Stephen A. Matthews

Research and Teaching Interests

My research interests focus on the connections between people and places. I have a long standing interest in spatial demography and the use of GIS in applied and basic research. Much of the work to date has focused on either population and environment research or health and wellbeing research. Over the next few years my goals are to focus my research, publish as widely as possible in sociology, health and social science journals, and remain grant active seeking new sources of funding for my own research.

Teaching interests are in Health, Disease & Society/Medical Sociology, Urban Sociology, Spatial Demography and GIS/Spatial Analysis.

Research Grants (as PI or co-I)

Stephen A. Matthews (PI) “Advanced Spatial Analysis Training Program for Population Scientists” with Donald Janelle and Michael Goodchild (both UC Santa Barbara). R25 awarded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Stephen A. Matthews (PI), Steven Cummins “Neighborhood Food Environment, Diet and Health: Quasi-experimental study” R21 awarded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

Jim W. Wood (PI), Patricia L. Johnson, Timothy Murtha, Stephen A. Matthews. “Spatiotemporal Dimensions of Population Change in the Northern Orkney Islands, c. 1735-2000. National Science Foundation Human Social Dynamics.

Sandra Azar (PI), Stephen A. Matthews, Peter Arnett, David Johnson. “Maternal Intelligence, Social Information Processing, and Neglect.” R01 awarded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Roger Anderson (PI, Hershey Medical Center) et al. “Patterns of care in Appalachia.” R01 National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Daniel Kifer (PI), Stephen Matthews, and Tse-Chuan Yang "A Utility for Private Data Sharing in Social Science.” An NS Trustworthy Computing (TWC) in the Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBES) Medium application.

Grant Applications Under Review (as PI or co-I)

As of January 2013 seven applications are under review at NIH (including a D43 post-doc training application and an R25 training application, four R01s, and an R03). In addition, two mentoring related applications are under review at NIH. One grant application is under review at NSF.

Professional Awards and Achievements

I serve as an associate editor for Demographic Research and on the editorial boards of four other journals: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Demography, GeoJournal, and Spatial Demography. I previously served on the editorial board of Health and Place (1994-2004).

In 2012 I was a guest editor of a special issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on the topic of “GIS and Childhood Obesity” (with Celeste Torio) and in 2013 guest editor of a special collection on “Spatial Demography” for Demographic Research.

Publications Since 2005

Books

Burton LM, Kemp S, Leung M, Matthews SA and Takeuchi D (editors) (2011) Communities, Neighborhoods, and Health: Expanding the Boundaries of Place (Springer: ISBN: 978-1-441-97481-5).

Zelinsky W, Matthews SA. (2011) The Place of Religion in Chicago (Center for American Places/University of Chicago Press; Chicago, Illinois). ISBN: 978-1-935-19515-3

Journal Articles

Matthews SA, Yang T-C (Accepted) Spatial Polygamy And Contextual Exposures (SPACEs): Promoting activity space approaches in research on place and health. American Behavioral Scientist

Duncan DT, Kawachi I, Kum S, Aldstadt J, Piras G, Matthews SA, Arbia G, Castro MC, White K, Williams DR. (Accepted) A spatially explicit approach to the study of socio-demographic inequality in the spatial distribution of trees across Boston neighborhoods. Spatial Demography

Yang TC, Matthews SA, Anderson RT. (Accepted) Prostate cancer screening and health care system distrust in Philadelphia. Journal of Aging and Health

Fleming ST, Mackley HB, Camacho F, Seiber EE, Gusani NJ, Matthews SA, Liao J., Yang T-C, Hwang W, Yao N. (Accepted) Clinical, sociodeographic and service provider determinants of guideline concordant colorectal cancer care for Appalachia. Journal of Rural Health

Yang T-C, Matthews SA, Chen VY-J. (Accepted) Stochastic variability in stress, sleep duration and sleep quality across the distribution of body mass index: Insights from quantile regression. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine

Yao N, Matthews SA, Hillemeier MM, Anderson RT (Accepted) Radiation therapy resources and guideline-concordant radiotherapy for early-stage breast cancer patients in an underserved region. Health Services Research

Zhang C, Mosa AJ, Hayward AS, Matthews SA (Accepted) Promoting clean hands among Uganda’s children: A school-based intervention using tippy-taps. Public Health

Matthews SA, Parker DM (2013) Progress in spatial demography. Demographic Research Volume 28, Article 10, 271-312.

Fuller D, Cummins S, Matthews SA (2013) Does transportation mode modify associations between distance to food store, fruit and vegetable consumption and BMI in low income neighborhoods? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 97(1):167-172.

Yang TC, Shoff C, Matthews SA. (2013) Examining the spatially non-stationary associations between the second demographic transition and infant mortality: A Poisson GWR approach. Spatial Demography 1 (1):18-41.

Zenk SN, Schulz AJ, Odoms-Young A, Wilbur J, Matthews SA, Gamboa C, Wegrzyn L, Hobson S, Stokes C. (2012). Feasibility of using global positioning systems (GPS) with diverse urban adults: Before and after data on perceived acceptability, wear-related concerns, and ease of use. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 9 (7):924-934.

Yao N, Matthews SA, Hillemeier, MM. (2012) White infant mortality in Appalachian states, 1976-1980 and 1996-2000: changing patterns and persistent disparities. Journal of Rural Health 28(2):174-182.

Shoff C, Yang TC, Matthews SA. (2012) What has geography got to do with it? Using GWR to explore place-specific associations with prenatal care utilization. GeoJournal 77 (3):331-341.

Matthews SA. (2012) Thinking about place, spatial behavior, and spatial processes in childhood obesity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 42 (5):516-520.

Yang TC, Chen VY-J, Shoff C, Matthews SA (2012) Using quantile regression to examine the effects of inequality across the mortality distribution in the US counties. Social Science and Medicine 74, 1900-1910.

Chen VY-J,Deng W-S, Yang TC, Matthews SA. (2012) A geographically weighted quantile regression approach for spatial data analysis: an application to county-level U.S. mortality data. Geographical Analysis 44 (2):134-150.

Gilreath TD, Chaix B, King G, Matthews SA, Flisher, AJ (2012) Multi-level influence of school norms on tobacco use in South Africa: An ecometric consideration of group differences. Cancer Causes and Control 23:27-36.

Yang TC, Matthews SA (2012) Understanding the non-stationary associations between distrust of the health care system, health conditions, and self-rated health in the elderly: A geographically weighted regression approach. Health and Place 18:576-585.

Matthews, SA, Yang TC (2012) Mapping the results of local statistics: Using geographically weighted regression. Demographic Research Volume 26, Article 6, 151-166.

Yang TC, Matthews SA, Shoff C. (2011) Individual health care system distrust and neighborhood social environment; how are they jointly associated with self-rated health? Journal of Urban Health 88 (5):945-958.

Zenk SN, Schulz AJ, Matthews SA, Odoms-Young A, Wilbur J, Wegrzyn L, Gibbs K, Braunschweig C, Stokes C. (2011) Activity space environment and eating and physical activity behaviors: a pilot study. Health and Place 17:1150-1161.

Matthews SA. (2011) Spatial analysis. Oxford Bibliographies Online – Sociology

Yang TC, Matthews SA, Hillemeier M. (2011) Effect of health care system distrust on breast and cervical cancer screening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. American Journal of Public Health 101 (7):1297-1305.

Matthews SA. McCarthy JD, Rafail PS. (2011) Using ZIP Code Business Pattern data to measure alcohol outlet density. Addictive Behaviors 36:777-780.

Matthews SA, Yang TC. (2010) Exploring the role of built and social neighborhood environments in moderating stress and health. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 39:170-183.

Matthews SA, Yang TC, Hayslett KL, Ruback RB. (2010) Built environment and property crime in Seattle, 1998-2000: A Bayesian analysis. Environment and Planning A 42:1403-1420.

Yang, TC, Matthews SA (2010) The role of social and built environments in predicting self-rated stress: A multilevel analysis in Philadelphia. Health and Place 16:803-810.

Gubhaju B, Matthews SA. (2009) Women’s empowerment, sociocultural context, and reproductive behavior in Nepal. Asia-Pacific Population Journal 24 (2): 25-50.

Matthews SA, Moudon AV, Daniel M. (2009) Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for enhancing research relevant to policy on diet, physical activity, and weight. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 36 (4S): 171-176.

Reardon SF, Farrell CR, Matthews SA, O’Sullivan D, Bischoff K, Firebaugh G. (2009) Race and space in the 1990s: changes in the geographic scale of racial residential segregation, 1990-2000. Social Science Research 38:55-70.

Lee BA, Reardon SF, Firebaugh G, Farrell CR, Matthews SA, O’Sullivan D. (2008). Beyond the census tract: patterns and determinants of racial segregation at multiple geographic scales. American Sociological Review 73:766-791.

Reardon SF, Matthews SA, O’Sullivan D, Lee BA, Firebaugh G, Farrell CR, Bischoff K. (2008) The geographic scale of metropolitan racial segregation. Demography 45 (3):489-514.

Matthews SA. (2008) The salience of neighborhoods: lessons from early Sociology? American Journal of Preventive Medicine 34 (3):257-259.

Matthews SA, Detwiler J, Burton LM. (2005) Geoethnography: coupling geographic information analysis techniques with ethnography methods in urban research. Cartographica 40 (4):75-90.

Kaduri P, Gilreath T, Kilonza G, King G, Flisher A, Matthews SA. (2005) The influence of social networks on adolescent smoking in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Promotion and Education 12 (2):10-14. 

Book Chapters

Matthews SA (2011) Spatial polygamy and the heterogeneity of place: studying people and place via egocentric methods. Pp. 35-55, Chapter 3 in L Burton, S Kemp, M Leung, SA Matthews and D Takeuchi (editors) Communities, Neighborhoods, and Health: Expanding the Boundaries of Place Springer, New York, NY.

Burton L, Kemp S, Leung M, Matthews SA, and Takeuchi D (2011) Introduction – Communities, Neighborhoods, and Health: Expanding the Boundaries of Place. Pp. vii-xii, Preface in L Burton, S Kemp, M Leung, SA Matthews and D Takeuchi (editors) Communities, Neighborhoods, and Health: Expanding the Boundaries of Place Springer, New York, NY.

Martin D, Rees P, Durham H, Matthews SA. (2009) “Census and population analysis” Pp. 53-75, Chapter 4 in Rees P, Mackay L, Martin D, Durham H (Editors) E-Learning For Geographers: Online Materials, Resources And Repositories. Idea Group, Inc, Hershey, PA.

Skinner D, Matthews SA, Burton LM. (2005) Combining ethnography and GIS technology to examine constructions of developmental opportunities in contexts of poverty and disability. Pp. 223-239, Chapter 7 in Weisner T (Ed.). Discovering successful pathways in children's development: Mixed methods in the study of childhood and family life. MacArthur Foundation: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.