Search Results

Yet, little research has addressed the ways in which family structures and economic resources have impacted whether children grow up in households that do not include at least one biological parent. In order to address this gap, this paper offers a theoretical framework for estimating the effects of income and poverty, family structure, and income support policies on children's living arrangements. Its empirical implications are tested using data from the NLSY. The sample consists of 28,143 observations of families with children 18 years old or younger between 1986 and 1998. Probit models are used to estimate the probability that children from both single- and two-parent families are living in various out-of-home care arrangements. Results suggest that lower-income families, as well as single-parent and mother-partner families, are more likely to have a child living out-of-home in a given year. Higher AFDC/TANF benefits are associated with decreases in the probability that a family has a child living in a child welfare service setting, but increases in the probability that a family has a child living with relatives. Additionally, higher foster care payments are associated with increases in children living out-of-home.

Methods: We utilize longitudinal data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on approximately 5,500 children who spent some part of their childhood living with a single mother. We focus on 5 measures of father investment: (1) whether the father has seen the child during the past year; (2) how often the father has seen the child during the past year; (3) whether the father pays any (formal) child support; and (4) the amount of child support the father pays. We also investigate whether maternal re-partnering is associated with changes in the geographic distance between fathers' homes and those of their children. Our analytic approach consists of both standard regressions and fixed effects models. The standard regressions (ordinary least squares and logit models) assess whether there are static differences in levels of non-resident father investments in children by whether children's mothers have remarried or formed new cohabiting unions, as opposed to having remained single. The fixed effects models assess the extent to which fathers' investment behaviors change when mothers enter into new partnerships and have the advantage of adjusting for unobserved time invariant child and family characteristics when estimating these associations.

Results: Preliminary results suggest that, on average, children whose mothers have re-partnered spend less time with their biological father and are less likely to see their biological father over the course of a year than are children living with a single-mother who has not re-partnered. Fixed effects results also reveal that both the likelihood that a non-resident father has seen his child in the past year and the number of times the father has seen the child decrease after a mother re-partners. In addition, we find that the geographic distance between fathers' homes and those of their children increases when mothers re-partner and that this is only partially explained by residential moves on the part of the mother; non-resident fathers are also more likely to move away from their children after a maternal re-partnership. Yet, we find little evidence of associations between maternal re-partnering and child support payments.

Conclusions: Given that a sizeable proportion of children will experience maternal re-partnering, coupled with evidence that non-resident father involvement may positively influence children's wellbeing, it is crucial to understand how maternal re-partnering affects non-resident fathers' investments in children. Implications of this research for public policies regarding marriage and family formation, as well as for designing programs to promote child wellbeing in complex families, are discussed.

Methods: We use longitudinal data on about 3,700 children age 5 to 12 from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) to examine associations of family structure states and transitions with children's achievement (PIAT math and reading tests) and behavior (Behavior Problems Index) trajectories. We consider whether these associations vary by children's ages, as well as the quality of their home environments in early childhood. We also assess whether they are transitory or persist over time. An important methodological concern is that families that transition may be different from those who do not in multiple ways, and that these differences may, in part, explain differences children's achievement and behavior. Consequently, it is important to use analytic approaches which reduce the likelihood of selection bias. Because the HLM identifies the effects of family structure transitions on changes in achievement and behavior, this method reduces bias from unobserved persistent child and family characteristics.

Results: Results suggest that both residing in and transitioning to a single-mother family during middle childhood is associated with small increases in behavior problems. These associations are stronger for children who experienced higher quality home environments in early childhood. Transitions into as well as stable residence in step families are less consistently associated with child behavior, although we find some evidence that residence in a step family may be associated with small short-term increases in behavior problems. We find little consistent evidence linking any types of family structure transitions or states to children's achievement during middle childhood.

Implications: As a sizeable proportion of children experience family structure transitions, it is crucial to understand how these changes affect their achievement and behavior. Implications of this research for public policies regarding marriage and family formation, as well as for designing programs to promote child wellbeing in complex families, are discussed.

Methods. Using a large contemporary data set, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (NLSY-CS), 1,972 children were followed since birth until age 10. The sample consists of all the children in the NLSY-CS whose mothers had ever worked since the time of the child's birth and who can be followed longitudinally to age 10, with no missing data for any of the outcome variables. Of this sample, 51% are non-Hispanic white, 29% are non-Hispanic African American, and 20% are Hispanic. Children's behavioral problems were measured by using the Behavioral Problems Index (BPI). Two empirical approaches were use to account for selection bias and omitted variables in estimating the effects of maternal employment, one is an extensive set of child, mother, and family characteristics controlled for in the model, and the other is the use of ordinary least square, random-effect, and child fixed-effect models.

Results. Regression results suggest that maternal nonstandard work schedules may contribute to more behavior problems. The strongest effect of maternal nonstandard work schedules were found for children who live in single-mother or welfare families, whose mothers work in cashier or service occupations, and whose mothers working at nonstandard hours for full-time.

Conclusions and Implications. Family type, welfare status, mother's occupation, and the patterns of parental work schedules and work hours make a substantial difference in the links between children's behavioral problems and maternal nonstandard work schedules. Evidence provided in this paper has implications for practitioners identify the potential needs of young children with working mothers, especially those of single mothers influenced by the strict working requirement due to welfare reform. For example, we need to better understand the consequences that maternal work schedules have for children when that employment is undertaken "involuntarily," whether it is because of a spouse's unemployment, restrictions in welfare benefits, or other factors that might push women to work nonstandard hours that they might not have otherwise chosen.

METHOD: The study used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data. Out of 8,100 children born to NLSY women, a sample of 603 children who participated in Head Start from 1988 to 1994 and who had longitudinal measured outcomes from ages 5-6 to 11-12 were selected. Head Start children's reading, math, and behavioral scores, as measured at ages 5-6, were examined to determine whether these early scores affect outcomes measured at ages 11-12. The research questions addressed are (1) Do Head Start children's reading, math, and behavioral scores at ages 5-6 affect those scores measured at ages 11-12? (2) Do these associations differ depending on maternal education? I conducted regression and path analyses to examine how long-term achievement or behavioral outcomes are associated with the short-term outcomes, accounting for the effects of all short- and long-term outcomes in one model.

RESULTS: Not surprisingly, these findings indicate a strong relationship between children's early and later educational and behavioral scores. Maternal education moderated these associations on reading and behavioral outcomes. The associations between the short- and long-term achievement and behavioral outcomes were less significant for children whose mothers had less education. Children's reading, math, and behavioral outcomes at ages 5-6 were significantly inter-correlated, as were those measured at ages 11-12.

IMPLICATION: First, children's early achievement and behavioral outcomes affected outcomes later. Therefore, early intervention programs such as Head Start should continue to be provided to eligible populations to enhance early developmental skills. Second, children's early outcomes do not endure for children whose mothers have less than a high school education. If Head Start provides concurrent services for Head Start families, the positive impacts of Head Start on children's early outcomes can be sustained in their later lives. Third, Head Start should provide comprehensive curriculum that reflects the inter-correlations among all outcomes. In summary, this study suggests that the positive benefits of the Head Start program do not dissipate in the long term, and that maternal education matters for the long-term success of children in the program. Due to the significant impacts of early outcomes on later outcomes, Head Start should serve as a continuous early compensatory educational program for eligible populations

METHOD: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data, a sample of 603 children was selected from those who participated in Head Start in 1988, 1990, 1992, and 1994. The specific study questions addressed were: (1) Is there a relationship between the age of entering Head Start and children's academic and behavioral outcomes at ages 5-6?; (2) Is there a relationship between the age of entering Head Start and children's academic and behavioral outcomes at ages 11-12?; and (3) Is there an association between the short-term and long-term outcomes? Additionally, this study considered how each of these associations differed depending on maternal education, controlling for individual, family, and contextual characteristics. Regression and Path Analyses were used to answer these questions.

RESULTS: Findings indicated that entering Head Start at age 3 was positively associated with both short-and long-term outcomes; additionally, the short-term outcomes were significantly associated with the long-term. These positive effects were more pronounced for children whose mothers had higher levels of education. More specifically, when children entered into Head Start at an earlier age, they showed enhanced reading skills at ages 5-6. This association was not found for math and behavioral outcomes at ages 5-6. An early entry into Head Start significantly reduced children's behavioral problems at ages 11-12. Children who had better outcomes at ages 5-6 had significantly better outcomes at ages 11-12. The impacts of an early entry age on long-term outcomes and the association between short- and long-term outcomes were more prevalent for children whose mothers had longer years of education.

IMPLICATIONS: First, earlier entry into Head Start is more beneficial for children than enrolling later. Second, Head Start should provide concurrent services for Head Start families in order to amplify the positive impacts of an early entry into Head Start. Third, Head Start curriculums should be examined to include other components (math and behavioral interventions) to the same extent as the literacy-related component. Fourth, Head Start impacts should be evaluated in terms of long-term benefits because some benefits, particularly socio-emotional, do not exhibit linear outcomes and may take longer to have a measurable effect. Lastly, the evaluation study should consider various individual, family, and societal characteristics to determine the true effects of Head Start. Even among Head Start children, wide variances exist in a variety of pre-existing factors that affect Head Start entry age.

Methods – The study used data on 6,855 matched mother-child pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). I used multiple imputation of missing data to account for missing data due to sample attrition and respondent non-response. Three analytic methods provided successively rigorous causal estimates of the importance of timing and developmental stage: multiple regression with rich controls, residualized change models, and fixed effects models. Each method examined the association between the average hours per week mothers worked during a developmental period, and children's average BMI, the years they were overweight or obese, and the years they were obese (BMI>=95th percentile). Using both continuous and dichotomous outcome measures was important to assess both the statistical and practical significance of maternal work.

Results – Results from rich controls and residualized change models were generally comparable, finding significant relationships between average maternal work and the child obesity outcomes within and across most developmental periods; few significant associations were found for the effects of maternal work during infancy. Fixed effects models, which provided the strictest test of causality, found that average maternal work hours were only significantly associated with the number of years a child was overweight or obese during middle childhood and late childhood/early adolescence. No similar associations were found for years obese. These findings suggest that an unobserved factor was likely biasing the results of the rich controls and residualized change models.

Conclusions and Implications – This study found that average maternal work at ages 7-10 and 11-14 was significantly associated with an increased contemporaneous incidence of child overweight or obesity. These results inform both future research and anti-obesity interventions. Although much previous research has identified aspects of the environment that are associated with child obesity, few studies have attempted to determine whether developmental stage and timing are important. To the extent that future research can similarly discern which stages of childhood are pertinent to the relationship between other factors and child obesity, interventions can become more effective by tailoring them to children of appropriate age.

Methods: The data are from the twenty-year National Longitudinal Survey of Youth study selecting out youth aged 15 and older (N = 1672) in 1996 with analyses guided with the Person-In-Environment Model (individual, peer/family and environmental variables).

Results: Poly-substance users' ages at onset for both substances was one year younger than alcohol only users (but equivalent chronological ages). Significantly more binge drinking was reported by poly-substance users compared to alcohol-only users. Significantly more poly-substance users reported substance use related problems that were social (fighting, problems with family) responsibility (missed school) and legal (legal problems, drove drunk) in nature compared to alcohol-only users. Further, poly-substance users reported significantly more problems that were not a direct result of substance use (admission to a youth corrections institution, run-away, damaged property, fighting, theft, inflicting injury) compared to the alcohol-only users. Cluster analyses (for problem clusters) and logistic regression models will be conducted to identify unique risk and protective factors and problem clusters associated with each substance use pattern while controlling for use severity. A theoretically driven final model will be presented.

Implications: When designing adolescent intervention programs it's important to consider individual, peer and environmental factors that may contribute to alcohol and/or marijuana use and resultant problems. From a primary prevention perspective, information on characteristics of adolescents with different use patterns should not only add to our knowledge base but drive our prevention/intervention efforts.

Methods
The purpose of this study is to test whether the same factor model of the BPI (Baker & Mott, 1989) holds across groups of 477 Black, 324 Hispanic, and 890 Caucasian children. The study uses data from the 1998 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). We use multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to examine the equivalence of the BPI and its six subscales (antisocial, anxious/depressed, dependent, headstrong, hyperactive, and peer problems).

Results
Our findings indicated differences between racial groups. The 'critical ratios of differences' among all pairs of free parameters were examined to test for significant group differences with respect to any single parameter. Statistically significant differences were found between Hispanics & African Americans and Caucasians & African Americans on the Anxious/Depressed factor; Hispanics & African Americans and Caucasians & African Americans on the Antisocial factor; Caucasians & African Americans on the Dependent factor; and Hispanics & African Americans on the Peer Problems factor.

Discussion
The stability of the factor structure of the BPI across racial groups has implications for the culturally competent assessment of children's mental health problems. Accurate assessments for racial minorities are important because it may lead to early identification and treatment, potentially altering the trajectory of children who might otherwise engage in problem behaviors (i.e., drug use, delinquency, school problems, and risky sexual behavior) or find their way into our child welfare, special education, and juvenile justice systems.