Social and Behavioral Policy Publications

Featured Research

• 

  Journal Article

  Lasting Declines in Couples' Social Network Interactions in the First Years of COVID

  Couples experienced a 50% decline in face-to-face interactions with their social networks and a nearly 40% decline in virtual interactions during COVID-19, with little recovery over the first 18 months of the pandemic.

  Jun 2, 2023

  Benjamin B. Haggerty, David P. Kennedy, Thomas N. Bradbury, Benjamin Karney

• 

  Journal Article

  Stability and Change in Newlyweds' Social Networks Over the First Years of Marriage

  The social networks of 462 newlywed couples was tracked over the first 18 months of marriage. Spouses' networks grew to include more of each other's family members, more married and financially secure individuals and more good relationships.

  Jun 2, 2023

  Benjamin B. Haggerty, Han Du, David P. Kennedy, Thomas N. Bradbury, Benjamin Karney

• 

  Journal Article

  Enterprise Risk Management: How Do Firms Integrate Cyber Risk?

  Cyber risk has attracted boardroom-level attention. However, many cyber incidents cost companies less than 1% of annual revenues. Therefore, we examine how companies integrate cyber risk into their enterprise risk management practices.

  May 26, 2023

  Sasha Romanosky, Elizabeth L. Petrun Sayers

• 

  Journal Article

  Cultural Evolution and the Economic Wealth of Nations

  This chapter reviews research on the cultural evolution of economic development around the globe, including the relationship between development outcomes and linguistic and religious ancestry.

  May 25, 2023

  Quentin D. Atkinson, Luke J. Matthews

• 

  Journal Article

  Thinking Without Knowing: Psychological and Behavioral Consequences of Unjustified Confidence Regarding Blackjack Strategy

  In two studies, we explored potential psychological and behavioral consequences of unjustified confidence, including outcome expectations, anxiety, risk taking, and information search and consideration.

  May 18, 2023

  Eric R. Stone, Andrew M. Parker, Ashley Rittmayer Hanks, Robert C. Swiston

• 

  Report

  Living Wages in Los Angeles County's Homeless Response Sector

  This report documents the challenges associated with not paying workers in the homeless response sector a living wage and highlights the potential impacts of higher pay for these workers.

  May 10, 2023

  Lisa Abraham, Sarah B. Hunter, Samantha Matthews, Alex Sizemore

• 

  Journal Article

  Barriers and Facilitators to Home- and Community-Based Services Access for Persons With Dementia and Their Caregivers

  Barriers to HCBS access for persons with dementia range from community and infrastructure barriers (e.g., clinicians and cultural differences), to interpersonal and individual-level barriers (e.g., caregivers, awareness, and attitudes).

  May 4, 2023

  Molly Waymouth, Daniel Siconolfi, Esther M. Friedman, Debra Saliba, Sangeeta C. Ahluwalia, Regina A. Shih

• 

  Journal Article

  Changes in Breastfeeding and Lactation Support Experiences During COVID

  RAND researchers surveyed parents who gave birth from 2019 to 2021 to examine changes in breastfeeding experiences and professional and lay breastfeeding support services due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

  Apr 27, 2023

  Maria DeYoreo, Kandice A. Kapinos, Rebecca Ann Lawrence, Gabriela Alvarado, Molly Waymouth, Jill R. Demirci, Lori Uscher-Pines

• 

  Tool

  RAND HRS Longitudinal File 2020 (V1) Documentation: Includes 1992-2020 (Early Release)

  This tool is a cleaned, easy-to-use, and streamlined data product containing information from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal household survey that facilitates research into different aspects of population aging in the United States.

  Apr 13, 2023

  Delia Bugliari, Joanna Carroll, Orla Hayden, Jessica Hayes, Michael D. Hurd, Stephen Lee, Regan Main, Colleen M. McCullough, Erik Meijer, Philip Pantoja, Susann Rohwedder

• 

  Report

  Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Community College Students

  This report is a descriptive study of eight community colleges at the forefront of implementing multilevel approaches to support student mental health and key facilitators for and barriers to their success.

  Apr 5, 2023

  Lisa Sontag-Padilla, Denise Williams, Holly Kosiewicz, Lindsay Daugherty, Heidi Kane, Sarah Gripshover, Trey Miller

• 

  Journal Article

  Magic, Religion, and Science: Secularization Trends and Continued Coexistence

  We conducted two studies, an American nationally representative survey and a comparative phylogenetic analysis of religious traditions, to test three hypothesized cultural evolutionary drivers for beliefs in magic.

  Mar 8, 2023

  Luke J. Matthews, Werner Hertzog, Thanos Kyritsis, Rose Kerber

• 

  Journal Article

  Collective Action by Community Groups: Solutions for Climate Change or Different Players in the Same Game?

  This article investigates how community groups solve collective action problems though data gathered across 25 organizations in three sites—Sitka, Alaska, USA; Toco, Trinidad; and a global site of distributed citizen science organizations.

  Mar 8, 2023

  Luke J. Matthews, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg, Michelle Scobie, Laura E.R. Peters, Unni Gopinathan, Anuszka Maton-Mosurska, Katy Davis, Sonja Myhre, Saskia Hirsch, Eija Meriläinen, Ilan Kelman

• 

  Report

  A Needs Assessment of Women Veterans in Western Pennsylvania: Final Report to Adagio Health

  To identify opportunities to expand and enhance Adagio Health's efforts to support women veterans' health and wellness, the authors quantitatively and qualitatively assessed the needs of women veterans in the Adagio Health service area.

  Mar 8, 2023

  Dana Schultz, Susan L. Lovejoy, Kayla M. Williams, Kerry Lindquist, Teague Ruder

• 

  Research Brief

  Opportunities to Improve Support for Western Pennsylvania's Women Veterans

  An assessment of the needs of women veterans provides a clearer picture of this often-underserved population, available programs and resources, gaps in support, barriers to access, and opportunities to better meet the needs of women who served.

  Mar 8, 2023

  Dana Schultz, Susan L. Lovejoy, Kayla M. Williams, Kerry Lindquist, Teague Ruder

• 

  Journal Article

  Low Tech, High Potential: Using Technology to Improve Communication Across Home Care Workers

  Our findings suggest that a basic workflow process—communication among HCWs—is limited in many home care settings. Simple technologies could be developed to support HCWs to navigate the challenges of providing care to clients in their homes.

  Mar 7, 2023

  Julia Bandini, Daniel Siconolfi, Katie Feistel, Jason Michel Etchegaray

• 

  Journal Article

  The Role of Pre-Treatment Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Adolescent Substance Use Treatment Outcomes

  This study assesses the association between traumatic stress symptoms and substance use treatment outcomes among trauma-exposed adolescents, using methods to reduce potential confounding from factors such as baseline substance use severity.

  Feb 21, 2023

  Donna L. Coffman, Lynsay Ayer, Megan S. Schuler, Mark D. Godley, Beth Ann Griffin

• 

  Journal Article

  Optimal Non-Pharmaceutical Pandemic Response Strategies Depend Critically on Time Horizons and Costs

  This paper performs a large-scale optimization exercise to find optimal non-pharmaceutical pandemic response strategies.

  Feb 14, 2023

  Sarah A. Nowak, Pedro Nascimento de Lima, Raffaele Vardavas

• 

  Report

  Evaluation of Mental Health First Aid in New York City

  More than 155,000 New Yorkers were trained in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) between 2016 and 2020. The authors evaluated this citywide dissemination of MHFA and needs for future training.

  Feb 7, 2023

  Eunice C. Wong, Michael Stephen Dunbar, Daniel Siconolfi, Anthony Rodriguez, Chester Jean, Vanessa N. Torres, Rosemary Li, Michele Abbott, Ingrid Estrada-Darley, Lu Dong, Rebecca Weir

• 

  Research Brief

  Large-Scale Training in Mental Health First Aid: An Evaluation of New York City's 2016–2020 Efforts

  In an evaluation of a city-wide effort to train New Yorkers in Mental Health First Aid, RAND researchers found that the majority of participants had used their skills to help friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers in the past six months.

  Feb 7, 2023

  Eunice C. Wong, Michael Stephen Dunbar, Daniel Siconolfi, Anthony Rodriguez, Chester Jean, Vanessa N. Torres, Rosemary Li, Michele Abbott, Ingrid Estrada-Darley, Lu Dong, Rebecca Weir

• 

  Journal Article

  Randomized Controlled Trial of Rise, A Community-Based Culturally Congruent Counseling Intervention to Support Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among Black/African American Adults Living with HIV

  We conducted a randomized controlled trial of Rise, a community-based culturally congruent adherence intervention, from January 2018 to December 2021 with 166 Black adults living with HIV in Los Angeles.

  Jan 25, 2023

  Laura M. Bogart, Matt G. Mutchler, Kathy Goggin, Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar, David J. Klein, Uzaib Saya, Sebastian Linnemayr, Sean Jamar Lawrence, Keshav Tyagi, Damone Thomas, Mahlet Gizaw, Jeff Bailey, Glenn Wagner