Research Professor, Population Studies Center and Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research

Biography
Narayan Sastry is a Research Professor in the Survey Research Center and the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. He is also an Adjunct Senior Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation. Sastry has been at the University of Michigan since 2006.
Sastry was previously a Senior Social Scientist at RAND and Associate Director of RAND’s Labor and Population Program and Population Research Center.
Sastry’s research interests center on studying the social and spatial dimensions of health, development, and well-being of children and adolescents, both in the United States and in less developed countries.
Sastry serves as an Associate Director of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), and he directs the PSID Child Development Supplement (PSID-CDS) and the PSID Transition into Adulthood Supplement (PSID-TAS). He is the Co-Director of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS). Sastry is also the Director of the Displaced New Orleans Residents Survey (DNORS) that was designed to study the long-term demographic effects of Hurricane Katrina on the pre-storm population of New Orleans.
Sastry received his Ph.D. in Demography and Public Affairs from Princeton University in 1995.
Projects
Funded Research
- A New Public Data Archive for the PSID Child Development Supplement
- Children’s Health and Migration
- Continuity and Change in American Economic and Social Life: The PSID 2012 – 2016
- Continuity and Change in American Economic and Social Life: The PSID 2012 – 2016
- Continuity and Change in American Economic and Social Life: The PSID 2012 – 2016
- Continuity and Change in American Economic and Social Life: The PSID 2012 – 2016
- Continuity and Change in American Economic and Social Life: The PSID 2017 – 2020
- Continuity and Change in American Economic and Social Life: The PSID 2017 – 2020
- Family Complexity, Resources, and the Transition to Adulthood
- Family Dynamics, Fertility, and Investments in Children Across Generations
- Family Dynamics, Fertility, and Investments in Children Across Generations
- Panel Study of Income Dynamics – 2015 Philanthropy Module (Wave 39)
- PSID, CDS, and TA: Data Enhancements and User Training, Support, and Outreach
- Transition to Adulthood within its Life Course & Intergenerational Family Context
- Transitions from Preschool through High School: Family, Schools & Neighborhoods
- Transitions from Preschool through High School: Family, Schools & Neighborhoods
- Understanding the interplay of genes and environments in U.S. families to improve child health: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Publications
- Fomby, Paula A.; Sastry, Narayan (2019). Data Collection on Sensitive Topics with Adolescents Using Interactive Voice Response Technology. methods, data, analyses, 13(1).
- Hicks, Andrew L.; Handcock, Mark S.; Sastry, Narayan; Pebley, Anne R. (2018). Sequential Neighborhood Effects: The Effect of Long-Term Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage on Children’s Reading and Math Test Scores. Demography, 55(1), 1-31.
- Schickedanz, Adam; Halfon, Neal; Sastry, Narayan; Chung, Paul J. (2018). Parents’ Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Children’s Behavioral Health Problems. Pediatrics, 142(2), e20180023.
- Sastry, Narayan; Fomby, Paula A.; McGonagle, Katherine A. (2018). Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to Conduct Life Course Health Development Analysis. 579-599. In Halfon, Neal; Forrest, Christopher B.; Lerner, Richard M.; Faustman, Elaine M. (Ed.), Handbook of Life Course Health Development.
- Johnson, David S.; McGonagle, Katherine A.; Freedman, Vicki A.; Sastry, Narayan (2018). Fifty Years of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Past, Present, and Future. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 680(1), 9-28.
- Fomby, Paula A.; Sastry, Narayan; McGonagle, Katherine A. (2017). Effectiveness of a Time-limited Incentive on Participation by Hard-to-reach Respondents in a Panel Study. Field Methods, 29(3), 238-251.
- Bzostek, Sharon; Sastry, Narayan; Goldman, Noreen; Pebley, Anne; Duffy, Denise (2016). Using vignettes to rethink Latino-white disparities in self-rated health. Social science & medicine, 149, 46-65.
- McGonagle, Katherine A.; Sastry, Narayan (2016). Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics To Analyze Housing Decisions, Dynamics, and Effects. Cityscape (Washington, DC), 18(1), 185-199.
- McGonagle, Katherine A. and Sastry, Narayan (2015). Cohort Profile: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ Child Development Supplement and Transition into Adulthood Study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 44(2), 415-422.
- Sastry, Narayan (2015). Stressful Life Experiences and Contexts: The Effects on Parents and Parenting. (Chpt 8), 105-111. Families in an Era of Increasing Inequality. Springer International Publishing:Switzerland.
- DeCamp, Lisa R.; Choi, Hwajung; Fuentes-Afflick, Elena and Sastry, Narayan (2015). Immigrant Latino Neighborhoods and Mortality among Infants Born to Mexican-Origin Latina Women. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 19(6), 1354-1363.
- Sastry, Narayan and Gregory, J. (2014). The Location of Displaced New Orleans Residents in the Year After Hurricane Katrina. Demography, 51(3), 753-775.
- Clarke, Philippa J.; Sastry, Narayan; Duffy, D. and Ailshire, J. (2014). Accuracy of Self-Reported Versus Measured Weight Over Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, 1996-2008. American Journal of Epidemiology, 180(2), 153-159.
- Sastry, Narayan and Gregory, Jesse (2013). The Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the Prevalence of Health Impairments and Disability among Adults in New Orleans: Differences by Age, Race, and Sex. Social Science & Medicine, 80(March), 121-129.
- Sastry, Narayan (2012). Neighborhood Effects on Children’s Achievement: A Review of Recent Research. 423-477. In Maholmes,Valerie and King,Rosalind, B. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Poverty and Child Development. Oxford University Press:Oxford.
- McGonagle, Katherine A.; Schoeni, Robert F.; Sastry, Narayan and Freedman, Vicki A. (2012). The Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Overview, Recent Innovations, and Potential for Life Course Research. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 3(2), 268.
- Jones, M.; Pebley, A. R. and Sastry, Narayan (2011). Eyes on the Block: Measuring Urban Physical Disorder through in-Person Observation. Social Science Research, 40(2), 523-537.
- Sastry, Narayan and Burgard, Sarah (2011). Changes in Diarrheal Disease and Treatment among Brazilian Children from 1986 to 1996. Population Research and Policy Review, 30(1), 81-100.
- Fussell, Elizabeth; Sastry, Narayan and VanLandingham, Mark (2010). Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Return Migration to New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina. Population & Environment, 31(1), 20-42.
- Sastry, Narayan and Pebley, A. R. (2010). Family and Neighborhood Sources of Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Achievement. Demography, 47(3), 777-800.
- Sastry, Narayan (2009). Displaced New Orleans Residents in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Results from a Pilot Survey. Organization & Environment, 22(4), 395-409.
- Sastry, Narayan (2009). Tracing the Effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Population of New Orleans: The Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Study. Sociological Methods & Research, 38(1), 171-196.
- Sastry, Narayan and VanLandingham, Mark (2009). One Year Later: Mental Illness Prevalence and Disparities among New Orleans Residents Displaced by Hurricane Katrina. American Journal of Public Health, 99(S3), S725-731.
- Sastry, Narayan; McGonagle, Katherine A. and Schoeni, Robert F. (2009). Introduction to the Special Issue on the Scientific Assessment of Biomeasures in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Biodemography and Social Biology, 55(2), 113-117.
- Weathers, A.; Novak, S.; Sastry, Narayan and Norton, E. (2008). Parental Nativity Affects Children’s Health and Access to Care. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 10(2), 155-165.
- Weathers, A.; Novak, S.; Sastry, Narayan and Norton, E. (2008). Parental Nativity is an Important Factor Associated with Where Children Usually Go for Health Care. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 12(4), 499-508.
- Pebley, Anne R. and Sastry, Narayan (2008). Neighborhoods, Poverty and Children’s Well-being: A Review. 360. In Grusky,David B. (Ed.), Social Stratification : Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. Westview Press:Boulder, Colo.