Showing papers by "Jeanne Brooks-Gunn published in 2010"

Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing

Abstract: Summary Jane Waldfogel, Terry-Ann Craigie, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn review recent studies that use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine why children who grow up in single-mother and cohabiting families fare worse than children born into married-couple households. They also present findings from their own new research. Analysts have investigated five key pathways through which family structure might influence child well-being: parental resources, parental mental health, parental relationship quality, parenting quality, and father involvement. It is also important to consider the role of the selection of different types of men and women into different family types, as well as family stability. But analysts remain uncertain how each of these elements shapes children’s outcomes. In addition to providing an overview of findings from other studies using FFCWS, Waldfogel, Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn report their own estimates of the effect of a consistently defined set of family structure and stability categories on cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes of children in the FFCWS study at age five. The authors find that the links between fragile families and child outcomes are not uniform. Family instability, for example, seems to matter more than family structure for cognitive and health outcomes, whereas growing up with a single mother (whether that family structure is stable or unstable over time) seems to matter more than instability for behavior problems. Overall, their results are consistent with other research findings that children raised by stable single or cohabiting parents are at less risk than those raised by unstable single or cohabiting parents.

Development’s Tortoise and Hare: Pubertal Timing, Pubertal Tempo, and Depressive Symptoms in Boys and Girls

Abstract: Although the sequence of pubertal maturation remains consistent across most individuals, the timing and tempo of development fluctuate widely. While past research has largely focused on the sequelae of pubertal timing, a faster tempo of maturation might also present special challenges to children for acclimating to new biological and social milestones. Using latent growth curve modeling, the present study investigated how pubertal tempo and pubertal timing predicted depressive symptoms over a 4-year period in a sample of children recruited from New York City area public schools. Rate of intraindividual change in parent-reported Tanner stages was used as an index of pubertal tempo, and more advanced Tanner development at an earlier chronological age was used as an index of pubertal timing. For girls (N = 138, M = 8.86 years old at Time 1), pubertal timing emerged as the most salient factor, and the tempo at which girls progressed through puberty was not significant. In boys (N = 128, M = 9.61 years old at Time 1), both timing and tempo of development were significant; notably, however, the effects of pubertal tempo were stronger than those of timing. These findings highlight the need to consider multiple sources of individual variability in pubertal development and suggest different pubertal challenges for boys and girls.

Collective efficacy, family attachment, and urban adolescent suicide attempts.

Abstract: The suicide rate among American adolescents between the ages of 14-25 has dramatically increased during the last 50 years, and this fact has been the focus of extensive social-scientific investigation. To date, however, research focusing on the joint effects of mental health, family, and contextual-level predictors on adolescents' suicidal behaviors is scarce. Drawing on Durkheim's classic macro-level approach to suicide and collective efficacy theory, we use data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) to examine the effect of informal social controls on adolescents' suicide attempts. Analyzing reports from 990 youth, we examine the hypothesis that neighborhood-level collective efficacy and family-level integration and social control independently affect suicide attempts. We also examine the extent to which they interact in their effects on suicidal behavior. Overall, results from multilevel logit models support the Durkheimian expectation that family attachment reduces the probability that adolescents will attempt suicide. The effect of collective efficacy is interactive in nature. Specifically, we find that collective efficacy significantly enhances the protective effect of family attachment and support on adolescent suicidal behaviors. We discuss findings within the context of social control theory.

When Fathers' Supportiveness Matters Most: Maternal and Paternal Parenting and Children's School Readiness

Abstract: Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 723) were used to test whether the effects of fathers' supportive parenting on children's school readiness are greater when mothers are least supportive. We distinguished between academic and social dimensions of school readiness. Mothers' and fathers' parenting was assessed in dyadic parent-child videotaped sessions during the preschool period. Results for both academic and social outcomes indicated that fathers' supportiveness had larger benefits for children at lower levels of mothers' supportiveness. In fact, fathers' supportiveness was associated with children's school readiness only when mothers scored average or below on supportiveness. Mothers' supportiveness was similarly associated with children's social school readiness when fathers scored average or below on supportiveness. However, mothers' supportiveness was associated with children's academic school readiness even when fathers scored above average on supportiveness. The results suggest that fathers may influence child development most as potential buffers against unsupportive mother parenting. Further research is needed to replicate these analyses in a less socioeconomically advantaged sample.

Partnership Transitions and Maternal Parenting

Abstract: We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,975) to examine the association between mothers' partnership changes and parenting behavior during the first 5 years of their children's lives. We compare coresidential with dating transitions and recent with more distal transitions. We also examine interactions between transitions and race/ethnicity, maternal education, and family structure at birth. Findings indicate that both coresidential and dating transitions were associated with higher levels of maternal stress and harsh parenting; recent transitions had stronger associations than distal transitions. Maternal education significantly moderated these associations, with less-educated mothers responding more negatively to instability in terms of maternal stress and more-educated mothers responding more negatively in terms of literacy activities.

Does the Amount of Participation in Afterschool Programs Relate to Developmental Outcomes

Abstract: Contrary to the findings from previous reviews we found little support for the general notion that greater amounts of participation in afterschool programs was related to academic, behavioral, or socio-emotional outcomes. However, some relationships did emerge depending on how participation was conceptualized and measured, and the methodology used to assess the relationship between participation and outcomes. For example, some benefits occurred when participants with high levels of participation were compared to non-participants, not when they were compared to other program participants. Several suggestions are offered to improve future research on the relationship between aspects of participation and developmental outcomes.

First-Year Maternal Employment and Child Development in the First 7 Years

Abstract: Using data from the first 2 phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we examine the links between maternal employment in the first 12 months of life and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children at age 3, age 4½, and first grade. Drawing on theory and prior research from developmental psychology as well as economics and sociology, we address three main questions. First, what associations exist between first-year maternal employment and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children over the first seven years of life? Second, to what extent do any such associations vary by the child's gender and temperament, or the mother's occupation? Third, to what extent do mother's earnings, the home environment (maternal depressive symptoms, sensitivity, and HOME scores), and the type and quality of child care mediate or offset any associations between first-year employment and child outcomes, and what is the net effect of first-year maternal employment once these factors are taken into account? We compare families in which mothers worked full time (55%), part time (23%), or did not work (22%) in the first year for non-Hispanic white children (N=900) and for African-American children (N=113). Comparisons are also made taking into account the timing of mothers' employment within the first year. A rich set of control variables are included. OLS and SEM analyses are constructed. With regard to cognitive outcomes, first, we find that full-time maternal employment in the first 12 months of life (but not part-time employment) is associated with significantly lower scores on some, but not all, measures of cognitive development at age 3, 4 ½, and first grade for non-Hispanic white children, but with no significant associations for the small sample of African-American children Part-time employment in the first year is associated with higher scores than full-time employment for some measures. Employment in the second and third year of life is not associated with the cognitive outcomes. Second, we examine the role of the child's gender and temperament and the mother's occupation in moderating the associations between first-year maternal employment and cognitive outcomes, but find few significant interactions for either child characteristics or mother's occupation. Third, we examine the role of an extensive set of potential mediators - the mother's earnings, the home environment, and the type and quality of child care. We find that mothers who worked full time have higher income in the first year of life and thereafter, that mothers who worked part time have higher HOME and maternal sensitivity scores than mothers who did not work or worked full time, and that mothers who worked either full time or part time were more likely to place their children in high-quality child care by age 3 and 4 ½ and their children spent more time in center-based care by age 4 ½ than in families where mothers did not work in the first year of life. However, we also find some links between first-year maternal employment and elevated levels of maternal depressive symptoms thereafter. Turning to results from structural equation modeling, we find that the overall effects of first-year maternal employment on the cognitive outcomes are neutral. This occurs because significantly negative direct effects of full-time first-year employment are offset by significantly positive indirect effects working through more use of center-based care and greater maternal sensitivity by age 4 ½. Regarding social and emotional outcomes, several findings, again limited to non-Hispanic white children, stand out. First, we find no significant associations between first-year maternal employment and later social and emotional outcomes (including attachment security) when comparing children whose mothers worked full-time or part-time in the first year with the reference group of children whose mothers did not work in the first year, although in models that take the timing of employment within the first year into account, we find some significant associations between full-time maternal employment in the first year and higher levels of caregiver- or teacher-reported externalizing problems at age 4 ½ and first grade. Second, part-time maternal employment by 12 months tends to be associated with fewer externalizing problems at age 4 ½ and first grade than full time maternal employment by 12 months. These results are unchanged when we allow for the possibility of moderation by child characteristics or maternal occupation. Third, the results from SEM models indicate that, while neither full-time nor part-time first-year employment has significant total effects on children's externalizing behavior problems at age 4 ½ or first grade, part-time first-year employment has indirect positive effects, working primarily through differences in the home environment and maternal sensitivity. Another important finding from the SEM models is that center-based care, which is often associated with maternal employment, is not significantly associated with elevated levels of child behavior problems. Taken together, our findings provide new insight as to the net effects of first-year maternal employment as well as the potential pathways through which associations between first-year maternal employment and later child outcomes, where present, come about. Our SEM results indicate that, on average, the associations between first-year maternal employment and later cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes are neutral, because negative effects, where present, are offset by positive effects. These results confirm that maternal employment in the first year of life may confer both advantages and disadvantages and that for the average non-Hispanic white child, those effects balance each other.

Associations among family environment, sustained attention, and school readiness for low-income children.

Abstract: In this study, we examined the developmental pathways from children's family environment to school readiness within a low-income sample (N = 1,046), with a specific focus on the role of sustained attention. Six distinct factors of the family environment representing maternal parenting behaviors, the physical home environment, and maternal mental health at 3 years of age were explored as independent predictors of children's observed sustained attention as well as cognitive and behavioral outcomes at 5 years of age. Children were grouped by poverty status (poor vs. near-poor). Results suggest specificity in the associations among attention (focused attention and lack of impulsivity) and its correlates, with different patterns emerging by poverty status group. Overall, the family environment was largely unrelated to children's sustained attention. For both groups, focused attention was associated with receptive vocabulary; however, it partially mediated the association between maternal lack of hostility and receptive vocabulary only among the near-poor. In addition, lack of impulsivity was associated with both receptive vocabulary and externalizing behaviors but only for the poor group. Findings indicate sustained attention as a potential target for efforts aimed at enhancing school readiness among predominantly poor children.

Does the amount of participation in afterschool programs relate to developmental outcomes? A review of the literature.

Abstract: Contrary to the findings from previous reviews we found little support for the general notion that greater amounts of participation in afterschool programs was related to academic, behavioral, or socio-emotional outcomes. However, some relationships did emerge depending on how participation was conceptualized and measured, and the methodology used to assess the relationship between participation and outcomes. For example, some benefits occurred when participants with high levels of participation were compared to non-participants, not when they were compared to other program participants. Several suggestions are offered to improve future research on the relationship between aspects of participation and developmental outcomes.

Putting pubertal timing in developmental context: implications for prevention.

Abstract: This article examines selected findings regarding the consequences of difference in timing of pubertal onset in order to build an explanatory model of puberty in context. We also seek to shed light on possible prevention efforts targeting adolescent risk. To date, there is substantial evidence supporting early onset effects on both internalizing and externalizing problems during the adolescent decade and possibly beyond. However, such effects do not directly speak to preventive intervention. The biological, familial, and broader relationship contexts of puberty are considered along with unique contexts for early maturing girls versus boys. Finally, we identify potential strategies for intervention based on these explanatory models.

Poverty, Effects of on Social and Emotional Development

Abstract: The prevalence of child and family poverty in the United States has sparked research around the negative associations between poverty and child development in families who cannot afford basic goods and services, such as food, clothing, and healthcare. More specifically, literature suggests that poverty hinders social and emotional development in children of all ages. The depth, persistence, and timing of poverty have a moderating role in the association between income and socio-emotional development. There are also many mechanisms through which poverty and its correlates impinge on early development: parents, the home environment, early education and care settings, and neighborhoods.

Gender in Adolescence: Applying a Person-in-Context Approach to Gender Identity and Roles

Abstract: When we speak of adolescent gender development, we are referring to the numerous biological, psychological, and social processes that occur during adolescence and that contribute to a person’s understanding of being male or female within a larger social world; that is, the focus in this developmental period is on the construction of gender identity and gender roles (O’Sullivan, Graber, & Brooks-Gunn, 2001). Gender identity refers to the endorsement of a particular gender as a part of one’s sense of self (i.e., who a person is as a unique individual). In particular, the self develops based on the interaction of the individual with the larger social world, including culture and historical period, which defines the attitudes, behaviors, and experiences appropriate for girls or boys. Hence, gender roles reflect an individual’s understanding of these larger sociocultural concepts. Individuals choose to adopt certain behaviors based on their endorsement or integration of those roles into their own gender identities. Although substantial prior research has focused on the ability to define one’s own gender in early childhood, as well as the development of gender-stereotyped behavior and gender identity in childhood, much less attention has been paid to development of different aspects of gender identity and gender roles during adolescence (Maccoby, 1998; Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). At the same time, because adolescence is a time of substantive changes in cognition and self, as well as changes in social experiences, it is a particularly important period for studying the development of internal attitudes and outward behavior that reflect gender (Feiring, 1999). As higher level cognitive skills develop, these skills are often applied to thinking about oneself, thinking about what others think, and thinking about how the self differs across situations. Thus, emerging cognitive skills are an integral part of the development of how adolescents see themselves and evaluate who they are in comparison to others and to broader societal roles. Moreover, gender is a focal feature of the self within the social environment as individuals experience changes in physical form brought about by puberty, changes in peer relationships, and changes in interactions with other-gender peers that occur over the course of adolescence (Maccoby, 1998). At the same time that adolescents are constructing a new understanding of gender identity and gender roles, they are also developing a more complex view of their own sexuality. We, like others, have defined sexuality broadly as the sense of oneself as a sexual being, which includes the integration of one’s sexual desires, attitudes, and behaviors (Graber, Brooks-Gunn, & Galen, 1998). Sexuality during adolescence also is shaped by puberty, by same-gender, and by other-gender peers. Moreover, roles that define sexual behaviors are often intertwined with the sociocultural construction

Refusal Skill Ability: An Examination of Adolescent Perceptions of Effectiveness

Abstract: This pilot study examined whether refusal assertion as defined by a proven drug prevention program was associated with adolescent perceptions of effectiveness by comparing two sets of coded responses to adolescent videotaped refusal role-plays (N = 63). The original set of codes was defined by programmatic standards of refusal assertion and the second by a group of high school interns. Consistency with programming criteria was found for interns’ ratings of several indicators of verbal and non-verbal assertiveness. However, a strategy previously defined by the program as effective was perceived as ineffective by adolescents while another deemed ineffective and problematic by intervention developers was viewed as effective. Interns endorsed presenting detailed and reasonable arguments as an effective refusal strategy while short, simple statements were deemed ineffective. This study suggests the importance of including adolescent perspectives in the design, delivery, and evaluation of drug prevention strategies.

Head Start and Urban Children's School Readiness: A Birth Cohort Study in 18 Cities.

Abstract: We used longitudinal data from a birth cohort study, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, to investigate the links between Head Start and school readiness in a large and diverse sample of urban children at age 5 (N = 2,803; 18 cities). We found that Head Start attendance was associated with enhanced cognitive ability and social competence and reduced attention problems but not reduced internalizing or externalizing behavior problems. These findings were robust to model specifications (including models with city-fixed effects and propensity-scoring matching). Furthermore, the effects of Head Start varied by the reference group. Head Start was associated with improved cognitive development when compared with parental care or other nonparental care, as well as improved social competence (compared with parental care) and reduced attention problems (compared with other nonparental care). In contrast, compared with attendance at pre-kindergarten or other center-based care, Head Start attendance was not associated with cognitive gains but with improved social competence and reduced attention and externalizing behavior problems (compared with attendance at other center-based care). These associations were not moderated by child gender or race/ethnicity.

Family Structure, Family Stability and Early Child Wellbeing

Abstract: This study exploits rich data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to distinguish the effects of family structure at birth from family stability over time on child cognitive, socio-emotional and health outcomes. We define two models: one that measures family structure at birth only and a second that measures possible changes in family structure since birth. We find that both family structure and stability are important to all child outcomes but for family structure, the results are attenuated by child and demographic characteristics. Family stability effects by contrast, remain significant even after these controls are included and also reveal that the cognitive, socio-emotional and health outcomes of children born to married or cohabiting parents are more adversely affected by changes in family structure over time.

Neighborhood Context, Poverty, and Urban Children's Outdoor Play

Abstract: Although research consistently demonstrates a link between neighborhood conditions and physical activity for adults and adolescents, less is known about residential context and young children?s physical activity. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=2,210), we explore whether outdoor play and television watching are associated with children?s body mass indexes (BMIs) at age five; and whether subjective and objective neighborhood measures are associated with children?s outdoor play and television watching. Hours of outdoor play and television viewing are associated with BMI. Higher maternal perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy are associated with more hours of outdoor play, fewer hours of television viewing, and more trips to a park or playground. In addition, we find that neighborhood physical disorder is associated with more outdoor play and more television watching. Finally, we find that children living in public housing have one-third more outdoor play time than other children.

Parent Support in Early Childhood – Approaches and Outcomes

Abstract: Often sharing similar strategies and content, parenting support and education programs have been widely implemented around the world. This article briefly reviews five intervention programs based in different countries, along with descriptions and results from similar programs in the United States. The pattern of results that emerges from the literature on early parenting intervention suggests that the most effective programs are those that apply theoretically driven curriculum with well-trained staff and are targeted to families with specific needs. The evidence suggests the strongest effects on parenting behaviors, with less-consistent effects on children’s development.