Peter Bearman’s research while affiliated with Columbia University and other places

In recent decades, the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has increased rapidly. To assess the relationship between ART and autism diagnosis, we linked California birth records from 2000 through 2016 with contemporaneous records from the National ART Surveillance System (NASS) and autism caseload records from California’s Department of Developmental Services from 2000 through November 2019. All 95,149 birth records that were successfully linked to a NASS record, indicating an ART birth, were matched 1:1 using propensity scores to non-ART births. We calculated the hazard risk ratio (HRR) for autism diagnosis and the proportions of the relationship between ART conception and autism diagnosis mediated by multiple birth pregnancy and related birth complications. The HRR for autism diagnosis following ART compared with non-ART conception is 1.26 (95% CI, 1.17-1.35). Multiple birth, preterm birth, and Cesarean delivery jointly mediate 77.9% of the relationship between ART conception and autism diagnosis. Thus, increased use of single embryo transfer in the United States to reduce multiple births and related birth complications may be a strategy to address the risk of autism diagnosis among ART-conceived children.

This article sheds light on how to capture knowledge integration dynamics in college course content, improves and enriches the definition and measurement of interdisciplinarity, and expands the scope of research on the benefits of interdisciplinarity to postcollege outcomes. We distinguish between what higher education institutions claim regarding interdisciplinarity and what they appear to actually do. We focus on the core academic element of student experience—the courses they take, develop a text-based semantic measure of interdisciplinarity in college curriculum, and test its relationship to average earnings of graduates from different types of schools of higher education. We observe that greater exposure to interdisciplinarity—especially for science majors—is associated with increased earnings after college graduation.

The Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (KSHAP) was a multidisciplinary prospective study conducted in South Korea that measured various health biomarkers from blood, hair, and brain MRIs, and examined their associations with sociocentric (global) social network data of older adults in two entire villages (or Cohorts). Cohort K included participants aged 60 or older, and Cohort L included participants aged 65 or older. We performed a baseline survey involving 814 of the 860 individuals (94.7% response rate) in Cohort K in 2012 and 947 of the 1,043 individuals (90.8% response rate) in Cohort L in 2017. We gathered longitudinal data for five waves in Cohort K from 2011 to 2019 and two waves in Cohort L from 2017 to 2022. Here, we described for the first time the follow-up design of the KSHAP, the changes in social networks and various biomarkers over years. The data of Cohort K are publicly available via the Korean Social Science Data Archive as well as the project website, and the data of Cohort L will be shared soon.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to describe the typical, longitudinal, developmental trajectories of communication and social functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder from childhood through adulthood and to determine the correlates of these trajectories. Methods: Children with autism spectrum disorder who were born in California from 1992 through 2016 and enrolled with the California Department of Developmental Services were identified. Subjects with <4 evaluations in the database were excluded, resulting in a sample of 71 285 individuals. Score sequences were constructed based on evaluative items for communication and social functioning. Typical trajectories were identified using group-based latent trajectory modeling, and logistic regression was used to determine the odds of classification into a social adolescent decline trajectory by individual-, family-, and zip code-level factors. Results: Six typical patterns of communication functioning and 7 typical patterns of social functioning were identified. Whereas the majority of autistic individuals exhibit improved communication functioning as they age, the majority of individuals exhibit steady social functioning. A small group of individuals (5.0%) exhibits high social functioning in childhood that declines in adolescence. Membership in this adolescent decline group is associated with maternal non-Hispanic white race and ethnicity, female sex, moderate levels of maternal education, lower zip code-level median home values and population density, and higher zip code-level inequality. Conclusions: Most autistic individuals show improved communication and social functioning as they age, but not all do. Trajectory group membership is correlated with socioeconomic status. Future research should investigate what drives these correlations.

In recent years, the United States has been experiencing historically high suicide rates. In the face of mental health care provider shortages that leave millions needing to travel longer to find providers with schedule openings, if any are available at all, the inaccessibility of mental health care has become increasingly central in explaining suicidality. To examine the relationship between access to care and suicide, we leverage a dataset mapping all licensed US psychiatrists and psychotherapists (N= 711,214), as of early 2020, and employ real-world transportation data to model patients' mobility barriers. We find a strong association between reduced mental health care provider spatial-social accessibility and heightened suicide risk. Using a machine learning approach to condition on a host of 22 contextual factors known to be implicated in suicide (e.g., race, education, divorce, gun shop prevalence), we find that in locales where individuals seeking care can access fewer mental health care providers, already more likely to be saturated by demand, suicide risk is increased (3.2% for each reduced SD of psychiatrist accessibility; 2.3% for psychotherapists). Additionally, we observe that local spatial-social accessibility inequalities are associated with further heightened risk of suicide, underscoring the need for research to account for the highly localized barriers preventing many Americans from accessing needed mental health services.

Introduction : Caesarean section (C-section) deliveries in the U.S. increased from 5% of births in 1970 to 32% in 2020. Little is known about trends in C-sections and inductions in low-risk pregnancies (i.e., those for which interventions would not be medically necessary). This study addresses the following questions: (1) What is the prevalence of elective deliveries at the population-level? (2) How has that changed over time? (3) To what extent do rates of elective deliveries vary across the population? Methods : We first documented long-term trends in C-sections in the U.S., California (CA), and New Jersey (NJ). We then used linked birth and hospital discharge records and an algorithm based on Joint Commission guidelines to identify low-risk pregnancies and document trends in C-sections and inductions in low-risk pregnancies in CA and NJ over a recent 2-decade period, overall and by maternal characteristics and gestational age. Results : In low-risk pregnancies in CA and NJ, C-sections and inductions increased sharply from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s, peaked at 33% in CA and 41% in NJ in 2007, and then declined somewhat, and the proportions of inductions that were followed by C-sections increased from fewer than 1 in 5 to about 1 in 4. More education, non-Hispanic White race-ethnicity, U.S.-born status, and non-Medicaid were associated with higher rates of interventions. Trends were similar across all socioeconomic groups, but differences have been narrowing in CA. Among early term (37-38 weeks gestational age) births in low-risk pregnancies, the rates of elective deliveries increased substantially in both states until the mid/late-2000s, peaked at about 35% in CA and over 40% in NJ, and then decreased in both states to about 20%. Conclusions : Given established health risks of non-medically necessary C-sections, that a non-trivial share of induced deliveries in low-risk pregnancies result in C-sections, and that interventions in low-risk pregnancies have not substantially declined since their peak in the mid-2000s, the trends documented in this paper suggest that sustained, even increased, public health attention is needed to address the still-too-high rates of C-sections and inductions in the U.S.

Introduction Cesarean section and induced deliveries have increased substantially in the U.S., coinciding with increases in autism spectrum disorder. Studies have documented associations between cesarean section deliveries and autism spectrum disorder but have not comprehensively accounted for medical risks. This study evaluates the extent to which cesarean section and induced deliveries are associated with autism spectrum disorder in low-risk births. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, California's birth records (1992–2012) were linked to hospital discharge records to identify low-risk births using a stringent algorithm based on Joint Commission guidelines. Autism spectrum disorder status was based on California Department of Developmental Service data. Logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between autism spectrum disorder and induced vaginal deliveries, cesarean section deliveries not following induction, and cesarean section deliveries following induction, with noninduced vaginal deliveries as the reference category. Results A total of 1,488,425 low-risk births took place in California from 1992 to 2012. The adjusted odds of autism spectrum disorder were 7% higher for induced vaginal deliveries (AOR=1.07, 95% CI=1.01, 1.14), 26% higher for cesarean section deliveries not following induction (AOR=1.26, 95% CI=1.19, 1.33), and 31% higher for cesarean section deliveries following induction (AOR=1.31, 95% CI=1.18, 1.45) than for noninduced vaginal deliveries. Lower gestational age and neonatal morbidities did not appear to be important underlying pathways. The associations were insensitive to alternative model specifications and across subpopulations. These results suggest that, in low-risk pregnancies, up to 10% of autism spectrum disorder cases are potentially preventable by avoiding cesarean section deliveries. Conclusions After accounting for medical risks, elective deliveries—particularly cesarean section deliveries—were associated with a substantially increased risk of autism spectrum disorder.

Significance Rates of autism diagnosis in the United States have historically been higher among more advantaged social groups—Whites and those of higher socioeconomic status (SES). Using data from all births in the state of California in 1992 through 2016, we find that these trends reversed during our study period. By 2018, diagnosed autism incidence rates for 3- to 6-y-old children were higher for children of Black and Asian mothers than children of non-Hispanic White mothers and were higher for children of lower SES than of higher SES parents. These reversals point to the fundamental role that access to knowledge and resources plays in driving increased autism prevalence and shifting patterns of autism cases over the past quarter-century.

This study documents historical trends of size and political diversity in Americans’ discussion networks, which are often seen as important barometers of social and political health. Contrasting findings from data drawn out of a nationally representative survey experiment of 1,055 Americans during the contentious 2016 U.S. presidential election to data arising from 11 national data sets covering nearly three decades, we find that Americans’ core networks are significantly smaller and more politically homogeneous than at any other period. Several methodological artifacts seem unlikely to account for the effect. We show that in this period, more than before, “important matters” were often framed as political matters, and that this association probably accounts for the smaller networks.