About

Kammi Schmeer is an Associate Director at the Institute for Population Research and a Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on adolescent to young adult development, family demography, health and mortality, and sexual and reproductive health. She has contributed to understanding predictors of allostatic load in mothers and children, family contexts and physiological stress in children, the household food environment and overweight status of Mexican American children, and women's partnership transitions and well-being in Mexico. Her work involves examining biological and social factors influencing health outcomes within family and population contexts.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Demography
• Environmental health
• Developmental psychology
• Sociology
• Gerontology
• Geography
• Economics
• Biology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical psychology
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• Print and Screen Media in Families Experiencing Low Income: The Impact of Stressors and Protective Factors

  Infant and Child Development · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Children's early print and screen media experiences at home shape language and literacy development, but screen media can displace reading and vary by socioeconomic status (SES). This study examines how family stressors (economic strain, parent psychological distress, inter‐relational stress) and protective factors (parent activity involvement, parenting self‐efficacy, perceived parental impact, social support and external childcare) influence children's print and screen media experiences in lower‐SES families. This study uses data from 222 mothers to child dyads (46% Black, 38% White) from the longitudinal SMALL Talk project, focusing on families experiencing poverty. Data were collected at children's age 40–44 months via interviews and online surveys. Findings will inform how family contexts can promote or hinder positive print and screen media engagement to support child development and school readiness.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Profiles of Family Stressors Among Low-Income Families with Young Children

  Maternal and Child Health Journal · 2025-02-25 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVES: This study examined profiles of family stressors, based on the five dimensions of the Family Stress Model (economic hardship, economic pressure, parental psychological distress, interparental relationship problems, and disrupted parenting) among low-income families with young children. We aimed to validate the model with a sample of low-income families and then to determine whether there were reliable profiles of families on the five dimensions. METHODS: Mothers completed questionnaires when children were between six and 15 months old to capture background information and 14 key indicators of the five Family Stress Model dimensions. Our analytical sample comprised 353 families that provided data for at least one key indicator. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to statistically validate the Family Stress Model, then explored distinct profiles using latent profile analyses (LPA), and examined how profile membership correlated with family characteristics. RESULTS: CFA model fit indices indicated a good fit of the data relative to the theoretical model. LPA revealed three distinct profiles of stressor among families, consistent with low, medium, and high patterns of stressors. Families in the high-stress profile experienced larger household numbers, higher maternal loneliness, reduced social connectedness, and higher reports of unplanned pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Findings show applicability of the Family Stress Model to low-income families with young children, and indicate that these families are diverse in terms of the stressors they experience, characterized by three distinct profiles. In this regard, low-income families should not be viewed monolithically, but rather as experiencing variability in the stressors they face.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Intergenerational adverse childhood experiences and adolescent migration aspirations in Nicaragua

  International Migration · 2024-06-04 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Adolescents' aspirations are strong predictors of their future outcomes, including later migration experiences. Adversity also shapes aspirations for and decisions about the future. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are measures of early exposure to adversity and may be associated with migration aspirations, though this relationship is understudied. Given high rates of gender-based violence, single-headed households, and economic insecurity, Nicaragua is an important context to study this relationship. Drawing on data from the Nicaragua Health and Stress Study, we estimate multinomial logistic regressions to examine the association between adolescents' and mothers' ACEs and adolescent migration aspirations. We find that mothers' ACEs, but not adolescents' ACEs, are positively associated with adolescent migration aspirations. We also find that girls are more likely than boys to aspire to migrate. Results highlight how family and gender work together to shape young people's migration goals, with important implications for migration flows within and outside of Central America.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parenting in the Pandemic: Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 on Families

  2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily life for families around the world, presenting unique challenges for parents and their children. Dr Kammi Schmeer and her colleagues from Ohio State University have been studying the impact of the pandemic on family social and economic conditions and parenting activities among a diverse sample of families in Ohio. Their research provides valuable insights into how families have navigated this unprecedented crisis and the potential long-term consequences for child development and well-being.

  PublisherDOI

• Assessing the well-being of partners of people found guilty of perpetrating genocide in Rwanda

  Journal of Health Psychology · 2024-08-02

  article

  This article draws upon 89 in-person surveys with Rwandan women (ages 26-75) whose partners were incarcerated for genocide and examines how these women explain participation in the violence. We first engage in exploratory factor analysis of reasons cited for perpetrating genocide, which reveals (1) a factor comprised of internal reasons for participation, including greed and hatred; (2) a factor of external reasons, such as peer pressure or coercion, and (3) a factor driven by alcohol use. Next, we analyze how these factors are associated with the women's psychosocial wellbeing as measured by the World Health Organization's Self-Reporting Questionnaire. This quantitative analysis finds that, net of relevant control variables, accounts of participation in genocide that emphasize external reasons for participation are associated with better psychosocial wellbeing, while accounts of participation that emphasize internal reasons are associated with worse psychosocial wellbeing. We conclude by addressing the link between explanations for actions and wellbeing.

  PublisherDOI

• Profiles of Family Stressors Among Low-Income Families with Young Children

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Exposure to Armed Conflict and HIV Risk Among Rwandan Women

  Demography · 2023-07-25 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article focuses on the link between past exposure to violence and a critical public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa: HIV-positive status in women of reproductive age. Specifically, we use biosocial data from the Rwandan Demographic and Health Survey (2005‒2014) to assess how the timing and intensity of women's exposure to the war and genocide in Rwanda (1990‒1994) may be associated with their HIV status. We find significant differences in risk across age cohorts, with the late adolescence cohort (women born in 1970‒1974, who were aged 16‒20 at the start of the conflict) having the highest risk of being HIV positive 10‒20 years after the violence, even after controlling for current socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Women who reported two or more sibling deaths, excluding those related to maternal mortality, during the conflict years also had higher odds of being HIV positive, net of cohort and control variables. Age at first sexual intercourse and number of lifetime sexual partners partially-but not fully-explain the associations between cohort and sibling deaths and HIV. These findings advance research related to armed conflict and population health and indicate that experiencing conflict during key stages of the life course and at higher intensity may affect women's long-term sexual health.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Understanding family life during the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 shutdown

  Family Relations · 2022 · 36 citations

  • Psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Medicine

  Objective: Our study investigates how changes in family contexts were associated with child behaviors during Ohio's COVID-19 shutdown of early 2020. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major economic and social changes for families. Rapid research was conducted to assess these changes and their potential impacts on child behaviors. Method: = 559), we describe key economic changes and parent-reported stressors experienced during Ohio's shutdown period. Then, we use regression models to examine how these family conditions were associated with child emotional distress and changes in sleep routines. Results: < 0.01). Conclusion: Families and children living at home in Ohio experienced significant stress during the shutdown. These findings can be used to inform future studies of the social and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for parents and children. Implications: Families and children have experienced multiple stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers and practitioners should continue to monitor and support families and children to mitigate potential lasting consequences.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early childhood stress responses to psychosocial stressors: The state of the science

  Developmental Psychobiology · 2022-09-05 · 28 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  The aim of this systematic review was to better understand whether and to what extent psychosocial stressors are associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis or autonomic nervous system stress responses in young children (1-6 years of age). Studies were classified by psychosocial stressors from the ecobiodevelopmental model: social and economic resources, maternal mental health, parent-child relationships, and the physical environment. Of the 2388 identified studies, 32 met full inclusion criteria, including over 9107 children. Child physiologic stress responses were measured as hair and urinary cortisol and cortisone, salivary diurnal and reactive cortisol, salivary reactive alpha-amylase, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia. There were 107 identified relations between psychosocial stressors and physiologic stress responses. Nearly two thirds of these relations suggested that children have dysregulated stress responses as either significantly blunted (n = 27) or increased (n = 37); 43 relations were not significant. Children most consistently had significantly dysregulated stress responses if they experienced postnatal maternal depression or anxiety. Some reasons for the mixed findings may be related to characteristics of the child (i.e., moderators) or stressor, how the stress response or psychosocial stressor was measured, unmeasured variables (e.g., caregiving buffering), researcher degrees of freedom, or publication bias.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parent time investments in their children's learning during a policy-mandated shutdown: parent, child, and household influences

  Early Childhood Research Quarterly · 2022-01-01 · 10 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Family Contexts, Physiological Stress and Health in Children

  NIH · $642k · 2014–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Jake Tarrence

  Florida State University

  23 shared

• Christopher R. Browning

  The Ohio State University

  20 shared

• Jodi L. Ford

  The Ohio State University

  20 shared

• Baldwin M. Way

  18 shared

• Samantha Boch

  University of Cincinnati

  17 shared

• Darlene A. Kertes

  University of Florida

  17 shared

• Barbara A. Piperata

  The Ohio State University

  6 shared

• Laura M. Justice

  5 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2007

• M.A., Sociology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2002

• M.S., Urban and Regional Planning

  Florida State University

  1996

• B.A.

  Allegheny College

  1993