Introduction: Two-Generation Mechanisms of Child Development

The effects of big five personality traits on sub-health in a Chinese young adults: A moderated mediation model

BACKGROUND

Sub-health can have an impact on the physical condition of the young adults, and this study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of sub-health related to the Big Five personality in Chinese young adults.

METHODS

A multi-stage random sampling method was used to survey the Chinese young adults. A moderated mediation analysis was conducted to investigate how sleep quality and family health influenced the relationship between diverse personalities and sub-health in young adults.

RESULTS

A total of 6165 young adults were included in this study. The results of the mediation analysis indicated that sleep quality partially mediated the relationship between neurotic, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness of young adults and sub-health. Family health played a moderating role between the sleep quality and agreeableness of young adults.

LIMITATIONS

The cross-sectional study limits conclusions about causal relationships between factors.

CONCLUSION

Family health and sleep quality can influence sub-health in Chinese young adults with different personality traits.

Parenting and family self-sufficiency services contribute to impacts of Early Head Start for children and families

Introduction

There is evidence that two-generation early childhood programs, those that strive to support not only child development, but also optimal parenting and family wellbeing, help to foster resilience for young children and their families in the face of adversity.

Methods

Using data from a large experimental evaluation, the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, this paper explores how parenting and family self-sufficiency services embedded in Early Head Start (EHS), a federally funded, nationally implemented two-generation early childhood program for low-income families lasting from pregnancy and until children are three, contribute to the impacts of the program for both the children and their families.

Results

Parenting support in any modality (home visiting, case management or parent education) contributed to program impacts on important child and family outcomes, but not parent employment. Somewhat surprisingly, family receipt of employment services did not lead to any of the impacts of the program, while education and job training services did. When EHS parents received education or job training services, it led to impacts not only on mother employment, but also on other important family and child outcomes.

Discussion

These findings validate and reinforce the two-generation approach of EHS, specifically supporting the focus on parenting and parent education and job training.

The Family Health Scale: Reliability and Validity of a Short- and Long-Form

Families strongly influence the health of communities and individuals across the life course, but no validated measure of family health exists. The absence of such a measure has limited the examination of family health trends and the intersection of family health with individual and community health. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Family Health Scale (FHS), creating a multi-factor long-form and a uniform short-form. The primary sample included 1,050 adults recruited from a national quota sample Qualtrics panel. Mplus version 7 was used to analyze the data using a structural equation modeling framework. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed a 32-item, 4-factor long-form scale. The four factors included (1) family social and emotional health processes; (2) family healthy lifestyle; (3) family health resources; and (4) family external social supports. A 10-item short-form of the FHS was also validated in the initial sample and a second sample of 401 adults. Both the long-form and short-form FHS correlated in the expected direction with validated measures of family functioning and healthy lifestyle. A preliminary assessment of clinical cutoffs in the short-form were correlated with depression risk. The FHS offers the potential to assess family health trends and to develop accessible, de-identified databases on the well-being of families. Important next steps include validating the scale among multiple family members and collecting longitudinal data.

Building a Foundation for Family Health Measurement in National Surveys: A Modified Delphi Expert Process

INTRODUCTION

Families are the most proximal and powerful context for the development, promotion, and disruption of health of individuals across the life course. Despite families' critical role in health, U.S. nationally representative health surveys lack comprehensive and standardized assessments of family health and functioning.

METHODS

To foster research on family health in population surveys, we developed a conceptualization of family health using a modified Delphi process with family health experts. Experts responded online to produce consensus definitions of 'family' and 'family health.' Guided by these definitions, they responded to a survey to create a list of concepts for measurement of family health and ranked the importance and measurability of those concepts.

RESULTS

We achieved consensus among 15 family health experts on definitions of 'family' and 'family health.' Thirty-one family health concepts were organized into six domains, then ranked by relevance and importance as follows: (1) "Family relationships" and "family social context" tied for first priority, (2) "family member health, (3) "family health-related practices," (4) "family health resources," and (5) "management of time and activities."

DISCUSSION

Social relationships and social environment were prioritized as more essential than other aspects of family environments typically assessed in population surveys, such as health practices and family members' illness and disease. This study develops the scientific groundwork needed to advance routine monitoring of family health in national health surveys and in child/family performance measures.

Road to the Future: Priorities for Child Health Services Research

BACKGROUND

Prior health services research (HSR) agendas for children have been published, but major ones are now over 15 years old and do not reflect augmented understanding of the drivers and determinants of children's health; recent changes in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care; a growing emphasis on population health; and major demographic shifts in the population. A policy-relevant research agenda that integrates knowledge gained over the past 2 decades is essential to guide future child HSR (CHSR). We sought to develop and disseminate a robust, domestically focused, policy-oriented CHSR agenda.

METHODS

The new CHSR agenda was developed through a series of consultations with leaders in CHSR and related fields. After each round of consultation, the authors synthesized the previous experts' guidance to help inform subsequent discussions. The multistep process in generation of the agenda included identification of major policy-relevant research domains and specification of high-value research questions for each domain. Stakeholders represented in the discussions included those with expertise in child and family advocacy, adult health, population health, community development, racial and ethnic disparities, women's health, health economics, and government research funders and programs.

RESULTS

In total, 180 individuals were consulted in developing the research agenda. Six priority domains were identified for future research, including both enduring and emerging emphases: 1) framing children's health issues so that they are compelling to policy-makers; 2) addressing poverty and other social determinants of child health and wellbeing; 3) promoting equity in population health and health care; 4) preventing, diagnosing, and treating high priority health conditions in children; 5) strengthening performance of the health care system; and 6) enhancing the CHSR enterprise. Within these 6 domains, 40 specific topics were identified as the most pertinent for future research. Three overarching and crosscutting themes that affect research across the domains were also noted: the need for syntheses to build on the current, and sometimes extensive, evidence base to avoid duplication; the interrelated nature of the domains, which could lead to synergies in research; and the need for multidisciplinary collaborations in conducting research because research studies will look beyond the health sector.

CONCLUSIONS

The priorities presented in the agenda are policy-oriented and include a greater emphasis on how findings are framed and communicated to support action. We expect that the agenda will be useful for immediate uptake by investigators and research funders.

Trajectories of Economic Disconnection among Families in the Child Welfare System

This study examined economic disconnection, an extreme case of economic exclusion in which families lack both employment and cash assistance, among families in the child welfare system. To build hypotheses about the intersection of the child welfare system and economic disconnection we used a multilevel framework that considers federal policy, local practice, and processes within families. We hypothesized that child welfare intervention has the potential to be a mechanism of economic inclusion or exclusion for vulnerable families, with implications for family reunification. We utilized a novel administrative data set containing data from three state agencies to construct income histories of parents relative to their child's placement in foster care (N = 15,159 parents). We identified eight trajectories using group-based trajectory modeling. About two-thirds of parents experience economic disconnection over a three-year period; these families are least likely to reunify. Although providing economic resources to families is typically beyond the scope of child welfare, efforts to minimize the negative impact of child placement on parents' economic connection is likely to improve both the economic inclusion of poor families and family reunification.

Which Preschool Mathematics Competencies Are Most Predictive of Fifth Grade Achievement?

In an effort to promote best practices regarding mathematics teaching and learning at the preschool level, national advisory panels and organizations have emphasized the importance of children's emergent counting and related competencies, such as the ability to verbally count, maintain one-to-one correspondence, count with cardinality, subitize, and count forward or backward from a given number. However, little research has investigated whether the kind of mathematical knowledge promoted by the various standards documents actually predict later mathematics achievement. The present study uses longitudinal data from a primarily low-income and minority sample of children to examine the extent to which preschool mathematical competencies, specifically basic and advanced counting, predict fifth grade mathematics achievement. Using regression analyses, we find early numeracy abilities to be the strongest predictors of later mathematics achievement, with advanced counting competencies more predictive than basic counting competencies. Our results highlight the significance of preschool mathematics knowledge for future academic achievement.

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OBJECTIVES

Describe the preschool education of children in educational services. Study the effects of components of preschool educational service attendance on the development of kindergarten children, based on income.

METHOD

A sample of 1,184 children was extracted from a survey frame that included Montréal children assessed in the 2012 Québec Survey of Child Development in Kindergarten (2012 QSCDK). Data collected from the parents of these children allowed us to document the following components of educational service attendance (independent variables): longitudinal profile of the service used; age at entry; duration; average weekly attendance; and cumulative time. Linking QSCDK data provided a measure of development of children in kindergarten (dependent variable). Various logistic regression models using different combinations of components of educational service attendance were tested. Akaike information criterion enabled us to select the model that best explains the data.

RESULTS

Children from low-income families are proportionately fewer to attend a preschool educational service than children from better-off families (79.6% vs. 90.5%; chi-square test (1df), p < 0.001). Children from low-income families who attended only an early childhood centre (centre de la petite enfance) are less likely to be vulnerable in two or more domains of development compared to their peers who did not attend educational services (OR 0.23; CI: 0.06 –0.92). Children who started attending an educational service before the age of 12 months are less likely to be vulnerable in two or more domains of development (OR: 0.38; CI: 0.18–0.81).

CONCLUSION

Attending an early childhood centre (centre de la petite enfance) is beneficial to the development of children from low-income families.

Effects of Parent and Child Pre-Intervention Characteristics on Child Skill Acquisition during a School Readiness Intervention

200 preschool children in Head Start (55% girls; 20% Hispanic, 25% African-American, 55% European American; M age = 4.80 years old) participated in a randomized-controlled trial of a home visiting intervention designed to promote their emergent literacy skills (the Research-based Developmentally Informed parent [REDI-P] program). This study explored concurrent changes in levels of parent support and child literacy skills that occurred over the course of the intervention, and examined the impact of pre-intervention parent support and child literacy skills as potential moderators of parent and child outcomes. Cross-lagged structural equation models and follow-up analyses indicated that intervention had the strongest impact on child literacy skills when parents were high on support at the pre-intervention assessment. Conversely, the REDI-Parent program promoted the greatest gains in parent support when parents entered the program with low levels. These findings suggest that families may benefit from home visit school readiness interventions in different ways: child skill acquisition may be greatest when parents are initially high in support, whereas parenting may improve most when parents are initially low in support.

Disparities in early exposure to book sharing within immigrant families

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the early developmental context of children in immigrant families (CIF), measured by the frequency with which parents share books with their children.

METHODS

Trends in the frequency with which parents report book sharing, defined in this analysis as reading or sharing picture books with their young children, were analyzed across immigrant and nonimmigrant households by using data from the 2005, 2007, and 2009 California Health Interview Survey. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression assessed the likelihood that CIF shared books with parents daily.

RESULTS

In this study, 57.5% of parents in immigrant families reported daily book sharing (DBS), compared with 75.8% of native-born parents. The lowest percentage of DBS was seen in Hispanic families with 2 foreign-born parents (47.1%). When controlling for independent variables, CIF with 2 foreign-born parents had the lowest odds of sharing books daily (odds ratio [OR]: 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54-0.68). When stratified by race/ethnicity, separate multivariate logistic regressions revealed CIF status to be associated with lower odds of DBS for Asian (OR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.38-0.81) and Hispanic CIF (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.42-0.58).

CONCLUSIONS

There is an association between the lower odds of DBS and parental immigrant status, especially for Hispanic and Asian children. This relationship holds after controlling for variables thought to explain differences in literacy-related practices, such as parental education and income. Because book sharing is central to children's development of early literacy and language skills, this disparity merits further exploration with the aim of informing future interventions.