计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds

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School Readiness and Later Achievement

During the past two decades, the public health community’s attention has been drawn increasingly to the social determinants of health (SDH)—the factors apart from medical care that can be influenced by social policies and shape health in powerful ways. We use “medical care” rather than “health care” to refer to clinical services, to avoid potential confusion between “health” and “health care.” The World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health has defined SDH as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age” and “the fundamental drivers of these conditions.” The term “social determinants” often evokes factors such as health-related features of neighborhoods (e.g., walkability, recreational areas, and accessibility of healthful foods), which can influence health-related behaviors. Evidence has accumulated, however, pointing to socioeconomic factors such as income, wealth, and education as the fundamental causes of a wide range of health outcomes. This article broadly reviews some of the knowledge accumulated to date that highlights the importance of social—and particularly socioeconomic— factors in shaping health, and plausible pathways and biological mechanisms that may explain their effects. We also discuss challenges to advancing this knowledge and how they might be overcome.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00333549141291S206

The Social Determinants of Health: It's Time to Consider the Causes of the Causes:

This report builds on a highly valued predecessor, the 1994 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report entitled Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research. That report provided the basis for understanding prevention science, elucidating its then-existing research base, and contemplating where it should go in the future. This report documents that an increasing number of mental, emotional, and behavioral problems in young people are in fact preventable. The proverbial ounce of prevention will indeed be worth a pound of cure: effectively applying the evidence-based prevention interventions at hand could potentially save billions of dollars in associated costs by avoiding or tempering these disorders in many individuals. Furthermore, devoting significantly greater resources to research on even more effective prevention and promotion efforts, and then reliably implementing the findings of such research, could substantially diminish the human and economic toll.

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities

In the United States, awareness is increasing that medical care alone cannot adequately improve health overall or reduce health disparities without also addressing where and how people live. A critical mass of relevant knowledge has accumulated, documenting associations, exploring pathways and biological mechanisms, and providing a previously unavailable scientific foundation for appreciating the role of social factors in health. We review current knowledge about health effects of social (including economic) factors, knowledge gaps, and research priorities, focusing on upstream social determinants—including economic resources, education, and racial discrimination—that fundamentally shape the downstream determinants, such as behaviors, targeted by most interventions. Research priorities include measuring social factors better, monitoring social factors and health relative to policies, examining health effects of social factors across lifetimes and generations, incrementally elucidating pathways through kno...

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The Social Determinants of Health: Coming of Age

This book presents a review and synthesis of current research that addresses the potential for various forms of early childhood intervene to improve outcomes for participating children and their families.

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Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise.

Kindergarten policy varies widely both across and within states. As high-stakes testing become more important, more attention is being paid to the delivery of early education, and more states and districts are considering moving to full-day kindergarten to increase the educational attainment of students. This paper uses the Early Child Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort to evaluate the efficacy of this policy. In ordinary least squares, probit, county-fixed effects, and instrumental variable models, we find that there are initial benefits for students and the mothers of students that attend full-day kindergarten, but that these differences largely evaporate by third grade. The only effect of full-day kindergarten attendance on boys is to increase the prevalence of severe external behavioral problems, whereas there is some evidence that girls who attend full-day kindergarten have increases in math scores that persist through third grade. Finally, attending full-day kindergarten is found to have no additional effect on students in families with income below the poverty threshold, despite claims by some advocates that full-day programs are beneficial for the most disadvantaged students.

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Is Full Better than Half? Examining the Longitudinal Effects of Full-Day Kindergarten Attendance

Kindergarten policy varies widely both across and within states. Over the past decade, a number of states have instituted a full-day kindergarten requirement and others are considering it as a way to increase educational achievement. Many parents also support full-day kindergarten as a source of child care. This paper uses the Early Child Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 to evaluate the efficacy of this policy. In ordinary least squares, probit, county fixed effects, and instrumental variables models, we find that there are initial benefits for students and the mothers of students who attend full-day kindergarten, but that these differences largely evaporate by third grade. Contrary to claims by some advocates, attending full-day kindergarten is found to have no additional benefit for students in families with income below the poverty threshold. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

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Is Full Better than Half? Examining the Longitudinal Effects of Full-Day Kindergarten Attendance.

WORKFORCE AND WORKPLACE Proven Benefi ts of Early Childhood Interventions There is increasing recognition that the fi rst few years of a child’s life are a particularly sensitive period in the process of development, laying a foundation in childhood and beyond for cognitive functioning; behavioral, social, and self-regulatory capacities; and physical health. Yet many children face various stressors during these years that can impair their healthy development. Early childhood intervention programs are designed to mitigate the factors that place children at risk of poor outcomes. Such programs provide supports for the parents, the children, or the family as a whole. Th ese supports may be in the form of learning activities or other structured experiences that aff ect a child directly or that have indirect eff ects through training parents or otherwise enhancing the caregiving environment. As part of a recent study, RAND researchers synthesized what is known from the scientifi cally sound research literature about the shortand long-term benefi ts from early intervention programs, the features that are associated with moreeff ective programs, and the economic gains that accrue from investing additional resources in early childhood. We summarize those fi ndings here. A companion research brief focuses on the characteristics and number of children who may need help to overcome threats to healthy development, such as resource disparities in early childhood. It also addresses the consequences of those threats for educational outcomes and beyond.

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Proven Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions

: Agency and program administrators and decisionmakers responsible for implementing early childhood intervention programs are becoming more interested in quantifying the costs and benefits of such programs Part of the reason for this is that foundations and other funders are putting more emphasis on results-based accountability At the same time, arguments for the value of early childhood intervention are being made within the public sphere on the basis of published estimates of costs and benefits Program implementers are naturally attracted by statements that a certain intervention produces $4 in savings for every $1 it costs and would like to make similar statements about their own programs Meanwhile, decisionmakers without particular interest in any given program would like more quantitative decision aids when it comes time to choose among a variety of possible program models or program improvements to implement Our objective here is to offer assistance to decisionmakers and program implementers considering an assessment of costs and out- comes We do not offer a specific step-by-step manual, but we discuss the kinds of issues that must be taken into account and why We do so in enough detail that readers can decide if this type of quantitative analysis is the right course for them and, if so, can knowledgeably interact with an expert cost-outcome analyst While we understand that some readers will want to undertake analysis of costs and outcomes to justify a program in which they have a special interest, we take the viewpoint here of an unbiased allocator of funds What evidence should such a person want to see before concluding that a particular intervention is a wise investment? That sort of evidence is what the implementer seeking to justify further funding will need to present

Jill S. Cannon

Papers

Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise.

Is Full Better than Half? Examining the Longitudinal Effects of Full-Day Kindergarten Attendance

Is Full Better than Half? Examining the Longitudinal Effects of Full-Day Kindergarten Attendance.

Proven Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions

Assessing Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Intervention Programs: Overview and Applications to the Starting Early, Starting Smart Program