How Resource Dynamics Explain Accumulating Developmental and Health Disparities for Teen Parents’ Children

This study examines the puzzle of disparities experienced by U.S. teen parents’ young children, whose health and development increasingly lag behind those of peers while their parents are simultaneously experiencing socioeconomic improvements. Using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001–2007; N ≈ 8,600), we assess four dynamic patterns in socioeconomic resources that might account for these growing developmental and health disparities throughout early childhood and then test them in multilevel growth curve models. Persistently low socioeconomic resources constituted the strongest explanation, given that consistently low income, maternal education, and assets fully or partially account for growth in cognitive, behavioral, and health disparities experienced by teen parents’ children from infancy through kindergarten. That is, although teen parents gained socioeconomic resources over time, those resources remained relatively low, and the duration of exposure to limited resources explains observed growing disparities. Results suggest that policy interventions addressing the time dynamics of low socioeconomic resources in a household, in terms of both duration and developmental timing, are promising for reducing disparities experienced by teen parents’ children

An item response theory approach to longitudinal analysis with application to summer setback in preschool language/literacy

Background: As the popularity of classroom observations has increased, they have been implemented in many longitudinal studies with large probability samples. Given the complexity of longitudinal measurements, there is a need for tools to investigate both growth and the properties of the measurement scale. Methods: A practical IRT model with an embedded growth model is illustrated to examine the psychometric characteristics of classroom assessments for preschool children, and also to show how nonlinear learning over time can be investigated. This approach is applied to data collected for the Academic Rating Scale (ARS) in the literacy domain, which was administered on four occasions over two years. Results: The model enabled an effective illustration of overall and individual gains over two academic years. In particular, a significant de-acceleration in latent literacy skills during summer was observed. The results also provided psychometric support for the argument that ARS literacy can be used to assess developmental skill levels consistent with theories of early literacy acquisition. Conclusions: The proposed IRT approach provided growth parameters that are estimated directly, rather than obtaining these coefficients from estimated growth scores—which may result in biased and inconsistent estimates of growth parameters. The model is also capable of simultaneously representing parameters of items and persons

Exploring the Potential of a School Impact on Pupil Weight Status: Exploratory Factor Analysis and Repeat Cross-Sectional Study of the National Child Measurement Programme.

Schools are common sites for obesity prevention interventions. Although many theories suggest that the school context influences weight status, there has been little empirical research. The objective of this study was to explore whether features of the school context were consistently and meaningfully associated with pupil weight status (overweight or obese). Exploratory factor analysis of routinely collected data on 319 primary schools in Devon, England, was used to identify possible school-based contextual factors. Repeated cross-sectional multilevel analysis of five years (2006/07-2010/11) of data from the National Child Measurement Programme was then used to test for consistent and meaningful associations. Four school-based contextual factors were derived which ranked schools according to deprivation, location, resource and prioritisation of physical activity. None of which were meaningfully and consistently associated with pupil weight status, across the five years. The lack of consistent associations between the factors and pupil weight status suggests that the school context is not inherently obesogenic. In contrast, incorporating findings from education research indicates that schools may be equalising weight status, and obesity prevention research, policy and practice might need to address what is happening outside schools and particularly during the school holidays.This article is freely available online via Open Access. Click on the 'Additional Link' above to access the full-text via the publisher's site