Do the Protective Perinatal Effects of the Civil Rights Movement Extend to the Next Generation?

• In Event: Disrupting Health Inequities Across the Life Course (Co-sponsored by Aging and the Life Course Section)

Abstract

The Civil Rights Movement marked a period of the rapid expansion of rights for Black Americans, which previous work links to faster decreasing risks of poor perinatal health for Black (v. White) infants born after 1965. Theories of the transgenerational transmission of discrimination and health suggest that these early life exposures may have life-long benefits that reduce the adverse birth risks of their own offspring decades later. Using natality files from the National Center for Health Statistics, I estimate joinpoint regressions to examine changes, across maternal birth cohorts, in offspring’s preterm birth risks. I also examine differences across maternal race (Black v. White) and birth state (Jim Crow v. non-Jim Crow). I find that, overall, offspring’s risks of preterm birth began decreasing for Black mothers born after 1965 (v. <1965), regardless of mother’s birth state. Offspring’s risks of preterm birth increased over the entire study period for births to White mothers.

Author

• Allison Stolte, University of Virginia