Child Care Subsidies and Child Development

Child care subsidies are an important part of federal and state efforts to move welfare recipients into employment. One of the criticisms of the current subsidy system, however, is that it overemphasizes work and does little to encourage parents to purchase high-quality child care. Consequently, there are reasons to be concerned about the implications of child care subsidies for child development. In this paper, we provide a systematic assessment of the impact of subsidy receipt on a wide range of child outcomes. Drawing on rich data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we document a negative relationship between child care subsidies and child development. In particular, our results suggest that subsidy receipt in the year before kindergarten lowers reading and math test scores and increases a variety of behavior problems at kindergarten entry. Some of these negative effects persist to the end of kindergarten. A tentative explanation for the poorer outcomes is that subsidized children are more likely to receive intense exposure to low-quality child care.child development, subsidy, child care

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Comprehensive Strategic Plan for Health Disparities Research

To identify the most appropriate scientific areas to address in this plan, the Institute drew from its existing research portfolio aimed at eliminating health disparities. Reflecting the Institute’s mission, the unifying concept of the plan is development, starting before conception and continuing throughout the lifespan and across generations. The Institute’s long experience investigating the complex biological and environmental interactions that drive developmental processes is invaluable when clarifying the causes of racial, ethnic, and even community-based disparities. By focusing and coordinating research on gestation and the early years of life, including the transitions into and out of adolescence and young adulthood, the NICHD can address not only the development of health disparities, but the critical timing of preventive and therapeutic strategies

Is there a place for work in child development? Implications of child development theory and research for interpretation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, with particular reference to Article 32, on children, work and exploitation

This paper is about the role of child-development knowledge and research in international efforts to improve the lives and prospects for millions of working children. Article 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is framed in psychological terms. It declares that children must be protected from work that is harmful to their ’physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development’. The Convention presumes a universal concept of ’development’ and ’harm’ (in terms of what is healthy, natural or adjusted and in terms of adverse effects of work). Most textbooks of child development appear to confirm beliefs about universal, natural features of child development. But our knowledge about the abilities, needs and interests of children during successive stages of their lives is based on highly specific (mainly Euro-American) cultural contexts for childhood and goals for development. There is little space for work within this view of child development. This paper presents the case for a sociocultural approach to child development, as a more globally appropriate basis for evaluating the place of work in children’s lives. The concept of ’developmental niche’ is offered as a starting-point for understanding the place of work and evaluating its positive and negative effects in specific contexts. Relinquishing universal child-development knowledge sets new challenges for policy and for research. In the long term it has the potential to inform the implementation of UN Convention principles in context-appropriate and child-sensitive ways

Income and Child Development

We examine how income influences pre-school children’s cognitive and behavioral development, using new data from a birth cohort study of children born at the end of the 20th century. On average, low income children have lower PPVT scores, more mother-reported aggressive, withdrawn, and anxious behavior problems, and also more interviewer-reported problems with behavior, than more affluent children. For most outcomes, differences in the home environments are sufficient to explain the link between low income and poorer child outcomes. Policy simulations indicate that income transfers can potentially play an important role in reducing gaps in development between poorer and richer children.

The economics of child well-being

This paper presents an integrated economic approach that organizes and interprets the evidence on child development. It also discusses the indicators of child well-being that are used in international comparisons. Recent evidence on child development is summarized, and policies to promote child well-being are discussed. The chapter concludes with some open questions and suggestions for future research

Sports and Child Development

Despite the relevance of cognitive and non-cognitive skills for professional success, their formation is not yet fully understood. This study fills part of this gap by analyzing the effect of sports club participation, one of the most popular extra-curricular activities, on children’s skill development. Our results indicate positive effects: both cognitive skills, measured by school performance, and overall non-cognitive skills improve by 0.13 standard deviations. The results are robust when using alternative datasets as well as alternative estimation and identification strategies. The effects can be partially explained by increased physical activities replacing passive leisure activities.skill formation, non-cognitive skills, physical activity, semi-parametric estimation

Mother-to-infant and father-to-infant initial emotional involvement

While infant attachment has been largely studied, parental attachment is still relatively unknown, especially when referred to fathers. However, it is mainly recognised that parents’ emotional involvement with the newborn contributes to the quality of the interaction and the care they provide. The aim of this study was to study mother-to-infant and father-to-infant initial emotional involvement; namely, differences between mothers and fathers and changes in mother’s emotions toward the neonate within the first days after delivery. The Bonding Scale, an extended Portuguese version of the ‘New Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale’, was administered during the first two days after childbirth to a sample of 315 mothers and 141 fathers (n = 456), at the Júlio Dinis Maternity Hospital (Portugal). Most mothers and fathers show positive emotions and only a few of them showed negative emotions toward the infant. Maternal and paternal emotional involvement toward the newborn tend to be similar; nevertheless, fathers show less fear and better emotional involvement with the neonate, while mothers are sadder and show more emotions not related to bonding. During the first days following delivery, emotions not related to bonding, such as fear, seem to decrease in mothers.Bial Foundation - Grant 58/02.Human Development and Health Service of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - Grant 48914

Evaluation of the child development grant pilot

Audience: Early Years Providers, Lead Member for Children's Services, Researchers The Child Development Grant (CDG) pilot aimed to encourage economically deprived and disengaged parents, through (cash) incentives to utilise the services offered by their local Sure Start Children’s Centres (SSCC), in particular those services that have a positive impact on the child’s development and family. This evaluation report details the learning resulting from the Child Development Grant (CDG) pilot. The pilot was one of nine Child Poverty pilots funded by the Child Poverty Unit between 2008 and 2011. York Consulting and Ipsos MORI were commissioned to undertake the evaluation in April 200