Stephen L Buka
Biographic Data
| ID | 1729326 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen L Buka |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen L |
| FAMILY NAME | Buka |
| SIGNATURE | BUKA S L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brown University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8578-9308 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 488 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 52 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The impact of early childhood adversity on adult cognitive performance: The mediating roles of childhood cognitive ability and educational attainment
Longitudinal associations of neighborhood socioeconomic status with cardiovascular risk factors: A 46-year follow-up study
Critical Windows of Prenatal Exposure to Cadmium and Size at Birth
Prenatal cadmium (Cd) exposure has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, but the findings of previous studies are inconsistent. We measured Cd concentrations in urine samples at or near 13, 24, and 35 gestational weeks from 282 women in Wuhan, China. We used generalized estimating equation models to assess the associations between maternal creatinine adjusted urinary Cd concentrations at each trimester and birth size. A significant inverse…
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring antisocial behaviour: Findings from a longitudinal investigation of discordant siblings
BACKGROUND: Although many observational studies have found a strong association between maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSP) and offspring antisocial behaviour, the likelihood that this relationship is causal remains unclear. To comment on the potential causality of this association, the current investigation used a between-within decomposition approach to examine the association between MSP and multiple indices of adolescent and adult antisoc…
The relationship between early childhood head injury and later life criminal behaviour: A longitudinal cohort study
BACKGROUND: Childhood head injury has been associated with the development of behavioural and psychological problems. This study examined the relationship between head injury in young childhood and subsequent criminal behaviour. METHODS: Data were from the Providence cohort of the Collaborative Perinatal Project, a multicentre longitudinal study aimed at identifying the role of perinatal and prenatal factors on child health. History of head injur…
Epigenetic Mediators Between Childhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Mid-Life Body Mass Index: The New England Family Study
OBJECTIVE: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with adulthood obesity risk; however, epigenetic mechanisms are poorly understood. This work's objective was to evaluate whether associations of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage with adulthood body mass index (BMI) are mediated by DNA methylation. METHODS: Participants were 141 men and women from the New England Family Study, prospectively followed prenatally through a mean age of …
Associations of Mindfulness with Glucose Regulation and Diabetes
Dispositional mindfulness may be associated with better glucose regulation, in part because of a lower likelihood of obesity and greater sense of control among participants with higher levels of mindfulness. These findings need to be replicated by prospective studies to establish causality and to evaluate potential implications for mindfulness-based interventions to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes
Early childhood social disadvantage is associated with poor health behaviours in adulthood
These findings suggest childhood social disadvantage may contribute to adult cardiometabolic disease by predisposing children to adopt certain unhealthy behaviours. If replicated, such findings may support intervention strategies that target social environmental factors and behavioural pathways that are established early in life
Impact of persistent and adolescent-limited antisocial behaviour on adult health outcomes
BACKGROUND: Persistent engagement in antisocial behaviour across developmental periods is thought to increase the risk for early disease morbidity. However, less is known about potential adverse health outcomes among the much larger subset of individuals with antisocial behaviour limited to adolescence. METHODS: Using data from the Providence, Rhode Island cohort of the Collaborative Perinatal Project, we examined the association between developm…
Prospective Evaluation of Associations Between Prenatal Cortisol and Adulthood Coronary Heart Disease Risk: The New England Family Study
OBJECTIVE: Increasing evidence suggests that early life factors may influence coronary heart disease (CHD) risk; however, little is known about the contributions of prenatal cortisol. Objectives were to prospectively assess the associations of maternal cortisol levels during pregnancy with offspring's 10-year CHD risk during middle age. METHODS: Participants were 262 mother-offspring dyads from the New England Family Study. Maternal free cortisol…
Community reductions in youth smoking after raising the minimum tobacco sales age to 21
Our results suggest that raising the minimum sales age to 21 for tobacco contributes to a greater decline in youth smoking relative to communities that did not pass this ordinance. These findings support local community-level action to raise the tobacco sales age to 21
The impact of low birth weight and maternal age on adulthood offending
Childhood emotional functioning and the developmental origins of cardiovascular disease risk
BACKGROUND: Dysregulated emotional functioning has been linked with higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among adults. Early life experiences may influence the development of adulthood CVD, but few studies have examined whether potential damaging effects of dysregulated emotional function begin earlier in life. Therefore, we examined associations of child emotional functioning and the 10-year risk of developing CVD in midlife. METHODS: We stu…
Sheepskin effects of education in the 10-year Framingham risk of coronary heart disease
Which literacy skills are associated with smoking
BACKGROUND: Research has demonstrated associations between smoking and reading skills, but other literacy skills such as speaking, listening and numeracy are less studied despite our dependence on the use of numbers and the oral exchange to deliver information on the risks of smoking. METHODS: The authors used multivariable logistic regression to examine the effects of reading, numeracy, speaking and listening skills on: (1) becoming a regular sm…
The Interactive Systems Framework Applied to the Strategic Prevention Framework: The Rhode Island Experience
The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF) was introduced as a heuristic systems level model to help bridge the gap between research and practice (Wandersman et al., in Am J Commun Psychol 41:171–181, 2008). This model describes three interacting systems with distinct functions that (1) distill knowledge to develop innovations; (2) provide supportive training and technical assistance for dissemination to; (3) a p…
Decreased births among black female adolescents following school desegregation
Emotional Functioning at Age 7 Years is Associated With C-Reactive Protein in Middle Adulthood
OBJECTIVE: Few have considered whether and how child emotional functioning is associated with inflammation later in life. Therefore, we evaluated whether child emotional functioning at age 7 years is associated with C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of systemic inflammation, in middle adulthood. METHODS: We studied adult offspring (mean age 42.2 years) of participants in the National Collaborative Perinatal Project, a national cohort of preg…
O2-4.3 Education and coronary heart disease risk: Potential contributions of health literacy, time preference and self-efficacy
Introduction Education is inversely associated with risk for coronary heart disease (CHD), however the contributions of potential explanatory mechanisms including health literacy, time preference and self-efficacy are poorly understood. Objectives were to evaluate whether infrequently measured covariates (health literacy, time preference, self-efficacy) are important explanatory mechanisms for associations between education and CHD risk. Methods …
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and criminal offending among adult offspring
BACKGROUND: Although a number of previous studies have reported an association between maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSP) and externalising behaviour problems among offspring, it has been suggested that this relationship is spurious due to the failure of these studies to properly account for important confounding factors. METHODS: The relationship between MSP and adult criminal offending was examined using data from 3766 members of the Provi…
Mother's affection at 8 months predicts emotional distress in adulthood
BACKGROUND: Long-standing theory suggests that quality of the mother's (or primary caregiver's) interaction with a child is a key determinant of the child's subsequent resilience or vulnerability and has implications for health in adulthood. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal data with both objective assessments of nurturing behaviour during infancy and sustained follow-up ascertaining the quality of adult functioning. METHODS: We used da…
Quality of Parental Emotional Care and Calculated Risk for Coronary Heart Disease
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate associations between perceived quality of parental emotional care and calculated 10-year risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). Little is understood about the role of parental emotional care in contributing to the risk for CHD. METHODS: The study sample was composed of 267 participants from the New England Family Study. Quality of parental emotional care was measured, using a validated short version of the Parental Bonding …
A multilevel investigation of neighborhood effects on parental warmth
Although researchers recognize that social contexts shape parenting behaviors, the relationship between neighborhood environment and parenting remains poorly understood. To address this gap, we investigated the associations between compositional and contextual (structural, social, and safety) characteristics of neighborhoods and parental warmth. Data came from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Study and the 1990 Ce…
Neighborhood Predictors of Dating Violence Victimization and Perpetration in Young Adulthood: A Multilevel Study
Objectives. We examined whether social processes of neighborhoods, such as collective efficacy, during individual's adolescent years affect the likelihood of being involved in physical dating violence during young adulthood. Methods. Using longitudinal data on 633 urban youths aged 13 to 19 years at baseline and data from their neighborhoods (collected by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods), we ran multilevel linear regress…
Parental Smoking and Adolescent Smoking Initiation: An Intergenerational Perspective on Tobacco Control
OBJECTIVE. Adolescence is an important period of risk for the development of lifelong smoking behaviors. Compelling, although inconsistent, evidence suggests a relationship between parental smoking and the risk of smoking initiation during adolescence. This study investigates unresolved issues concerning the strength and nature of the association between parent smoking and offspring smoking initiation. METHODS. We enrolled 564 adolescents aged 12…
Social capital and neighborhood mortality rates in Chicago
Neighborhood social cohesion and youth participation in physical activity in Chicago
Social capital and young adolescents' perceived health in different sociocultural settings
Clustering of Fast-Food Restaurants Around Schools: A Novel Application of Spatial Statistics to the Study of Food Environments
Objectives. We examined the concentration of fast food restaurants in areas proximal to schools to characterize school neighborhood food environments. Methods. We used geocoded databases of restaurant and school addresses to examine locational patterns of fast‐food restaurants and kindergartens and primary and secondary schools in Chicago. We used the bivariate K function statistical method to quantify the degree of clustering (spatial dependence…
Effects of Neighborhood Resources on Aggressive and Delinquent Behaviors Among Urban Youths
Objectives. We sought to identify neighborhood-level resources associated with lower levels of aggression and delinquency among youths aged 9–15 years at baseline after accounting for risk factors and other types of resources. Methods. Data were derived from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, which focused on 2226 ethnically diverse, urban youths, their caregivers, and the 80 neighborhoods in which they resided at baseline…
Retail Tobacco Outlet Density and Youth Cigarette Smoking: A Propensity-Modeling Approach
Objectives. We examined whether retail tobacco outlet density was related to youth cigarette smoking after control for a diverse range of neighborhood characteristics. Methods. Data were gathered from 2116 respondents (aged 11 to 23 years) residing in 178 census tracts in Chicago, Ill. Propensity score stratification methods for continuous exposures were used to adjust for potentially confounding neighborhood characteristics, thus strengthening c…
Relation of female gender and low socioeconomic status to internalizing symptoms among adolescents: A case of double jeopardy
Neighborhood Predictors of Dating Violence Victimization and Perpetration in Young Adulthood: A Multilevel Study
Objectives. We examined whether social processes of neighborhoods, such as collective efficacy, during individual's adolescent years affect the likelihood of being involved in physical dating violence during young adulthood. Methods. Using longitudinal data on 633 urban youths aged 13 to 19 years at baseline and data from their neighborhoods (collected by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods), we ran multilevel linear regress…
Linking juvenile and adult patterns of criminal activity in the Providence cohort of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project
Race/ethnicity and depressive symptoms: A cross-cultural/ethnic comparison among university students in East Asia, North and South America
Cognitive performance in childhood and early adult illness: A prospective cohort study
Study objective: To evaluate whether cognitive performance in childhood is an early determinant of adult illness. Design: Prospective cohort study covering over 30 years. Setting: Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Participants: 633 people ages 30–39 followed up since birth as part of the Providence cohort of the national collaborative perinatal project. Main results: Higher cognitive performance at age 7 was related to a significantly reduced risk o…
Sheepskin effects of education in the 10-year Framingham risk of coronary heart disease
A multilevel investigation of neighborhood effects on parental warmth
Although researchers recognize that social contexts shape parenting behaviors, the relationship between neighborhood environment and parenting remains poorly understood. To address this gap, we investigated the associations between compositional and contextual (structural, social, and safety) characteristics of neighborhoods and parental warmth. Data came from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Study and the 1990 Ce…
Longitudinal associations of neighborhood socioeconomic status with cardiovascular risk factors: A 46-year follow-up study
Neighborhood influences on the association between maternal age and birthweight: A multilevel investigation of age-related disparities in health
Suicidal ideation and attempts among chemically dependent adolescents
OBJECTIVES. Suicidal ideation and attempts were examined in a population of chemically dependent adolescents, a group at high risk of self-destructive behavior. METHODS. The prevalence and correlates of suicidality and of major depressive disorder were assessed by the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and a structured family and social history interview with 300 addicts aged 15 through 19 years. RESULTS. Suicidal ideation was reported by 31% to 75% o…
The Interactive Systems Framework Applied to the Strategic Prevention Framework: The Rhode Island Experience
The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF) was introduced as a heuristic systems level model to help bridge the gap between research and practice (Wandersman et al., in Am J Commun Psychol 41:171–181, 2008). This model describes three interacting systems with distinct functions that (1) distill knowledge to develop innovations; (2) provide supportive training and technical assistance for dissemination to; (3) a p…
Decreased births among black female adolescents following school desegregation
Mother's affection at 8 months predicts emotional distress in adulthood
BACKGROUND: Long-standing theory suggests that quality of the mother's (or primary caregiver's) interaction with a child is a key determinant of the child's subsequent resilience or vulnerability and has implications for health in adulthood. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal data with both objective assessments of nurturing behaviour during infancy and sustained follow-up ascertaining the quality of adult functioning. METHODS: We used da…
The impact of low birth weight and maternal age on adulthood offending
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and criminal offending among adult offspring
BACKGROUND: Although a number of previous studies have reported an association between maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSP) and externalising behaviour problems among offspring, it has been suggested that this relationship is spurious due to the failure of these studies to properly account for important confounding factors. METHODS: The relationship between MSP and adult criminal offending was examined using data from 3766 members of the Provi…
What girls need: Recommendations for preventing violence among urban girls in the US
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring antisocial behaviour: Findings from a longitudinal investigation of discordant siblings
BACKGROUND: Although many observational studies have found a strong association between maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSP) and offspring antisocial behaviour, the likelihood that this relationship is causal remains unclear. To comment on the potential causality of this association, the current investigation used a between-within decomposition approach to examine the association between MSP and multiple indices of adolescent and adult antisoc…
The relationship between early childhood head injury and later life criminal behaviour: A longitudinal cohort study
BACKGROUND: Childhood head injury has been associated with the development of behavioural and psychological problems. This study examined the relationship between head injury in young childhood and subsequent criminal behaviour. METHODS: Data were from the Providence cohort of the Collaborative Perinatal Project, a multicentre longitudinal study aimed at identifying the role of perinatal and prenatal factors on child health. History of head injur…
Childhood emotional functioning and the developmental origins of cardiovascular disease risk
BACKGROUND: Dysregulated emotional functioning has been linked with higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among adults. Early life experiences may influence the development of adulthood CVD, but few studies have examined whether potential damaging effects of dysregulated emotional function begin earlier in life. Therefore, we examined associations of child emotional functioning and the 10-year risk of developing CVD in midlife. METHODS: We stu…
Suicidal ideation and attempts among chemically dependent adolescents
OBJECTIVES. Suicidal ideation and attempts were examined in a population of chemically dependent adolescents, a group at high risk of self-destructive behavior. METHODS. The prevalence and correlates of suicidality and of major depressive disorder were assessed by the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and a structured family and social history interview with 300 addicts aged 15 through 19 years. RESULTS. Suicidal ideation was reported by 31% to 75% o…
Assessing Exposure to Violence in Urban Youth
This study reports on the development of a structured interview, My Exposure to Violence (My ETV), that was designed to assess child and youth exposure to violence. Eighty participants between the ages of 9 and 24 were assessed. Data from My ETV were fit to a Rasch model for rating scales, a technique that generates interval level measures and allows the characterization of both chronic and acute exposure. Results indicated that the fit statistic…
Reproducibility and Validity of Maternal Recall of Pregnancy-Related Events
We assessed the reproducibility and validity of a questionnaire that asks mothers to recall pregnancy-related events from thirty or more years ago. Among 146 women who completed the questionnaire twice, responses were highly reproducible for pre-pregnancy height and weight (r = 0.95), pregnancy complications (r = 0.74), substance use (r = 0.80), preterm delivery (r = 0.82), birthweight (r = 0.94), and breastfeeding (r = 0.89). Among 154 women who…
Youth exposure to violence: Prevalence, risks, and consequences
Recent empirical work on the distribution, determinants, and consequences of children and adolescents' witnessing of community violence are reviewed. Major findings across studies indicate that males, ethnic minorities, and urban residents are at increased risk for witnessing violence, and that higher rates of PTSD, depression, distress, aggression, and externalizing behavior disturbances are reported among those who witness violence. Degree of f…
Estimating Multi-Level Discrete-Time Hazard Models Using Cross-Sectional Data: Neighborhood Effects on the Onset of Adolescent Cigarette Use
Investigating the effects of social context (e.g., neighborhood or school context) on the timing of behaviors (such as cigarette use initiation) requires both multi-level modeling and eventhistory analysis, and often requires the construction of a retrospective person-period data set from cross-sectional data. In this article we describe procedures for constructing such a data set and discuss modeling strategies for estimating multi-level discret…
Linking juvenile and adult patterns of criminal activity in the Providence cohort of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project
Race/ethnicity and depressive symptoms: A cross-cultural/ethnic comparison among university students in East Asia, North and South America
Socio-economic status, family disruption and residential stability in childhood: Relation to onset, recurrence and remission of major depression
Background. Childhood adversity significantly increases the risk of depression, but it is unclear whether this risk is most pronounced for depression occurring early in life. In the present study, we examine whether three aspects of childhood adversity – low socio-economic status (SES), family disruption, and residential instability – are related to increased risk of depression during specific stages of the life course. We also examine whether th…
A Multilevel Study of Neighborhoods and Parent-to-Child Physical Aggression: Results From the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods
The majority of children in the United States experience parent-to-child physical aggression (PCPA), a disciplinary strategy out of favor with many experts. Several decades of research have documented a link between community characteristics and severe child maltreatment. None have taken a multilevel approach to study whether neighborhoods affect the amount of corporal punishment and/or physical abuse used by individual families. Data for this ar…
Neighborhood Support and the Birth Weight of Urban Infants
Differences in maternal characteristics only partially explain the lower birth weights of infants of African-American women. It is hypothesized that economic and social features of urban neighborhoods may further account for these differences. The authors conducted a household survey of 8,782 adults residing in 343 Chicago, Illinois, neighborhoods to assess mean levels of perceived social support and used US Census data to estimate neighborhood e…
Social capital and neighborhood mortality rates in Chicago
Unsafe to Play? Neighborhood Disorder and Lack of Safety Predict Reduced Physical Activity among Urban Children and Adolescents
PURPOSE: Lack of physical activity is associated with increased risk of overweight and cardiovascular disease, conditions associated with lower socioeconomic status (SES). Associations between activity levels of urban youth and limited access to safe recreation areas in their neighborhoods of residence were investigated. DESIGN: Analyses of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a multilevel longitudinal study of fam…
Early Manifestations of Personality and Adult Emotional Functioning
Developmental antecedents to adult emotional functioning were investigated in an epidemiologic study using theories of personality and emotion. The authors tested whether different types of adult emotional distress can be linked to childhood personality attributes. Using data from 3,138 children at age 7, measures of 4 childhood personality attributes were developed and validated: Behavioral Inhibition, Distress Proneness, Attention, and Inapprop…
Cognitive performance in childhood and early adult illness: A prospective cohort study
Study objective: To evaluate whether cognitive performance in childhood is an early determinant of adult illness. Design: Prospective cohort study covering over 30 years. Setting: Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Participants: 633 people ages 30–39 followed up since birth as part of the Providence cohort of the national collaborative perinatal project. Main results: Higher cognitive performance at age 7 was related to a significantly reduced risk o…
Clustering of Fast-Food Restaurants Around Schools: A Novel Application of Spatial Statistics to the Study of Food Environments
Objectives. We examined the concentration of fast food restaurants in areas proximal to schools to characterize school neighborhood food environments. Methods. We used geocoded databases of restaurant and school addresses to examine locational patterns of fast‐food restaurants and kindergartens and primary and secondary schools in Chicago. We used the bivariate K function statistical method to quantify the degree of clustering (spatial dependence…
Social capital and young adolescents' perceived health in different sociocultural settings
What girls need: Recommendations for preventing violence among urban girls in the US
Depressive Symptoms as a Longitudinal Predictor of Sexual Risk Behaviors Among US Middle and High School Students
OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to examine whether depressive symptoms are predictive of subsequent sexual risk behavior in a national probability sample of US middle and high school students. METHODS. Sexually active, unmarried, middle and high school students (n = 4152) participated in home interviews in waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, at an ∼1-year interval. Associations between baseline depress…
The association between suicide and the socio-economic characteristics of geographical areas: A systematic review
Background. Despite an extensive literature, there have been widely divergent findings regarding the direction of the association between area socio-economic characteristics and area suicide rates, with high-quality studies finding either a direct relation (higher rates of suicide in higher socio-economic areas), an inverse relation (lower rates of suicide in higher socio-economic areas) or no association. Method. We performed a systematic review…
Behavioral Problems and the Effects of Early Intervention on Eight-Year-Old Children with Learning Disabilities
Utility of indices of gun availability in the community
Objective: To estimate the degree to which the proportion of homicides and suicides committed with a gun is associated with reported availability of firearms across Chicago neighbourhoods. Methods: Data were collected as part of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), a combined neighbourhood and individual level study of the city of Chicago. The study used data from 837 PHDCN participants between the ages of 17 and 22,…
Retail Tobacco Outlet Density and Youth Cigarette Smoking: A Propensity-Modeling Approach
Objectives. We examined whether retail tobacco outlet density was related to youth cigarette smoking after control for a diverse range of neighborhood characteristics. Methods. Data were gathered from 2116 respondents (aged 11 to 23 years) residing in 178 census tracts in Chicago, Ill. Propensity score stratification methods for continuous exposures were used to adjust for potentially confounding neighborhood characteristics, thus strengthening c…
Austin Et Al. Respond
We thank Spielman for commenting on our article and giving us an opportunity to continue the dialogue on methodological issues in studying food environments. In response to his point about network versus straight-line distances, we would like to note that in a related study, our research team found network and straight-line distances in Chicago to be highly correlated, and results did not differ when models were tested with network versus straigh…
Effects of Neighborhood Resources on Aggressive and Delinquent Behaviors Among Urban Youths
Objectives. We sought to identify neighborhood-level resources associated with lower levels of aggression and delinquency among youths aged 9–15 years at baseline after accounting for risk factors and other types of resources. Methods. Data were derived from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, which focused on 2226 ethnically diverse, urban youths, their caregivers, and the 80 neighborhoods in which they resided at baseline…
Neighborhood influences on the association between maternal age and birthweight: A multilevel investigation of age-related disparities in health
Medicine (48 works) · Psychology (35 works) · Demography (31 works) · Environmental health (20 works) · Developmental psychology (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Population (17 works) · Psychiatry (16 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (14 works) · Demography (14 works)