Maternal and Child Health

As part of the Investigating Spatial Structures in Urban Environments (ISSUES) lab, our work on Maternal and Child Health (MCH) is grounded in a transdisciplinary approach that links law, public health, and spatial data science. We investigate how structural inequities—such as housing instability, neighborhood disinvestment, and restricted reproductive access—shape health trajectories from pregnancy through childhood.

Core Questions We Address

• How does spatial accessibility to abortion care intersect with maternal vulnerability to shape adverse birth outcomes in the post-Dobbs landscape?
• How does intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy influence maternal morbidity and infant health outcomes like low birth weight?
• What are the spatial patterns of maternal stress and how do psychosocial risk factors cluster geographically?
• How do reproductive health policies and abortion restrictions interact with social determinants to exacerbate health disparities?

Methods and Approaches

We utilize advanced quantitative methods to rigorously analyze these complex issues:

• GIS & Transportation Network Modeling: Quantifying travel burden, service deserts, and spatial accessibility to abortion and reproductive healthcare using multimodal transportation networks.
• Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI): A novel, validated census-tract-level measure capturing multidimensional drivers of poor maternal health including healthcare access, reproductive resources, physical/mental health, environmental conditions, and socioeconomic disadvantage.
• Latent Class Analysis: Identifying distinct risk profiles among expecting mothers using PRAMS (Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System) data.
• Mediation Analysis: Examining pathways through which IPV affects birth outcomes via psychosocial stressors, health problems, and substance use.

Select Publications

Maternal Health & Birth Outcomes

• Barboza-Salerno, G., Ramesh, B., Freisthler, B., Ye, Y., Kieninger, K., & Thurston, H. (2025). Escaping Stress: Relationship Between Time Spent In Outdoor Recreational Areas And Self-Reported Stress Among Parents During The Early COVID-19 Lockdown - A gEMA Study. Spatial and Spatiotemporal Epidemiology.

• Zhang, Y., Johnson-Motoyama, M., Yoon, S., & Barboza-Salerno, G. (2025). From material hardship to harsh parenting: Testing the Family Stress Model in the dyadic family context. Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2025.105917

Child Health & Well-Being

• Barboza-Salerno, G., Liebhard, B., Duhaney, S. & Shockley-McCarthy, K. (2025). Pushing the boundary of child well-being: A spatial examination of child death rates in transition zones of extreme economic inequality and material hardship. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330449

• Stanek, C., Barboza-Salerno, G. & Lizzappi, A. (2025). Child Domestic Servitude and Haitian Girls’ Mental Health. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

  Manuscripts Under Review

• Booth, R., Nurre, M., Ramesh, B., Purie, B., Secor, J., Alhajjaj, Z., & Barboza-Salerno, G. Linking Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy to Infant Birthweight: Examining Mediating Pathways of Psychosocial Stressors, Health Problems, and Cigarette Use. Submitted to Public Health Nursing.

• Barboza-Salerno, G., Ramesh, B., & Harrington, T. A Latent Class Analysis of Maternal Stress During Pregnancy: Associations with Adverse Maternal and Infant Birth Outcomes and Psychosocial Risk Factors in K-PRAMS Participants. Submitted to BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth.

• Zhang, Y., Johnson-Motoyama, M., Yoon, S., Barboza-Salerno, G. Rethinking parental risk factors of harsh parenting: The perspective of psychometric networks. Revise and Resubmit from Child & Family Social Work.

  Current Funded Projects

Spatial Accessibility to Abortion Services & Maternal Vulnerability

Funding: The Ohio State University, Institute for Population Research, $25,000 (2023-24)

Project: Spatial Accessibility of Reproductive Health Care Services Following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Description: This study examines whether spatial constraints on abortion access align with community-level maternal vulnerability and how these structural conditions are associated with adverse birth outcomes. Using the novel Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI) and GIS-based transportation network modeling, we quantify travel burden, service deserts, and spatial accessibility to abortion care in the post-Dobbs landscape.

Presentation: IPR Seminar Series, March 10, 2026

Policy Briefs & Reports

• Barboza-Salerno, G. (2025). Intimate Partner Violence & Brain Injury in U.S. Adults: Findings from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2021. ISSUESLAB.

• Barboza-Salerno, G. (2025). Craniofacial Injuries in IPV-Related Physical Abuse. ISSUESLAB.

  Related Resources

• View all publications

• PRAMS Data Resources

• GitHub Repository