The Starting Gate

by Conley, Dalton; Strully, Kate W.; Bennett, Neil G.

• ISBN13: 9780520239555
• ISBN10: 0520239555
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

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 thatThe Starting Gatetakes 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.

Author Biography

Dalton Conley is Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research and Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at New York University, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
1. The Baby or the Egg? Birth Weight and the Gene-Environment Divide	1	(28)
2. John Henry, Black Mayors, and Silver Spoons: Race and the Inheritance of Birth Weight	29	(32)
3. What Money Can and Can't Buy: Income and Infant Health	61	(26)
4. Is Biology Destiny? Birth Weight, Infant Mortality, and Educational Achievement	87	(34)
5. Reconsidering Risk: Biosocial Policy Implications	121	(34)
Appendix A: Data, Variables, and Methods	155	(16)
Appendix B: Tables	171	(18)
Notes	189	(38)
Bibliography	227	(24)
Index	251