Preliminary datasets are now available for the 2006 Mali Demographic and Health Survey. PRI researchers may request it from the Data Archivist.

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund finds that performance indicators for child health care systems vary widely across states, with Iowa and Vermont emerging at the top. The report, U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard, is available for download from the Commonwealth Fund’s Web site, along with an interactive map.

The CDS of the PSID has publicly released the “Transition into Adulthood” Data. The data are comprised of 745 of the CDS children who have reached the age of 18+ and have
graduated from high school. Topical questions include: health and emotional well-being, time use, community involvement, self identity and perception, expectations for the future, family, peer, and romantic relationships, work, schooling, and more. Please read the overview (PDF file) of the Transition into Adulthood (TA) data. PRI researchers may request this data from the Data Archivist.

The Pew Hispanic Center has released a new fact sheet, Hispanic Women in the United States, 2007, containing statistics from the Current Population Survey and American Community Survey.

The Institute for Education Sciences (US Department of Education) is hosting a series of webinars on research funding at the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER). They will cover a basic overview, grantwriting, and the application process.

Comprehensive state education data warehouses, such as Florida’s, are a gold mine for education researchers, but ensuring student privacy will be a major challenge. The Chronicle of Higher Education explores the issues.

For a brief period, anyone who searched POPLINE using the search term “abortion” would get 0 results. Inquiries by concerned librarians revealed that POPLINE administrators at Johns Hopkins had made “abortion” a stop word after USAID, the reproductive health database’s funder, expressed concern about a few articles in the database. “Abortion” was quickly restored as a search term after numerous complaints.

For more, see articles at NPR and the Baltimore Sun.

The PRI Library has received announcement of the C2S Summer Biomarkers Institute, to be held June 9-11 at the Evanston, IL campus of the Northwestern University.

The Version H HRS/RAND data is now available in SodaPop and PopNet.

The files incorporates data from 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004 final releases, and 2006 early release of HRS data. As well as additional co-horts. For more information, please see the HRS website page.

A good marriage is associated with lower blood pressure, but a bad marriage is worse than being single, according to a preliminary study forthcoming in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. (USA Today)

Citation: J. Holt-Lunstad, W. Birmingham, & B. Jones. (2008). Is there something unique about marriage? The relative impact of marital status, relationship quality, and network social support on ambulatory blood pressure and mental health. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. (Abstract available online)