Carol H. Ripple

Academic Risk Among Inner-City Adolescents: The Role of Personal Attributes.

In this 3-year prospective study, we explored antecedents of school-based adjustment among 134 inner-city high-school students. We examined the role of freshman-year risk and protective factors in relation to dropout status and senior-year adjustment indices among those who remained in school, including academic performance, psychological symptoms, and drug use. Although each single attribute included in this study has been linked to poor academic performance in previous investigations, the primary goal in this study was to determine which attributes were strongly related to academic problems when considered together. In addition, we sought to establish whether risk factors associated with dropout were the same as those that predicted academic problems among students who remained in school. Findings indicated that freshman-year attendance and demographic indices were most strongly predictive of dropout. Among adolescents who remained in school, freshman academic success was robustly linked to senior-year competence. Implications for identifying inner-city high-school students at high risk for academic problems are discussed.

Evaluating Child and Family Demonstration Initiatives: Lessons from the Comprehensive Child Development Program.

Abstract The Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) was a demonstration project designed to test a specific model of service delivery for young children and families in poverty. Following the evaluation’s failure to show strong impacts, early intervention has come under fire from opponents in the popular literature and in Congress. We conclude that shortcomings in both implementation and evaluation contributed to the failure to demonstrate effectiveness. Lessons learned from the CCDP are articulated, addressing the roles of demonstration projects and their evaluations, the problems associated with evaluating programs early in their implementation, the importance of assuring appropriate treatment quantity and quality, and the judicious use and interpretation of large-scale randomized evaluations.

Research, policy, and the federal role in prevention initiatives for children

With the ability and the funds to implement programs on a national level, federal policy is a potentially potent tool in primary prevention. Despite the U.S. governments history of ambivalence toward intervening in child rearing and limited national support for primary prevention, several initiatives have been implemented for children and families with some measure of success. The successes, however, are mitigated by limitations of the initiatives themselves and by the inconclusive nature of much of the evaluation data. This review of 5 federal policy-based initiatives for children and families provides the backdrop for discussing aspects of federal prevention program design, implementation, policy, and research.

Familial Factors in Illicit Drug Abuse: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Research on familial factors in illicit drug abuse has been approached from the perspectives of psychiatric epidemiology, which aims to assess familial clustering of disorders, and clinical psychiatry, which focuses on intrafamilial dynamics. To date, however, these two research traditions have existed in relative isolation from each other, and there has been little consideration given to enhancing the understanding of familial factors in drug abuse by combining these approaches. The intention of this article is to critically review the literature in these two areas and to offer suggestions as to how the strengths from each could be applied in a comprehensive research approach.

Map and Track: State Initiatives for Young Children and Families. 2000 Edition.

University, with core support from the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Centers mission is to identify and promote strategies that prevent child poverty in the United States and that improve the lives of low-income children and their families. NCCP places a special emphasis on preventing or alleviating poverty among children under age six because young child poverty poses particularly serious risks to childrens healthy growth and development. NCCP: • Conducts sound research to identify and promote wise investments in low-income families that have important long-term benefits for children, families, their communities, their states, and the nation as a whole. • Employs a multidisciplinary approach to build bridges between academic research, field-based knowledge of the experiences of low-income families raising children, attitudinal research, and the development of public and private sector initiatives for low-income families with children. • Works to accurately, effectively, clearly, and broadly communicate its research in compelling ways and to synthesize relevant research to meet the needs of key audiences that work on issues affecting low-income families. • Helps key stakeholders and the general public understand and effectively respond to the constantly changing face of child poverty. NCCP does this by assessing and tracking: the definition and measurement of child poverty; the impact of child poverty on various sub-populations; the effects of particular policies on low-income families and children; and public attitudes and awareness regarding child poverty, low-income families, and related issues. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Map and Track 2000 could not have been produced without the assistance of countless others. We extend our gratitude to the 300 public officials who took the time to provide us with detailed information about their states efforts to improve the well-being of young children and families. We also thank the following individuals for their guidance and feedback as we designed and conceptualized the project: consultant. And we gratefully acknowledge the following organizations on whose data we relied to examine state efforts to promote family economic security: Center on Budget and Among our colleagues at NCCP, special thanks go to Kinsey Dinan, who contributed to the data analysis and writing for this report. We also thank others at NCCP for valuable contributions to the project: In addition, we deeply appreciate the dedicated efforts of NCCPs communications and production team, led by She also directs research on vulnerable families experiencing multiple stresses and on childrens mental health.