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What’s to blame for the lagging U.S life expectancy? A closer look at mid-life ‘deaths of despair’ and retirement-age chronic disease

Head shot of Leah Abrams

Recent Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Leah Abrams, PhD, is lead author on A Brief Report published in PNAS Demography that explores what could be driving the troubling status of U.S. life expectancy which has been stagnating since 2010. Abrams and her colleagues find chronic disease at the time of retirement to be a bigger factor than the ‘deaths of despair’ (drug overdose, alcohol abuse, and suicide) that have…

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Comment: “Prosociality should be a public health priority”

Head shot of Laura Kubzansky from 2023

With poignant lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic fresh in our minds, faculty member Laura Kubzansky, PhD, corresponding author on a Comment published in Nature Human Behavior, makes a strong case for why prosociality (defined as positive other-regarding behaviors and beliefs) should be more deeply explored—with a sense of urgency—as part of an ‘asset-based’ approach to address the rising rates of hopelessness, despair, and poor mental health in the U.S.

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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Recruiting now for interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Population Center

Collage of photos of postdoctoral fellows with Call for applications for fellowships

The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies is now accepting applications for its postdoctoral fellowship program—the David E. Bell Fellowship for the 2024–2026 cohort. We offer competitive salaries, benefits, and research/travel funds. Deadline to apply is Thursday, November 30, 2023.      

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“Climate change is poised to have enduring and far-reaching consequences on the Sustainable Development Goals related to health”

Sustainable Development Goals 2030

S (Subu) V Subramanian explains in this piece in Mongabay-India  how climate change has a negative impact on India’s progress in achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. A study led by Subramanian that was published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia earlier this year that assessed India’s progress in meeting these goals is also cited in this article.

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Beckfield leads interdisciplinary faculty and graduate student retreat to develop undergraduate environmental justice curriculum

Jason Beckfield leads a retreat at Wood's Hole on environmental justice

HCPDS Associate Director Jason Beckfield, PhD, led the first of three pilot retreats aimed at developing undergraduate curriculum in the “emerging field of environmental justice, or the convergence of environmental concerns with equity and civil rights” in response to the 2022 Report on the Future of Climate Education at Harvard University. Read about the retreat that took place at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in The Harvard Gazette. Photo credit:…

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Cross and Pedulla share ASA award for their work to advance the field of family sociology

Cross and Pedulla share award for most impactful paper from ASA

HCPDS faculty members Christina Cross and David Pedulla were both recognized by the American Sociological Association (ASA) with the ASA Family Section’s 2023 Article of the Year Award for their independent journal articles published last year. Cross, a former postdoctoral fellow at HCPDS and current member of the Social Demography Seminar planning committee at the Center, was recognized for a paper that continues her previous scholarship on two-parent families by…

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How does level of educational attainment relate to discrepancies in the reporting of contraception use by spouses in rural Nepal?

Head shot of Elyse Jennings

HCPDS Research Scientist Elyse Jennings, PhD, has co-authored a paper published in Studies in Family Planning that examines the data that from monthly reporting by both spouses of 822 couples in rural Nepal between 2008 and 2016. Findings reveal that there is an association between educational attainment and discrepancies in reporting. “These findings offer important new insights into spousal dynamics that may influence transparency regarding contraceptive use.”

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Lisa Berkman presents at PAA’s Capital Hill briefing on aging baby boomer generation’s prospects of working longer

Lisa Berkman presenting at PAA congressional briefing

Lisa Berkman, Harvard Pop Center Director and President of the Population Association of America (PAA), participated in a Capital Hill briefing titled “Happy Birthday, Baby—Boomers!”  A panel of population scientists explored the social and economic policy impacts of an aging population and workforce before an audience of congressional staff. The briefing, sponsored by PAA, along with the Association of Population Centers (APC), is summarized on the PAA website and includes…

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