Showing papers by "Jeanne Brooks-Gunn published in 1993"

Do Neighborhoods Influence Child and Adolescent Development

Abstract: The effects of neighborhood characteristics on the development of children and adolescents are estimated, using two data sets, each of which contains information gathered about individual children and the families and neighborhoods in which they reside. There are reasonably powerful neighborhood effects-particularly effects of the presence of affluent neighbors-on Childhood IQ, teenage births, and school-leaving, even after the differences in the socioeconomic characteristics of families are adjusted for. The study finds that white teenagers benefit more from the presence of affluent neighbors than do black teenagers.

Depression in adolescence.

Abstract: Adolescence is an important developmental period for understanding the nature, course, and treatment of depression. Recent research concerned with depressive mood, syndromes, and disorders during adolescence is reviewed, including investigations of the prevalence, course, risk factors, and prevention and treatment programs for each of these three levels of depressive phenomena in adolescence. A broad biopsychosocial perspective on adolescent depression is recommended, and possible directions for future integrative research are proposed. Based on current research and knowledge, implications for research, program, and national policy are considered.

Early Warning Signs of Functional Illiteracy: Predictors in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract: Early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence determinants of functional literacy in adulthood are investigated, using 20-year longitudinal data from a sample of black children of teenaged mothers from the Baltimore metropolitan area. Document literacy was assessed by a test that consisted of a subset of items of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) adult literacy test. The Baltimore sample is compared to the NAEP sample. Family environmental factors, early childhood developmental level, and educational career factors were considered as predictors of young adulthood literacy. Preschool cognitive and behavioral functioning is highly predictive of literacy in young adulthood, even when the effects of family environmental characteristics, including living arrangements, the quality of the home environment, maternal education, and income, are controlled. Grade failure in elementary school is also associated with literacy, but this effect disappears when the measure of preschool abilities is controlled. Family environmental factors that are predictive of literacy include maternal education, family size in early childhood, maternal marital status, and income in middle childhood and early adolescence. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Enhancing the Development of Low‐Birthweight, Premature Infants: Changes in Cognition and Behavior over the First Three Years

Abstract: The Infant Health and Development Program is a randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of educational and family support services and pediatric follow-up offered in the first 3 years of life on reducing the incidence of developmental delay in low-birthweight (LBW), preterm infants in 8 clinical sites (N = 985). Effects of the intervention on cognitive and behavior problem scores over the 3 years are examined. Significant intervention effects were seen on cognitive scores at 24 and 36 but not 12 months of age; effect sizes were similar at both ages. These effects persist when controlling for earlier cognitive scores. At 24 and 36 months, behavior problem scores for the intervention group were significantly lower than for the follow-up group; the intervention was more efficacious for children with higher initial behavior problem scores. Results are discussed in terms of timing and targeting of services for LBW and disadvantaged children.

Who Drops Out of and Who Continues Beyond High School? A 20-Year Follow-Up of Black Urban Youth

Abstract: The antecedents of dropping out of high school and continuing beyond high school are explored in a 20-year follow-up of the first-born children of about 250 Black teenage mothers who gave birth in the late 1960s in Baltimore. In 1988, the first-born children of the teenage mothers were making the transition to young adulthood (M age = 19 years). Thirty-seven percent had dropped out of school, 46% had completed high school, and 17% had gone on for postsecondary school education. Predictors of completing high school versus not completing high school were estimated as well as antecedents of continuing beyond high school versus completing high school. Events and characteristics occurring during the mothers' pregnancy in the first year of life, young childhood, middle childhood, and young adolescence were examined. Family circumstances (welfare use, presence of father or grandmother), maternal commitment to education, child's elementary grade school failure, child's preschool cognitive ability, and young adole...

Enhancing Maternal Interactive Behavior and Child Social Competence in Low Birth Weight, Premature Infants

Abstract: Effects of a comprehensive early intervention program for low birth weight, premature infants—the Infant Health and Development Program—on mother-child interaction were examined at 30 months (N= 683). Small significant positive effects were found: Intervention mothers had higher ratings on quality of assistance; intervention children had higher ratings on persistence and enthusiasm and on an overall child rating of competence and involvement and lower ratings on percentage of time off-task; intervention dyads were rated as more synchronous. Of a set of initial status variables indexing biological and environmental risk, only 2 treatment interactions were found. Intervention group black children had higher ratings on enthusiasm and lower percentage of time off-task. Independent of treatment, maternal ethnicity and education were significant predictors of maternal and dyadic ratings, while ethnicity and birth weight predicted child ratings. Implications for early intervention and center-based care are discussed.

Patterns of Low-Birth-Weight Children's Cognitive Development.

Abstract: This study investigates the developmental patterns of cognitive performance over the first 3 years in a large sample of Black and White low-birth-weight (LBW), premature children (N = 762), selected from the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP). The IHDP is a randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of education and family support services in reducing the incidence of developmental delay in LBW preterm infants at 8 clinical sites. Developmental patterns are identified by means of cluster analysis on the basis of the intelligence test scores at 12, 24, and 36 months (corrected for gestational age). Five developmental patterns were identified, including (a) high stable, (b) high decline to average, (c) high decline to below average, (d) average decline to below average, and (e) very low stable

Low-Birth-Weight Infants Born to Adolescent Mothers: Effects of Coresidency With Grandmother on Child Development

Abstract: Objective. —To explore the impact of young maternal age, coresidency with infant's grandmother, and other familial and environmental factors on development of low-birth-weight (LBW) infants. Design. —Prospective cohort analyses. Setting. —Eight medical institutions in different geographical locations participating in the Infant Health and Development Program. Participants. —Control population of 272 LBW, preterm infants enrolled in the Infant Health and Development Program born to mothers aged 15 to 24 years. Main Outcome Measure. —Child cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes at 36 months' gestation-corrected age. Results. —Maternal age was not significantly related to child development. Coresidence with infant's grandmother was associated with improved cognitive and health outcomes. Maternal ethnicity, maternal verbal ability, and other environmental factors were also associated with child outcomes. Conclusions. —Findings of this study support the need for programs that include the extended family of at-risk infants, providing education and literacy skills to the mothers and encouraging participation of all care givers of the child. (JAMA. 1993;269:1396-1400)

When you're only a phone call away: a comparison of the information in telephone and face-to-face interviews.

Abstract: Telephone interviews offer an economical method of obtaining information, but little published experience addresses the use of telephone interviews for the sometimes lengthy questionnaires composed of scales with multiple-category items often required in developmental and behavioral research. In a study of the outcomes of very low birth weight infants, circumstances required that we administer a questionnaire, including seven scales composed of several Likert-type items each, to a substantial portion of the study population. Those contacted by telephone (n = 1067) differed from those responding face-to-face (n = 822) in being less likely to have a very low birth weight child and more likely to be white and of higher maternal education. The length of the interview was only slightly shorter by telephone (60.7 +/- 27.9 vs 66.4 +/- 21.0 minutes, p < .001), but respondent fatigue, as indicated by lower completion rates for scales at the end of the interview (92.5%) compared with those near the beginning (99.5%) did not differ by mode. Internal consistency of parental response (Cronbach's alpha) was high for most scales and did not differ by mode. Because assignment to mode was not random, other factors may influence our findings. However, high completion rates and comparable consistency of response supports the use of telephone interviews.

Maternal Rating of Child Health at School Age: Does the Vulnerable Child Syndrome Persist?

Abstract: Objectives To assess the extent to which parental ratings of child health, including perceived vulnerability to illness, are associated with current and past health events and sociodemographic characteristics of the family and the child Design Prospective cohort study of children aged 8 to 10 years previously assessed in infancy in two multi-site studies Setting Thirteen sites largely in eastern United States Participants 1877 children representing 65% of those originally selected for follow-up from the two previous studies Participants were specifically selected on the basis of birth weight so that more than two-thirds were low birth weight Measurement Parental interviews at school age including measures of several dimensions of child health and sociodemographic characteristics of the family The former included a six-item scale assessing parental perceptions of child health overall, and on subscales assessing child current health, previous health, and resistance or susceptibility to illness Data on health problems at birth were derived from previously collected birth certificates, medical records, and interviews Main results Although overall parental perceptions of child health reflected both current and past health events, a clear distinction emerged Parental rating of current child health and resistance or susceptibility were associated with current child health problems, not events in infancy including very low birth weight Nonwhite race and maternal rating of her own health also influenced maternal rating of child health Conclusion The results do not support the persistence of a vulnerable child syndrome, as health in infancy does not affect maternal rating of current child health at school-age in the absence of current health problems