Making Kids
Preschool home visits promote adolescent adjustment: Follow-up of a randomized-controlled trial
Karen Bierman et al.
Development and Psychopathology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research suggests that well-developed parent engagement programs can boost early learning and reduce socioeconomic disparities in subsequent school adjustment. Yet few follow-up studies exist. To address this gap, we followed participants in the Research-based, Developmentally Informed-Parent [REDI-P] intervention study for 8 years to evaluate adolescent outcomes. Participants included 200 4-year-old children (55% White, 26% Black, 19% Latinx; 56% male, 44% female; Mage at study entry = 4.45 years) attending Head Start. Families were randomly assigned to REDI-P home learning materials and coaching or an attention control group. Multi-method measures tracked child literacy skills, learning behaviors, social competence, and conduct problems through grade 7. GLM analyses revealed significant preschool intervention effects on grade 7 working memory, β = 0.35, 95% CI 0.08, 0.62, p = .01; perceived social competence, β = 0.30, 95% CI 0.02, .58, p = .04; deviant peer affiliation, β = −0.33, 95% CI −0.60, −0.06, p = .02; and teacher-rated conduct problems, β = −0.30, 95% CI −0.58, −0.01, p = .04. Serial path models identified developmental progressions linking initial intervention effects to adolescent outcomes. Results highlight the long-term value of empowering parents to support the early social-emotional and pre-academic learning of their preschool children.
Who Leads? Relative Age Effects on Social Capital
Matthew Jacob & Michael Bailey
Harvard Working Paper, May 2026
Abstract:
This paper studies the causal effect of being the oldest within a school cohort on social capital. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design and data from Facebook, we find that boys who are older than their classmates make 11% more friends in high school. This social advantage is associated with leadership roles, with relatively older boys 42% more likely to become class president than their relatively younger peers. Men who were relatively older during childhood have larger social networks in adulthood, and disproportionately sort into management and entrepreneurship. Our findings suggest that small age differences in peer composition can have persistent effects on social and economic outcomes.
Is the iPhone Birth Control? Causal Evidence from AT&T’s 2007–2011 Carrier Monopoly
Caitlin Myers & Ezekiel Hooper
NBER Working Paper, June 2026
Abstract:
The U.S. general fertility rate has fallen by 22% since 2007, a sustained decline not readily explained by economic conditions, contraceptive use, housing or childcare costs, or other commonly cited factors. We assess the potential role of a different shock: the diffusion of the smartphone. The U.S. rollout of the iPhone, the first modern smartphone, provides a natural experiment: from June 2007 through February 2011, the device was sold only on AT&T, allowing us to identify its effect from variation in AT&T’s mobile broadband coverage. Entropy-balanced Poisson and synthetic difference-in-differences event studies imply that access to the iPhone reduced births by 4.5–8.0% at ages 15–19 and 3.2–6.6% at ages 20–24, with statistically significant but smaller declines among older cohorts. Placebo analyses applied to Verizon and Sprint’s pre-2011 coverage footprint are null. Taken together, these cohort effects imply that the diffusion of the iPhone deepened the decline in births among women under 30 while suppressing the rise in births among older women. Overall, the diffusion of the iPhone explains 33–52% of the decline in the general fertility rate among women aged 15–44. National-survey evidence on time use and sexual behavior is consistent with the iPhone reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency.
Pregnancy ambivalence: Expectations, preferences and contraceptive choice
Adeline Delavande
European Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We utilize novel probabilistic expectations data related to contraception, such as the perceived chances of pregnancy or contracting a sexually transmitted disease, to investigate the underlying factors contributing to the differences in contraceptive choices across various demographic groups in the United States. Women from groups with disproportionately higher rates of unintended pregnancies, such as Black women and those with lower income, exhibit relatively accurate perceptions about contraceptive effectiveness. This finding suggests that systematic misperceptions about contraceptive efficacy play a limited role in explaining the variation in contraceptive choice across different groups. We then combine data on contraception choice with the expectations data to make inference on women’s preferences for birth control methods’ attributes. We find heterogeneity in preferences for becoming pregnant: non-Black women with a college degree would be willing to pay $260 per month to avoid a pregnancy, while Black women without a degree and low income women exhibit a willingness to pay to avoid pregnancy not statistically different from zero, suggesting an ambivalence toward pregnancy. These results highlight that differences in contraceptive choices and outcomes are primarily driven by varying preferences for pregnancy, with limited disutility among groups experiencing higher rates of unintended pregnancies.
Gender Differences in Parents’ Well-Being Reverse During Unemployment
Sara Hendrick, Melissa Williams & Emily Bianchi
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research suggests that parenthood tends to predict well-being for men more than women. We propose that during involuntary unemployment, this pattern will reverse, such that parenthood will predict well-being for women more than men. Because breadwinning remains central to societal expectations of fatherhood, employment allows fathers to simultaneously fulfill parental and professional obligations. Typically, this reduces fathers’ role strain. However, we argue that unemployment may threaten both work and parent identities for fathers and therefore undermine well-being for fathers more than mothers. We find support for this hypothesis using a large, longitudinal study of unemployed individuals (Study 1) and a nationally representative sample (Study 2). Finally, a follow-up experiment (Study 3) supports our prediction that fathers are more likely than mothers to view paid employment as necessary for good parenting, which predicts their lower well-being during unemployment. This work contributes to research on parenthood, gender roles, and unemployment.