
The Starting Gate
Birth Weight and Life Chances
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 8. October 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
268 pages
978-0-520-23955-5 (ISBN)
Description
Seven percent of newborns in the United States weigh in at less than five and one half pounds. These "low birth weight" babies face challenges that others will never know - challenges that begin with a greater risk of infant mortality and extend well into adulthood in the form of health and developmental problems. Because low birth weight is often accompanied by social risk factors such as minority racial status, low education, young maternal age, and low income, the question of causes and consequences - of precisely how biological and social factors figure into this equation - becomes especially tricky to sort out. This is the question that "The Starting Gate" takes up, bringing a novel perspective to the nature-nurture debate by using the starting point of birth as a lens to examine biological and social inheritance.
More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
15 tables, 12 line illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-23955-5 (9780520239555)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Dalton Conley is Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research and Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at NYU; he is also Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Kate W. Strully is a doctoral candidate at New York University. Neil G. Bennett is Professor at the Baruch School of Public Affairs and in the Department of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Content
List of Figures Acknowledgments 1. The Baby or the Egg? Birth Weight and the Gene-Environment Divide 2. John Henry, Black Mayors, and Silver Spoons: Race and the Inheritance of Birth Weight 3. What Money Can and Can't Buy: Income and Infant Health 4. Is Biology Destiny? Birth Weight, Infant Mortality, and Educational Achievement 5. Reconsidering Risk: Biosocial Policy Implications Appendix A: Data, Variables, and Methods Appendix B: Tables Notes Bibliography Index Figures