‘Mommy, I miss daddy’. The effect of family structure on children's health in Brazil," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 75-89.
    16. Betregiorgis Zegeye & Ziad El-Khatib & Edward Kwabena Ameyaw & Abdul-Aziz Seidu & Bright Opoku Ahinkorah & Mpho Keetile & Sanni Yaya, 2021. "Breaking Barriers to Healthcare Access: A Multilevel Analysis of Individual- and Community-Level Factors Affecting Women’s Access to Healthcare Services in Benin," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-15, January.
    17. Miika Mäki & Anna Erika Hägglund & Anna Rotkirch & Sangita Kulathinal & Mikko Myrskylä, 2022. "Stable marital histories predict happiness and health across educational groups," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-035, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    18. Mustafa Kiziltan & Ahmet Burcin Yereli, 2023. "Evaluating local fiscal capacity and fiscal effort of Turkish local governments: Evidence from spatial panel data analysis," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 441-472, February.
    19. Wilson, Chris M. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2005. "How Does Marriage Affect Physical and Psychological Health? A Survey of the Longitudinal Evidence," Economic Research Papers 269622, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    20. Wheeler, David & Hammer, Dan & Kraft, Robin & Dasgupta, Susmita & Blankespoor, Brian, 2013. "Economic dynamics and forest clearing: A spatial econometric analysis for Indonesia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 85-96.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:108:y:2012:i:3:p:421-440. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.