Examining School Connectedness And Communication With New American Parents

This tool highlights areas of importance for New American parents stemming from focus groups and invites schools to assess their communication and connectedness with New American students and families with the purpose to improve two-way channels of engagement

Carsey Perspectives: Children in United States, Both White and Black, Are Growing Up in Dramatically Smaller Families

In this perspectives brief, author Tony Fahey presents novel findings on how much smaller family sizes are among children in the United States today, particularly African American children, than they were fifty years ago. Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the U.S. Census and the Current Population Survey, he reports that the average African American child was one of 6.53 siblings in 1960 and today is one of 3.18. Because smaller families may enable parents to devote more resources to each child, these trends raise the so-far unrecognized possibility that the fall in children’s family size, especially among the less well-off, may have been a positive and egalitarian transformation in their lives. The trend toward smaller families potentially offsets some of the negative effects on children of the transition from two-parent families to single-parent families. The loss of family resources caused by the absence of one parent is paired with a smaller number of siblings who need support. To better understand how family change has affected children’s well-being, the hidden story of children’s family size and how it relates to other aspects of children\u27s changing family circumstances needs to be recognized and explore

Child Care Costs Exceed 10 Percent of Family Income for One in Four Families

In this brief, authors Marybeth Mattingly, Andrew Schaefer, and Jessica Carson analyze families’ child care expenses and identify, among families with young children who pay for child care, the share that are “cost burdened,” defined in this context as spending more than 10 percent of their gross income on child care. Using data from the 2012–2016 Current Population Survey, they present their findings by number of children; age of youngest child; parental characteristics; family income measures; and U.S. region, metropolitan status, and state. They report that about one in four families with young children who have child care costs are “burdened” by the cost, spending more than 10 percent of family income on child care. Across families with young children, an average of 8.8 percent of family income is spent on child care. More than half of poor families with young children are cost burdened by child care, compared to 39.3 percent of low income families (those with incomes between one and two times the poverty threshold) and just 13.4 percent of families at or above five times the poverty threshold. One in five married couples, and two in five single parents with young children and child care expenses, pay more than 10 percent of their income on these costs. Access to quality, affordable child care is critical for American working families

Extra credit: the rise of short-term liabilities

Not only are more American families in debt, but the median value of the debt more than doubled between 1989 and 2004. Credit cards and payday loans are two of the favorite tools for digging the hole deeper.Credit

Economic (In)Security: The Experience of the African-American and Latino Middle Classes

As the next installment in the By a Thread series, Economic (In)Security uses the Middle Class Security Index to provide the first comprehensive portrait of the level of financial security enjoyed by African-American and Latino middle-class families. The findings show that, in the wake of fading economic opportunity, these two rapidly growing groups face mounting obstacles in becoming part of, and remaining securely in, America's middle class

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Paid Family and Medical Leave - Proposed Business Tax Credits and Pregnancy 401(K)s Fall Short for Working Families

Access to comprehensive paid family and medical leave strengthens all American families because everyone potentially needs to take off from work at some point to recover from an illness, care for a family member, or welcome a new child. But the United States is the world's only advanced economy that does not guarantee some form of paid leave for workers. The result is that only 12 percent of private-sector workers in the United States have paid family and medical leave. In most American families, all the parents in the home are employed, meaning there is no full-time stay-at-home caregiver, and the majority of American families rely on a female breadwinner or co-breadwinner. Paid family and medical leave policies are already working across the United States, as cities, states, and individual employers embrace them. But without a national solution, millions of workers and their families are left out.Paid family and medical leave is critical for the economic security of working families, and any viable proposal needs to be sufficiently robust to address the needs of working families. Unfortunately, some current proposals—such as business tax credits to incentivize paid leave and 401(k)-type accounts for families to save for their own parental leave—claim that they would help working families but do little to expand access to paid leave. Tax credits for businesses—including those proposed by the Strong Families Act, which was introduced by Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Angus King (I-ME)—are a common conservative alternative to comprehensive paid family and medical leave. These proposals, however, would be voluntary and fail to guarantee any additional access to paid leave for working families. Moreover, past experiences with business tax credits have shown that they are unlikely to significantly compel employers to change their policies.Under another conservative alternative, workers would save up to fund their own paid family and medical leave for qualifying events, such as the birth of a child or a family illness, through "Personal Care Accounts." Workers could personally save up to the equivalent of 12 weeks of paid leave tax-free with contributions capped at $5,000 per year. Also known as a pregnancy 401(k), this proposal falls far short of what working families need. Workers who are able to save significantly are usually higher-wage earners—many of whom already have access to paid leave. In addition, since parents generally have their first child early in their working lives when they are earning the least—the average age at which a woman has her first child is 26—many families would have little opportunity to contribute meaningfully to a plan before needing to draw on it.In 2014, the Center for American Progress and the National Partnership for Women & Families outlined the key features necessary in a national family and medical leave program. A comprehensive paid family and medical leave program must be available to all workers; cover serious family and medical needs; be affordable and cost effective; be inclusive of diverse families; and be accessible to workers without adverse employment consequences. Two potential options, including a social insurance model and a business-government partnership, would fit the criteria laid out by CAP and the National Partnership and expand paid family and medical leave broadly to ensure that every working family has a fair shot at economic prosperity. A legislative vehicle for the social insurance model can be found in the Family and Medical Insurance Leave, or FAMILY, Act—introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), along with 150 co-sponsors.In order to parse which proposals would best suit the needs of working families and the U.S. economy at large, as well as to dispel misconceptions about paid family and medical leave, this issue brief examines the most frequent myths about paid family and medical leave

Comparison of Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Minority and Non-minority Children with Asthma

Objective—Determine if secondhand smoke exposure (SHSE) is related to asthma-related functional morbidity by examining racial/ethnic differences in Non-Latino White (NLW), African American, and Latino families and whether racial/ethnic SHSE differences across families persist when accounting for smoking factors. Methods—Participants were 305 caregiver smokers of children with asthma. Two passive dosimeters measured SHS: one in the home and one worn by the child. Results—Higher SHSE was related to greater asthma-related functional morbidity. African Americans had higher levels of home SHSE than Latinos (p = .003) or NLWs (p = .021). SHSE as assessed by the child worn dosimeter did not differ across race/ethnicity. African American families were less likely to report a household smoking ban (46.4%) compared to Latinos (79.2%) and NLWs (67.9%; p \u3c .05). African Americans were less likely to report having two or more smokers in the home (37.2%) compared to NLWs (53.6%; p \u3c .05). NLWs reported the highest number of cigarettes smoked daily (Mdn = 15.00) compared to Latinos (Mdn = 10.00; p = .001) and African Americans (Mdn = 10.00; p \u3c .001). SHS home exposure levels were regressed on race/ethnicity and relevant covariates. Household smoking ban (p \u3c .001) and only one smoker in the home (p = .005) were associated with lower levels of SHS in the home; race/ethnicity was not significant. Conclusions—Differences in SHSE across race/ethnicity exist among children with asthma, possibly due to differential presence of a household smoking ban and number of smokers in the home

Cracked Windows, Broken Mirrors, and Closed Doors: A Critical Content Analysis of African American Children\u27s Books

ABSTRACT There is a current shortage of culturally responsive African American children’s books. Culturally responsive literature provides a positive influence on children of all races and researchers have indicated that picturebooks that are diverse and culturally responsive can affirm cultural and social identities (Crowley, Fountain, & Torres, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine how the life experiences of African American families are currently being depicted in recently published children’s literature. This study employed a qualitative research design to explore the topic of African American families in children’s literature. The study examined how African American families are represented in the illustrations and texts. Two research questions on African American life experiences and family culture were used to guide this study: How are life experiences of African American families represented in children’s picturebooks submitted to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) in 2017? How are African American characters and cultures portrayed in the illustrations and/or texts? I applied the critical race theory as a conceptual tool for analyzing how race and racism have been systematized and supported. Findings from this study indicate that the most prevalent life experiences found among the literature were the church, family, and music. Findings also indicate that the picturebooks did not represent a wealth of experiences that are present in African American families. Findings also indicate that the selected picturebook subset did not have enough culturally responsive books in the collection. Implications for families as well as teachers are included

Over sixteen million children in poverty in 2011

In this brief, authors Marybeth Mattingly, Jessica Bean, and Andrew Schaefer use American Community Survey data released on September 20, 2012 to address patterns of child poverty. To evaluate the changes in child poverty, they focused on two time periods -- change since 2007, as the nation entered the recession, and change since 2010. According to the American Community Survey, the overall child poverty rate for the United States rose slightly from 21.6 in 2010 to 22.5 percent in 2011, resulting in an estimated 16.4 million children living in poverty. Of these children, 6.1 million are young (under age 6). Forty-five percent, or 32.7 million, of America’s children reside in families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty threshold. They conclude that, in the wake of the recession, child poverty remains high, presenting significant challenges for children’s futures

An analysis of the intergenerational patterns in two African-American families

This study has three purposes: (a) to examine the culture found in two rural average African-American families as they were reconstructed for genealogical charts to determine generational patterns, (b) to study the interaction between economic/political institutions and the two families, and (c) finally, to analyze families in order to ascertain the degree of retention of African cultural remnants. One family resided in rural North Carolina, an area with considerable contact with the dominant American culture. The other family lived in the Sea Islands, an area relatively isolated from the dominant culture. A biography of each family was written within the context of an ethnographic/historical community study. Genealogical charts were reconstructed representing six generations of each family and served as the source for respondents. Twenty-four respondents, ages 16-93, were interviewed and data collected about generational patterns