Caitlin McPherran Lombardi

Does Maternal Employment Following Childbirth Support or Inhibit Low-Income Children’s Long-Term Development?

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among middle-class and White children generalized to other groups. Using a representative sample of urban, low-income, predominantly African American and Hispanic families (n = 444), ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching models assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and childrens functioning at age 7. Children whose mothers were employed early, particularly in their first 8 months, showed enhanced socioemotional functioning compared to peers whose mothers remained nonemployed. Protective associations emerged for both part-time and full-time employment, and were driven by African American children, with neutral effects for Hispanics. Informal home-based child care also heightened positive links.

Sexual partner accumulation from adolescence through early adulthood: the role of family, peer, and school social norms

PURPOSE An early age of sexual initiation and sexual activity with multiple partners are risk factors for an array of detrimental outcomes. Drawing on social norms theory, this study assessed the role of subjective and descriptive social norms from parents, peers, and schoolmates on trajectories of sexual partner accumulation from early adolescence through early adulthood. METHODS Data were drawn from the in-home survey sample of Add Health, following 14,797 youth from adolescence through early adulthood. Social norms data were drawn from youth, parent, schoolmate, and school administrator reports. Multi-level growth models assess how parent, peer, and school social norms predicted initial levels and growth in sexual partner accumulation. RESULTS Parent and peer approval of youth sexual behavior, as well as lower perceived negative repercussions of pregnancy, predicted greater initial levels and greater growth over time in the accumulation of sexual partners. Similarly, youth attending schools with a greater proportion of sexually experienced schoolmates reported higher initial levels of sexual partners. In contrast, greater parental warnings regarding negative consequences of sex predicted heightened sexual partner accumulation. Some moderation by youth gender and age emerged as well. CONCLUSIONS Results highlight the role of both subjective and descriptive social norms, suggesting the importance of understanding and seeking to influence the social beliefs and expectations of youth and their families.

Gender, male-typicality, and social norms predicting adolescent alcohol intoxication and marijuana use

OBJECTIVE This study examined the direct and interactive effects of gender, male-typicality, and social norms in predicting the initiation and longitudinal patterns of alcohol intoxication and marijuana use in U.S. youth. METHOD Data were drawn from a longitudinal survey of 10,588 youth who participated in the in-home survey of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Multilevel growth modeling used data from three time points to assess trajectories of substance use from adolescence to young adulthood. RESULTS Analyses indicated that gender, male-typicality, as well as home availability, friend social norms, and schoolmate social norms predicted initial levels of intoxication and marijuana use, with gender, friend norms, and schoolmate norms also predicting differential rates of growth over time in intoxication and marijuana use. Interaction results indicated that gender moderated male-typicalitys relationship to both substance use variables, and home availabilitys relationship to alcohol intoxication. CONCLUSIONS These findings extend the literatures regarding interrelations among gender, gender roles, social norms, and health risk behaviors by (a) locating the genesis of those effects in adolescence, (b) identifying gender and social norms to be salient in terms of both initiation and growth of substance use over time, (c) suggesting that gender differences should be understood as moderated by other social-contextual variables, and (d) arguing that prevention efforts should address gender and gender roles more explicitly in programming.

Using complementary methods to test whether marriage limits men's antisocial behavior

Married men engage in significantly less antisocial behavior than unmarried men, but it is not clear whether this reflects a causal relationship. Instead, the relationship could reflect selection into marriage whereby the men who are most likely to marry (men in steady employment with high levels of education) are the least likely to engage in antisocial behavior. The relationship could also be the result of reverse causation, whereby high levels of antisocial behavior are a deterrent to marriage rather than the reverse. Both of these alternative processes are consistent with the possibility that some men have a genetically based proclivity to become married, known as an active genotype-environment correlation. Using four complementary methods, we tested the hypothesis that marriage limits mens antisocial behavior. These approaches have different strengths and weaknesses and collectively help to rule out alternative explanations, including active genotype-environment correlations, for a causal association between marriage and mens antisocial behavior. Data were drawn from the in-home interview sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a large, longitudinal survey study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States. Lagged negative binomial and logistic regression and propensity score matching models (n = 2,250), fixed-effects models of within-individual change (n = 3,061), and random-effects models of sibling differences (n = 618) all showed that married men engaged in significantly less antisocial behavior than unmarried men. Our findings replicate results from other quasiexperimental studies of marriage and mens antisocial behavior and extend the results to a nationally representative sample of young adults in the United States.

Low-income women's employment experiences and their financial, personal, and family well-being.

Low-income womens rates of employment have grown dramatically in recent years, yet the stability and quality of their employment remain low. Using panel data from the Three-City Study following 1,586 low-income African American, Latina, and European American women, this study assessed associations between womens employment quality (wages; receipt of health insurance) and stability (work consistency; job transitions) and their financial, personal, and family well-being. Hierarchical linear models assessing within-person effects found that increases in wages were associated with improved financial well-being and physical health. Average wages over time similarly were associated with greater levels of income and financial stability as well as mental and physical health at the end of the study. In contrast, few significant associations emerged for receipt of health insurance or for the stability and consistency of womens employment. Results have implications for programs and policies seeking to support disadvantaged womens employment in order to improve family resources and functioning.

Direct and interactive effects of parent, friend, and schoolmate drinking on alcohol use trajectories

Objective: This study considered the unique and interactive roles of social norms from parents, friends and schools in predicting developmental trajectories of adolescent drinking and intoxication. Design and outcome measures: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which followed adolescents (N = 18,921) for 13 years, we used discrete mixture modelling to identify unique developmental trajectories of drinking and of intoxication. Next, multilevel multinomial regression models examined the role of alcohol-related social norms from parents, friends and schoolmates in the prediction of youths’ trajectory group membership. Results: Results demonstrated that social norms from parents, friends and schoolmates that were favourable towards alcohol use uniquely predicted drinking and intoxication trajectory group membership. Interactions between social norms revealed that schoolmate drinking played an important moderating role, frequently augmenting social norms from parents and friends. The current findings suggest that social norms from multiple sources (parents, friends and schools) work both independently and interactively to predict longitudinal trajectories of adolescent alcohol use. Conclusions: Results highlight the need to identify and understand social messages from multiple developmental contexts in efforts to reduce adolescent alcohol consumption and alcohol-related risk-taking.

Early Maternal Employment and Children's School Readiness in Contemporary Families

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among children generalized to modern families. Using a representative sample of children born in the United States in 2001 (N = 10,100), ordinary least squares regression models weighted with propensity scores assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and childrens school readiness skills at kindergarten. There were neutral associations between maternal employment and childrens school readiness, which were not differentiated by maternal time, stress, or wages. However, as nonmaternal household income decreased, maternal employment begun prior to 9 months was linked with higher cognitive skills, while employment begun between 9 and 24 months was linked with lower conduct problems.

Girls’ Spatial Skills and Arithmetic Strategies in First Grade as Predictors of Fifth-Grade Analytical Math Reasoning

ABSTRACT This study investigated longitudinal pathways leading from early spatial skills in first-grade girls to their fifth-grade analytical math reasoning abilities (N = 138). First-grade assessments included spatial skills, verbal skills, addition/subtraction skills, and frequency of choice of a decomposition or retrieval strategy on the addition/subtraction problems. In fifth grade, girls were given an arithmetic fluency test, a mental rotation spatial task, and a numeric and algebra math reasoning test. Using structural equation modeling, the estimated path model accounted for 87% of the variance in math reasoning. First-grade spatial skills had a direct pathway to fifth-grade math reasoning as well as an indirect pathway through first-grade decomposition strategy use. The total effect of first-grade spatial skills was significantly higher in predicting fifth-grade math reasoning than all other predictors. First-grade decomposition strategy use had the second strongest total effect, while retrieval strategy use did not predict fifth-grade math reasoning. It was first-grade spatial skills (not fifth-grade) that directly predicted fifth-grade math reasoning. Consequently, the results support the importance of early spatial skills in predicting later math. As expected, decomposition strategy use in first grade was linked to fifth-grade math reasoning indirectly through first-grade arithmetic accuracy and fifth-grade arithmetic fluency. However, frequency of first-grade decomposition use also showed a direct pathway to fifth-grade arithmetic reasoning, again stressing the importance of these early cognitive processes on later math reasoning.

Early maternal employment and childhood obesity among economically disadvantaged families in the USA

Research indicates a link between maternal employment and childrens risk of obesity, but little prior work has addressed maternal employment during childrens infancy. This study examined the timing and intensity of early maternal employment and associations with childrens later overweight and obesity in a sample of low-income families in low-income urban communities in the USA (n = 322). Logistic regression and propensity score models suggested that mothers’ entry into employment when a child was 9–23 months old predicted a higher risk of child overweight/obesity at age 7 in comparison to both earlier entries and remaining out of the labour market for at least two years. This association was more pronounced with full-time work and existed mainly for children who remained in mother care or attended child care centres. Further work is necessary to determine mechanisms for this relationship, such as breastfeeding and nutrition.

Family investments in low-income children’s achievement and socioemotional functioning.

Family processes and parenting practices help explain developmental differences between children in low- versus higher-income households. There are, however, few studies addressing the question of: what are the key family processes and parenting practices for promoting low-income children’s growth? We address this question in the present study, following conceptual work framing family processes and parenting practices as investments in children. Using secondary analyses of longitudinal data on low-income children from birth to age 15 (n = 528), we estimate several potential family investments in achievement and socioemotional outcomes during early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. For achievement outcomes, family investments in learning stimulation were consistently the strongest predictors. For socioemotional outcomes, investments in an orderly household and close parental supervision were the most consistent and strongest predictors, even more so than sensitive parenting.