Research by Human Ecology faculty Janet Loebach, Colleen Carey and Roger Figueroa were among a slate of research projects that received grants this fall from the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS). The center’s Fall 2019 Small Grant Awards provide seed funding to help early career social science faculty members develop ambitious projects likely to lead to external funding and publication.

College of Human Ecology grant recipients and projects include:

“Reimagining Recess: Examining the Impacts of Schoolyard ‘Loose Parts Recess’ Programs on the Outdoor Play Behaviors of School Age Children.”

Janet Loebach, assistant professor of Design + Environmental Analysis

This pilot study aims to examine the impacts of a loose parts recess program intervention at public elementary schools on the outdoor play, learning and social activities of school age children. The pilot study would utilize an observational approach known as Behavior Mapping to analyze children’s outdoor play activities at two schools, one in Toronto, Canada and one in Ithaca, New York, both before and after the implementation of a loose parts recess program. Loose parts programs install a diverse range of manipulable and non-prescriptive materials (e.g., tires, cardboard boxes & tubes, sand, building materials, pine cones, crates, etc.) in the school yard to increase the quality and diversity of self-directed outdoor play opportunities during recess. This pre-post Behavior Mapping study will isolate and examine the impact of loose parts provision on children’s play behaviors outdoors at school, particularly those which foster child development, learning and well-being, as well as discern spatial patterns in children’s social and environmental interactions with and without the availability of loose parts.

“What is the Advantage of Medicare Advantage? Supply and Demand Factors in Medicare Beneficiaries’ Enrollment in Private Insurance.”

Colleen Cary, assistant professor of Policy Analysis and Management

Historically the US government’s Medicare program directly paid health care providers for delivering medical services to elderly and disabled beneficiaries. But over the past decade more and more Medicare beneficiaries have chosen to instead enroll in private health insurance via the Medicare Advantage program. As of 2018, 32% of the US government’s $731 billion in Medicare spending is routed to Medicare Advantage insurers. Colleen Carey (Cornell, Department of Policy Analysis and Management) and Marika Cabral (University of Texas) combine a state-of-the-art statistical technique with large geographic variation in the Medicare Advantage enrollment rate to determine what market features predict high Medicare Advantage enrollment. Since Medicare Advantage plans differ from traditional Medicare in limiting beneficiaries to a network of physicians, the authors develop a novel measure of Medicare Advantage network breadth to determine how plan networks affect enrollment. The research will help improve the design and regulation of the Medicare Advantage program.

“Community Needs Assessment on Facilitators and Inhibitors of Food Security in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico.”

Roger Figueroa, assistant professor of Nutritional Sciences

15 million U.S. children live in “food-insecure” households, which means children within these households have limited access to nutritious foods due to cost, proximity and/or other types of resources. Families in predominantly minority and low-income neighborhoods are at increased risk for food insecurity. In Puerto Rico (P.R.), a Latin American country within a U.S. territory and predominantly of Latino residents, food insecurity affected 1.5 million people in 2017. That same year, childhood food insecurity rates in P.R. were nearly triple the average for the rest of the U.S. (56%). In the aftermath of hurricane Irma and Maria in the second half of that same year, Puerto Rican families are still facing contextual challenges across many levels (i.e., cultural, environmental, social, political) that exacerbates the food insecurity issues among many residents in the island. Since tackling food insecurity requires an examination of the contextual factors that ultimately shape such issue, community-centered approaches to build capacity offer a promising model to address both social determinants of health inequalities and familial health outcomes in at-risk community settings. The purpose of this study is to conduct a community needs assessment to identify facilitators and inhibitors to building capacity towards sustainable food security efforts in an underserved community setting in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico. This study is part of a larger community-based participatory research (CBPR) project, which will employ a community engaged collaborative process to develop a culturally-sensitive, family-centered intervention for Puerto Rican parents and their children (aged 0-8) to improve food accessibility, affordability, availability, and intake.

For details of all funded projects from across Cornell University, see the Cornell Chronicle’s Fall 2019 Small Grant Awards story.