Emily Pressler

CSRP’s Impact on Low-Income Preschoolers’ Preacademic Skills: Self-Regulation as a Mediating Mechanism

Based on theoretically driven models, the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP) targeted low-income childrens school readiness through the mediating mechanism of self-regulation. The CSRP is a multicomponent, cluster-randomized efficacy trial implemented in 35 Head Start-funded classrooms (N = 602 children). The analyses confirm that the CSRP improved low-income childrens self-regulation skills (as indexed by attention/impulse control and executive function) from fall to spring of the Head Start year. Analyses also suggest significant benefits of CSRP for childrens preacademic skills, as measured by vocabulary, letter-naming, and math skills. Partial support was found for improvement in childrens self-regulation as a hypothesized mediator for childrens gains in academic readiness. Implications for programs and policies that support young childrens behavioral health and academic success are discussed.

Accumulation of childhood poverty on young adult overweight or obese status: race/ethnicity and gender disparities

Background Childhood poverty is positively correlated with overweight status during childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Repeated exposure of childhood poverty could contribute to race/ethnicity and gender disparities in young adult overweight/obese (OV/OB) weight status. Methods Young adults born between 1980 and 1990 who participated in the Young Adult file of the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth were examined (N=3901). The accumulation of childhood poverty is captured via poverty exposure from each survey year from the prenatal year through age 18 years. Body mass index was calculated and categorised into the reference criteria for adults outlined by the Center for Disease Control. Logistic regression models were stratified by race/ethnicity and included a term interacting poverty and gender, along with a number of covariates, including various longitudinal socioeconomic status measures and indicators for the intergenerational transmission of economic disadvantage and body weight. Results Reoccurring exposure to childhood poverty was positively related to OV/OB for white, black and Hispanic young adult women and inversely related for white young adult men. A direct relationship between the accumulation of childhood poverty and OV/OB was not found for black and Hispanic young adult men. Conclusions Helping families move out of poverty may improve the long-term health status of white, black and Hispanic female children as young adults. Community area interventions designed to change impoverished community environments and assist low-income families reduce family level correlates of poverty may help to reduce the weight disparities observed in young adulthood.

Dosage Effects on School Readiness: Evidence from a Randomized Classroom-Based Intervention

Variations in the dosage of social interventions and the effects of dosage on program outcomes remain understudied. This study examines the dosage effects of the Chicago School Readiness Project, a randomized, multifaceted classroom-based intervention conducted in Head Start settings. Using a principal score matching method to address the issue of selection bias, the study finds that high-dosage levels of teacher training and mental health consultant class visits have larger effects on children’s school readiness than the effects estimated through intention-to-treat (ITT) analyses. Low-dosage levels of treatment are found to have effects that are smaller than those estimated in ITT analyses or to have no statistically significant program effects. Moreover, individual mental health consultation services provided to high-risk children are found to have statistically significant effects on their school readiness. The study discusses the implications of these findings for research and policy.

Gender disparities among the association between cumulative family-level stress & adolescent weight status.

OBJECTIVE To investigate precursors to gender-related obesity disparities by examining multiple family-level stress indices. METHODS Analyses was based on adolescents born between 1975 and 1991 to women from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth data set (N=4762). Three types of family-level stressors were captured from birth to age 15: family disruption and conflict, financial strain, and maternal risky health behaviors, along with a total cumulative risk index. Body mass index was constructed on reference criteria for children outlined by the Centers for Disease Control. Multivariate logistic regressions were conducted for the three types of family stressors and for the total cumulative index. RESULTS The accumulation of family disruption and conflict and financial stress was positively related to female adolescents being overweight/obese. Childhood exposure to maternal risky health behaviors was positively associated with higher weight status for male adolescents. Total cumulative stress was related to overweight/obesity for females, but not males. CONCLUSION Different family-level stress indices are associated with the weight status of female and male adolescents. Combining types of family-level stress into one cumulative index appears to mask these differences.

Struggling to Stay Afloat: Dynamic Models of Poverty-related Adversity and Child Outcomes

This chapter outlines several promising ways to capture the respective roles of poverty (as defined by falling below a federally defined threshold based on families’ total household income and family size), and co-occurring risks (such as job loss, residential, and household instability ) in research on child outcomes in the context of adversity. As high-quality longitudinal data has become increasingly available and the methods for analyzing data are more sophisticated, our approaches to the measurement of poverty-related risk have become more complex. Exposure to poverty-related risk can be understood as dynamic, with consequences for children likely to vary as a function of timing, type, and context (e.g., households, schools, and neighborhoods). The impact of poverty-related adversity may also depend on both adults’ and children’s subjective experiences of material hardship and level of disadvantage relative to neighbors or peers. The authors draw upon a preschool experiment and subsequent long-term longitudinal follow-up of over 600 low-income children (the Chicago School Readiness Project or CSRP) to illustrate these approaches.

Maternal Union Transitions and Household Food Insecurity Differences by Race and Ethnicity

The study investigates how transitions in maternal unions are related to household food insecurity among a low-income sample using pooled time series data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey–Birth Cohort. Pooled time series fixed effects models indicate that transitioning into unions for White and Hispanic households is associated with reductions in household food insecurity compared with White and Hispanic households who experienced no transitions. Furthermore, transitioning into unions for Hispanic households is associated with reductions in household food insecurity status compared with Hispanic households that experienced dissolving unions. Last, results indicate that maternal union transitions are not related to household food insecurity status of Black and Other race and ethnic households. The authors discuss how the findings may be related to socioeconomic factors of race and ethnic households.

Poverty-Related Adversity and Emotion Regulation Predict Internalizing Behavior Problems among Low-Income Children Ages 8–11

The current study examines the additive and joint roles of chronic poverty-related adversity and three candidate neurocognitive processes of emotion regulation (ER)—including: (i) attention bias to threat (ABT); (ii) accuracy of facial emotion appraisal (FEA); and (iii) negative affect (NA)—for low-income, ethnic minority children’s internalizing problems (N = 338). Children were enrolled in the current study from publicly funded preschools, with poverty-related adversity assessed at multiple time points from early to middle childhood. Field-based administration of neurocognitively-informed assessments of ABT, FEA and NA as well as parental report of internalizing symptoms were collected when children were ages 8–11, 6 years after baseline. Results suggest that chronic exposure to poverty-related adversity from early to middle childhood predicted higher levels of internalizing symptomatology when children are ages 8–11, even after controlling for initial poverty status and early internalizing symptoms in preschool. Moreover, each of the 3 hypothesized components of ER played an independent and statistically significant role in predicting children’s parent-reported internalizing symptoms at the 6-year follow-up, even after controlling for early and chronic poverty-related adversity.

The Roles of School Readiness and Poverty-Related Risk for 6th Grade Outcomes

Low-income students are at increased risk for grade retention and suspension, which dampens their chances of high school graduation, college attendance, and future success. Drawing from a sample of 357 children and their families who participated in the Chicago School Readiness Project, we examine whether greater exposure to cumulative poverty-related risk from preschool through 5th grade is associated with greater risk of student retention and suspension in 6th grade. Logistic regression results indicate that exposure to higher levels of cumulative risk across the elementary school years is associated with students’ increased risk of retention in 6th grade, even after controlling for child school readiness skills and other covariates. Importantly, findings of the association between average cumulative risk exposure and student suspension are more complex; the role of poverty-related risk is reduced to non-significance once early indicators of child school readiness and other covariates are included in regression models. While, children’s early externalizing behavior prior to kindergarten places children at greater risk of suspension 7 years later, children’s higher levels of internalizing behaviors and early math skills are associated with significantly decreased risk of suspension in the 6th grade. Together, findings from the study suggest the complex ways that both early school readiness and subsequent exposure to poverty-related risk may both serve as compelling predictors of children’s likelihood of “staying on track” academically in the 6th grade.