BY DAN GORDON
UCLA Today
The online version of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary defines demography as “the statistical
study of human populations especially with reference to
size and density, distribution and vital statistics.”
That may seem at odds
with a study of neighborhood conditions and their influence
on individual behaviors and health outcomes. But Anne
Pebley views her role as director of the Los Angeles Family
and Neighborhood Survey as perfectly consistent with her
expertise as a demographer at the School of Public Health.
The survey is an analysis
by RAND and UCLA researchers of 65 neighborhoods in L.A.
County, focusing on the impact of the surrounding environment
on children’s health, social development, school
performance, stress and other variables. The first wave
of the survey was recently completed.
The research stems from
a large body of policy literature that suggests that neighborhoods
are where social interventions should occur.
“The idea is that
if you’re trying to improve the life of one child
at a time, you might not have as much impact as if you
change the environment in which the child lives,”
Pebley explained.
Pebley’s career
course was launched in graduate school at Cornell University,
where she enrolled in a master’s degree program
in international development. The focus was on agricultural
economics, nutrition and demography of population; the
latter captured her interest, particularly at a time —
the 1970s — when population growth rates in poor
countries were at unprecedented levels.
After 14 years on the
faculty at Princeton University and six as director of
the Population Research Center and senior sociologist
at RAND, she joined the faculty at the School of Public
Health in 1999 as professor and Fred H. Bixby Chair. The
endowed chair supports research, teaching and service
in the population field.
Each fall, students jam
into Pebley’s popular Population Change and Public
Policy course. Being around students — particularly
given the diversity of their backgrounds and experiences
— is invigorating, said Pebley, who was honored
by the Public Health Students Association as Professor
of the Year for the Department of Community Health Sciences
in 2002.
“Researchers have
a tremendous luxury in the sense that we can, to a certain
extent, follow our interests,” Pebley said. “But
at the same time, when I work with people in the community
through my research and volunteering, I am reminded that
these are real issues affecting real people, that we don’t
have a lot of money to spend on public policy and we have
to be very strategic in how we spend it.
“I would like to
think that what I do has a positive impact in guiding
such decisions,” she said.
