Jones

Antwan Jones

Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, The George Washington University
Areas of Expertise:

Connect with Antwan

(202) 994-0266

About Antwan

Jones' research focuses on the residential and neighborhood context in which individuals live as a way to understand health disparities among marginalized populations. Engaged in national and international research, Jones has firmly located himself in the field of urban sociology by elucidating how residential processes (such as housing instability) and neighborhood contexts (such as food deserts and concentrated poverty) are essential to the study of adult cardiovascular disease, child obesity, and disability among the elderly.

In his most recent research funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), he relies on theories from multiple disciplines to isolate the effect of residential instability on adolescent obesity, and he assesses how the built environment helps to explain this effect. In addition, Jones is using the same framework to explore how residential instability and levels of social cohesion and social support present in neighborhoods are collectively related to food insecurity among low-income families who live in neighborhoods that are experiencing high population turnover and rapid demographic transition. Jones currently serves on the National Advisory Committee for RWJF’s Evidence for Action (E4A) Program, the Washington DC Policy Center’s Advisory Board, and the Washington DC Commission on African-American Affairs. 

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

The Health Consequences of Moving from Place to Place

Key Findings Brief,

No Jargon Podcast

Episode 106:
Investing in Our Neighborhoods

In the News

Antwan Jones quoted by Kellie Meyer, "Entrepreneur Reflects on Legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr" WJHG, April 6, 2018.
"Intelligent Mobility as a Means to Improve Health Equity," Antwan Jones, Stanford Social Innovation Review, January 26, 2018.
"Remembering the 1968 Holy Week Riots," Antwan Jones (with Bernard Demczuk and Stanley Mays), Interview with Bruce Johnson, WUSA9's Off Script with Bruce Johnson, July 28, 2017.
"How Ohio Would Lose under the Republican Health Care Plan," Antwan Jones, Cleveland.com, July 21, 2017.
Interview on RIOT: Remembering the 1992 LA Riots Antwan Jones, National Geographic, April 29, 2017.
"Homeless in the Nation's Capital," Antwan Jones, Arguments, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, February 1, 2017.
Regular contributions by Antwan Jones to Huffington Post.
"The Role of Gentrification in Reducing Teen Births," Antwan Jones, The Baltimore Sun, May 22, 2016.
"Foreclosures are Making Americans Sick," Antwan Jones (with Gregory Squires), American Banker, October 31, 2014.
Guest to discuss Michael Brown: Unrest in Ferguson, MO on Special Report, Alhurra TV, Antwan Jones, August 20, 2014.
"Perceptions of Overweight: Parallels between Obesity and Eating Disorders," Antwan Jones, Global Policy TV, September 17, 2013.
Antwan Jones's research on ethnic community formation discussed by Trevor Stokes, "One in Seven Residents Hispanic," Times Daily, May 2, 2013.
"The Neighborhood: A Link to Teen Obesity?," Antwan Jones, Interview with Staff Writers, The George Washington University News, September 1, 2012.
Antwan Jones's research on gentrification discussed by Aubrey Whelan, "Emerging Neighborhoods See Crime Spike," Washington Examiner, July 23, 2012.

Publications

"Neighbourhood Perceptions and Residential Mobility" (with Antwan Jones). Urban Studies (2020): online.

Considers the ways in which neighbourhood perceptions can differentially affect residential mobility, particularly in low-income areas. The results show that perceptions of neighbourhood context matter more than the actual neighbourhood setting. These findings highlight the continued importance of subjective rather than objective measures of neighbourhood conditions in understanding residential mobility.

"Intergenerational Educational Attainment, Family Characteristics, and Child Obesity" Journal of Biosocial Science 48, no. 4 (2016): 557-576.

Explores how exposure to different socioeconomic conditions (proxied by maternal education) before birth can shape child weight. 

"Lifecourse Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Illness in Latin America" (with Danielle Mitchel and Franklin Goza). Current Sociology 62, no. 7 (2014): 1055-1078.
Uses Latin American data to test whether adult socioeconomic disadvantage, net of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage, is associated with being diagnosed with hypertension and experiencing a heart attack. Findings indicate that while adult socioeconomic status is positively associated with cardiovascular illness in the region overall, this relationship is negative in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
"Segregation and Cardiovascular Illness: The Role of Individual and Metropolitan Socioeconomic Status" Health and Place 22, no. 1 (2013): 56-67.
Examines how segregation and socioeconomic status (individual and metropolitan) impact hypertension for a sample of 200,102 individuals; finds that socioeconomic status has differential effects across segregation types and that hypertension in disadvantaged (extremely hypersegregated) areas man be a function of structural constraints rather than socioeconomic position.
"Disability, Health and Generation Status: How Hispanics in the U.S. Fare in Late Life" Journal of Immigrant Minority Health 14, no. 3 (2012): 467-474.
Uses prospective data from a cohort of elderly Hispanics to explore how first-, second- and 1.5-generation Latinos differ in their levels and trajectories of disability.
"Differences in Tobacco Use between Canada and the United States" (with Angelika Gulbis and Elizabeth H. Baker). The International Journal of Public Health 55, no. 3 (2010): 167-175.
Explores differences in who smokes (smoker type) and exposure to smoking (pack-years) between Canada and the U.S. Argues that if countries want to focus on limiting the number of new cases of smokers, the target population is different from the target population that should be used if countries are interested in converting smokers into non-smokers.
"Stability of Men’s Interracial First Unions: A Test of Educational Differentials and Cohabitation History" The Journal of Family and Economic Issues 31, no. 2 (2010): 241-256.
Suggests that a history of cohabitation, plans of marriage, and education may help explain the divergent divorce patterns of interracial and same-race unions. Subsequent analyses by racial union pairing suggest that Black men with White women and Latino men with Black women have significantly high risks of divorce.
"Race and the ‘I Have a Dream’ Legacy: Exploring Predictors of Positive Civil Rights Attitudes" Journal of Black Studies 37, no. 2 (2006): 193-208.
Attempts to test the relationship between racial attitudes toward Blacks and attitudes toward civil rights, and to find predictors of positive civil rights attitudes. Finds that political party identification, age, gender, racial identification, and region of residence are all significant predictors of positive civil rights attitudes.