Showing papers by "Jeanne Brooks-Gunn published in 1995"

The Antecedents of Menarcheal Age: Heredity, Family Environment, and Stressful Life Events

Abstract: Variations in pubertal timing, specifically age at menarche, have been associated with several antecedents, both genetic and environmental. Recent research has considered a broader range of environmental stressors and their influence on the development of the reproductive system. In this investigation, the following possible antecedents were considered: (a) hereditary transmission, (b) weight and weight for height, (c) stressful life events, (d) family relations, (e) absence or presence of an adult male in the household, and (f) psychological adjustment. Subjects were 75 premenarcheal girls between the ages of 10 and 14 drawn from a larger longitudinal investigation of adolescent development. Girls were from white, well-educated, middle- to upper-middle-class families and attended private schools in a northeastern urban area. While breast development, weight, family relations, and depressive affect were predictive of age at menarche, family relations predicted age at menarche above the influence of breast development or weight. A trend for maternal age at menarche to predict adolescent's age at menarche was found. Weight for height, presence of an adult male in the household, and stressful events were not predictive of age at menarche. These complex interactions of biological and psychosocial development demonstrated here may account to some extent for the inter- and intraindividual variation observed in pubertal development.

Escape from poverty : what makes a difference for children?

Abstract: 1 Whose responsibility? An historical analysis of the changing role of mothers, fathers, and society P Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Maris A Vinovskis 2 The life circumstances and development of children in welfare families Nicholas Zill, Kristin Moore, Ellen Wolpow Smith, Thomas Stief, and Mary Jo Coiro 3 Welfare to work through the eyes of children Julie Boatright Wilson, David Ellwood and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn 4 Strategies for altering the outcomes of poor children and their families Jeanne Brooks-Gunn 5 Policy issues of child care Andrew J Cherlin 6 Child care and children of color Margaret Beale Spencer, Janet Blumenthal and Elizabeth Richards 7 Health policy in the Family Support Act of 1988 Katherine S Lobach 8 Economic issues of health care Barbara L Wolfe 9 Dealing with Dads: the changing roles of fathers Frank J Furstenberg Jr 10 The effects of child support reform on child well-being Irwin Garfinkel and Sara McLanahan 11 Losing ground or moving ahead: welfare reform and children Ron Haskins 12 National surveys as data resources for public policy research on poor children Nicholas Zill 13 An interdisciplinary model for studying poor children Timothy M Smeeding 14 Two generation programs: a new intervention strategy and directions for future Sheila Smith

Effects of Welfare Reform on Teenage Parents and Their Children

Abstract: A key question in welfare policy concerns the potential that welfare-to-work programs have to develop in teenage parents the motivation and skills to provide financially for themselves and their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was a major experiment initiated in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and evaluated by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., to test the impact of a welfare-to-work program for teenage parents which anticipated many features of the federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills training program later established in the Family Support Act of 1988. Teenage mothers entering the welfare system were randomly assigned to a regular services group or to an enhanced services group. Teen mothers in the enhanced services group faced mandatory school and work requirements enforced by financial sanctions and received support services such as case management, parenting workshops, child care assistance, and education and training opportunities. This article reviews the policy context in which the Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was designed and implemented, and describes how participation in the enhanced services group affected the teen mothers as adults and as parents. Results showed that, for the reasonable aggregate annual cost of $2,400 per participant, the program increased the 'teenagers' attendance at school and job training programs, and modestly increased the proportion who were employed to 48%, compared with 43% among those receiving regular welfare services. As the participants' earnings from employment increased, their welfare grants shrank. Because these changes offset each other, the program did not improve the economic well-being of the families, although fewer tax dollars were needed to support them. The program did not discourage further childbearing, however, or affect either the parenting behavior of the young women or the development of their children, although the mothers who were most engaged in self-sufficiency activities were more positive and supportive when playing with their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration experience revealed that the problems faced by teenage parents vary widely, making tailored services necessary. The evaluation results suggest that supportive, mandatory welfare-to-work interventions need not harm parents or their children in the short term, and that their modest positive effects on the financial independence of the teenage mothers may yield long-term rewards.

The Early Childhood HOME Inventory and HOME-Short Form in Differing Racial/Ethnic Groups: Are There Differences in Underlying Structure, Internal Consistency of Subscales, and Patterns of Prediction?

Abstract: In this article, we examine differences across three racial/ethnic groups in (a) the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood HOME Inventory and the HOME-Short Form and (b) the prediction of the two versions of the HOME Inventory to cognitive and behavioral outcomes among preschool children. Data are taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (NLSY-CS) and the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) sample. Findings suggest few racial/ethnic differences in the psychometric properties of either version of the HOME scale. Both show better prediction of cognitive child outcomes for all three racial/ethnic groups. Both show better prediction of child outcomes generally for European American than for Hispanic and African American families. Findings suggest that although certain aspects of parenting are common, these dimensions of parenting are not equally important in explaining child outcomes for different racial/ethnic subgroups.

Examining Observational Measures of Emotional Support and Cognitive Stimulation in Black and White Mothers of Preschoolers

Abstract: In this study we drew on the Infant Health and Development Program to examine two sets of observational measures of parenting behavior. First, correlations between the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Warmth subscale and a Supportive Presence scale, and between the HOME Learning subscale and a Quality of Assistance scale were examined. There were moderate correlations between the two emotional support scales and between the two cognitive stimulation scales. Second, the individual and collective predictive strengths of each parenting behavior measure were examined vis-a-vis two child outcomes: children's behavior problems and children's receptive language abilities. White and Black children were examined separately in all analyses. Analyses indicated some degree of association between the parenting behavior measures and the childhood outcomes. Some unanticipated racial differences in the regression models also emerged.

Toward an Understanding of the Effects of Poverty upon Children

Abstract: The official poverty level is established by the federal government. It is based on the estimated cost of an “economy food budget” or shopping cart of food, multiplied by three. The poverty level is adjusted for family size, the age of the head of the household, and the number of children under age 18. Annual adjustments to the poverty index are made for the cost of living based on the Consumer Price Index. Relative measures of poverty are not based on a standard. Instead, they are relative to the entire population’s income, and as such change over time. The food basket approach to defining poverty thresholds, while easy to understand, is limited. The food basket approach estimates what a family requires to meet its basic needs. Estimates of effects of poverty upon children are often made looking at income, rather than focusing on “a” poverty line. Relatively little information exists in developmental literature vis-a-vis the effects of poverty upon children.

Models of development: understanding risk in adolescence

Abstract: In this paper, we review developmental models for understanding adolescence as they might be applied to emerging sexuality and the challenges and risks that may be associated with different sexual orientations and identities. Models have been identified as: cumulative events or simultaneous change, accentuation, or trajectory models. Inclusion of risk and protective factors and considering the extent of balance between these elements of an adolescent's life is also discussed in terms of predicting mental health outcomes. These models have been particularly useful in the study of the development of psychopathology and clearly relate to the broader issue of understanding suicide risk during adolescence.

Differentiating among Measures of Parenting Behavior in Two Studies of Mothers and Their Preschoolers: The Role of Informant and Context.

Abstract: Two studies suggested that measures of parenting behavior should be differentiated according to source of information (maternal report, interviewer rating) and the context (naturally occurring situation, structured situation). Study 1 used data from an interview portion of the JOBS Child Outcomes Study, whereby mothers and interviewers documented their perceptions of maternal behavior in interaction with their preschool children. This subset of data documented the family circumstances of 790 low-income single African American mothers of preschool children. In the current analysis, the interviewer ratings and maternal reports were used to construct parenting indices in order to compare the two measures and their relative importance in stimulation, maternal warmth, and discipline. Measures were also taken of child development in receptive language abilities and personal maturity. Results indicated that interviewer report of maternal warmth seemed to be particularly important in predicting child development. Study 2 used data from the Infant Health and Development Program, and compared measures of spontaneous parent behavior to measures of parent behavior elicited in a structured setting. Interviews using a modified HOME inventory test with 486 white and African American families comprised the structured component. The videotaped spontaneous setting was a problem-solving task for the child which required the mother's assistance. This comparison found that predictions about child development varied with the context of the measures used, and the variance was different for each racial group. (Nine tables detail survey questions and statistical analyses of data. Contains 29 references.) (DW) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************************************************