Showing papers by "Jeanne Brooks-Gunn published in 2015"

Spanking and children's externalizing behavior across the first decade of life: evidence for transactional processes.

Abstract: Despite a growing literature associating physical discipline with later child aggression, spanking remains a typical experience for American children. The directionality of the associations between aggression and spanking and their continuity over time has received less attention. This study examined the transactional associations between spanking and externalizing behavior across the first decade of life, examining not only how spanking relates to externalizing behavior leading up to the important transition to adolescence, but whether higher levels of externalizing lead to more spanking over time as well. We use data from the Fragile families and child well-being (FFCW) study to examine maternal spanking and children’s behavior at ages 1, 3, 5, and 9 (N = 1,874; 48 % girls). The FFCW is a longitudinal birth cohort study of children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 medium to large US cities. A little over a quarter of this sample was spanked at age 1, and about half at age 3, 5, and 9. Estimates from a cross-lagged path model provided evidence of developmental continuity in both spanking and externalizing behavior, but results also highlighted important reciprocal processes taking hold early, with spanking influencing later externalizing behavior, which, in turn, predicted subsequent spanking. These bidirectional effects held across race/ethnicity and child’s gender. The findings highlight the lasting effects of early spanking, both in influencing early child’s behavior, and in affecting subsequent child’s externalizing and parental spanking in a reciprocal manner. These amplifying transactional processes underscore the importance of early intervention before patterns may cascade across domains in the transition to adolescence.

Family structure instability, genetic sensitivity, and child well-being

Abstract: The association between family structure instability and children’s life chances is well documented, with children reared in stable, two-parent families experiencing more favorable outcomes than children in other family arrangements. This study examines father household entrances and exits, distinguishing between the entrance of a biological father and a social father and testing for interactions between family structure instability and children’s age, gender, and genetic characteristics. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and focusing on changes in family structure by age (years 0–9), the authors show that father exits are associated with increases in children’s antisocial behavior, a strong predictor of health and well-being in adulthood. The pattern for father entrances is more complicated, with entrances for the biological father being associated with lower antisocial behavior among boys and social father entrances being associated with higher antisocial behavior. Child’s a...

Are Approaches to Learning in Kindergarten Associated with Academic and Social Competence Similarly

Abstract: Approaches to learning (ATL) is a key domain of school readiness with important implications for children’s academic trajectories. Interestingly, however, the impact of early ATL on children’s social competence has not been examined. This study examines associations between children’s ATL at age 5 and academic achievement and social competence at age 9 within an at-risk sample. We tested whether ATL followed a compensatory growth model (was most helpful to those with the fewest skills) with respect to academics, and a cumulative advantage model (was most helpful to those with the most skills) with respect to socioemotional outcomes. Participants (n = 669) were drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a predominantly low-income, minority sample. Models regressing age 9 academic and social competence on age 5 ATL tested for moderation of ATL by age 5 levels of competence within each domain. ATL was associated with both academic (i.e., reading and math achievement) and social (i.e., externalizing problems and social skills) competence. Interestingly, ATL was more advantageous with respect to externalizing problems for children with higher initial levels of competence (fewer problem behaviors), but more advantageous for academic competence for children with lower initial levels of competence. Findings highlight the importance of early ATL for both academic and social success and support it as a critical intervention target. While ATL may help narrow the achievement gap for at-risk children, reducing the gap in externalizing problems may require targeted strategies for those with high early problem behavior.

The great recession and behavior problems in 9-year old children.

Abstract: This article examines associations between the Great Recession and 4 aspects of 9-year olds' behavior-aggression (externalizing), anxiety/depression (internalizing), alcohol and drug use, and vandalism-using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal birth cohort drawn from 20 U.S. cities (21%, White, 50% Black, 26% Hispanic, and 3% other race/ethnicity). The study was in the field for the 9-year follow-up right before and during the Great Recession (2007-2010; N = 3,311). Interview dates (month) were linked to the national Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), calculated from a national probability sample drawn monthly to assess consumer confidence and uncertainty about the economy, as well as to data on local unemployment rates. Controlling for city-fixed effects and extensive controls (including prior child behavior at age 5), we find that greater uncertainty as measured by the CSI was associated with higher rates of all 4 behavior problems for boys (in both maternal and child reports). Such associations were not found for girls (all gender differences were significant). Links between the CSI and boys' behavior problems were concentrated in single-parent families and were partially explained by parenting behaviors. Local unemployment rates, in contrast, had fewer associations with children's behavior, suggesting that in the Great Recession, what was most meaningful for child behavior problems was the uncertainty about the national economy, rather than local labor markets.

Parent and Child Reporting of Corporal Punishment: New Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on parent and child reporting of corporal punishment, drawing on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of families in 20 medium to large US cities. In separate interviews, 9 year olds and their mothers (N = 1,180 families) were asked about the frequency of corporal punishment in the past year. Mothers and children were asked questions with slightly different response categorize which are harmonized in our analysis. Overall, children reported more high frequency corporal punishment (spanking or other physical punishment more than ten times per year) than their mothers did; this discrepancy was seen in both African-American and Hispanic families (but not White families), and was evident for both boys and girls. These results suggest that the reporting of the frequency of corporal punishment is sensitive to the identity of the reporter and that in particular child reports may reveal more high frequency punishment than maternal reports do. However, predictors of high frequency punishment were similar regardless of reporter identity; in both cases, risk of high frequency punishment was higher when the child was African-American or had high previous levels of behavior problems.

Variation in Child Body Mass Index Patterns by Race/Ethnicity and Maternal Nativity Status in the United States and England

Abstract: This paper examines body mass index (BMI) trajectories among children from different race/ethnic and maternal nativity backgrounds in the United States and England from early- to middle-childhood. This study is the first to examine race/ethnic and maternal nativity differences in BMI trajectories in both countries. We use two longitudinal birth cohort studies—The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 3,285) for the United States and the Millennium Cohort Study (n = 6,700) for England to estimate trajectories in child BMI by race/ethnicity and maternal nativity status using multilevel growth models. In the United States our sample includes white, black, and Hispanic children; in England the sample includes white, black, and Asian children. We find significant race/ethnic differences in the initial BMI and BMI trajectories of children in both countries, with all non-white groups having significantly steeper BMI growth trajectories than whites. Nativity differences in BMI trajectories vary by race/ethnic group and are only statistically significantly higher for children of foreign-born blacks in England. Disparities in BMI trajectories are pervasive in the United States and England, despite lower overall BMI among English children. Future studies should consider both race/ethnicity and maternal nativity status subgroups when examining disparities in BMI in the United States and England. Differences in BMI are apparent in early childhood, which suggests that interventions targeting pre-school age children may be most effective at stemming childhood disparities in BMI.

Has Adolescent Childbearing Been Eclipsed by Nonmarital Childbearing

Abstract: Adolescent childbearing has received decreasing attention from academics and policymakers in recent years, which may in part reflect the decline in its incidence. Another reason may be its uncoupling from nonmarital childbearing. Adolescent childbearing became problematized only when it began occurring predominantly outside marriage. In recent decades, there have been historic rises in the rate of nonmarital childbearing, and importantly, the rise has been steeper among older mothers than among adolescent mothers. Today, two out of five births are to unmarried women, and the majority of these are to adults, not adolescents. Nonmarital childbearing is in and of itself associated with lower income and poorer maternal and child outcomes. However, unmarried adolescent mothers might face more difficulties than unmarried adult mothers due to their developmental status, education, living arrangements, and long-term prospects for work. If this is true, then the focus on adolescent mothers ought to continue. We suggest several facets of adolescent motherhood deserving of further study, and recommend that future research use unmarried mothers in their early 20s as a realistic comparison group.

Neighborhoods and Cognitive Development

Abstract: Research on neighborhoods and individual well-being has produced a substantive body of knowledge over the past quarter century. Neighborhood conditions—especially socioeconomic status (SES), which is based on income and education and to a lesser extent on residential stability—are predictive of cognitive development. The strongest evidence controls for individual and family-level characteristics or examines individuals clustered within neighborhoods in order to obtain estimates of within- and between-neighborhood variance. Another line of research has focused on housing mobility projects, which allow for the experimental assignment of residents to more advantaged neighborhoods. Future research on neighborhoods will continue to blend methods and data from an increasing number of disciplines to better understand human development in context. Keywords: neighborhood effects; cognitive development; socioeconomic status (SES); educational attainment; multilevel models

Advancing the science of child and adolescent development: Do we need a new household panel survey?

Abstract: This paper examines the extent to which a new nationally representative household panel survey could bring children and adolescents to the forefront of its design. We begin by discussing how major demographic shifts, such as reduced social mobility and transformations in family structure, may affect children and adolescent development through individual, family, and sociocultural processes. We then review the existing household surveys in the United States and highlight the strengths and weaknesses for studying how major societal trends and changes affect child and adolescent development. We then debate several different design approaches for a new study and recommend either a longitudinal panel design, which includes all children in the panel survey, or a sequential cohort design, that includes a subsample of children and embedded birth cohort study. We highlight that a large, nationally representative dataset cannot replace standalone, more in-depth developmental studies of children and adolescents with high-fidelity measurement of processes. Instead, we argue that a new panel survey could take a more targeted approach and measure the major constructs of children's development as well as select family and sociocultural processes by drawing on recent advances in survey measurement techniques. We conclude by affirming that new household survey has the potential to contribute greatly to our understanding of the developmental origins of life long wellbeing as well as the effects of major demographic shifts in the 21st century on child and adolescent development.

The Maternal Description of Child (MDoC): A New Audiotaped Measure of Maternal Affect

Abstract: We report on a new measure of maternal affect from an ongoing multi-site birth cohort study with primarily low-income families, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. At child age of 5 years, mothers were asked to describe their child in a short, semi-structured home interview. One innovation of this measure - called the Maternal Description of Child (MDoC) - is that it captured maternal affect via audiotape rather than videotape. Based on mothers' talk about their child, coders scored mothers on Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Detachment. Evidence is presented to support the convergent and predictive validity of these scales. Given that objective measures of parenting are generally preferable to self-reported measures, further research should determine whether the MDoC can be successfully administered by phone. If it can, the MDoC would allow large-scale phone surveys to measure maternal affect for the first time.