Welfare receipt and family structure: evaluating the effects on children's reading achievement

Journal ArticleThis paper examines the impact of public and private support system on cognitive outcomes for children born to adolescent mothers. The data for this analysis were drawn from the 1979 to 1988 rounds of the National Longitudinal Surrey of Youth between the ages of six and ten in 1988. The key inputs for this analysis are four indicators of private support: average family income, extensiveness of mother's employment, presence of grandparents and presence of a significant other. Additionally, I use one indicator of public support: average number of survey years that the family received welfare benefits. All five indicators are averaged over the life span of the child. I also control for maternal resources - intellectual skills and self-esteem

Community contributions to scholastic success

Journal ArticleThe authors examine the influence of neighborhood characteristics on the academic outcomes of children in middle childhood. Prior research has examined structural features of the community and has evaluated their associations with youth outcomes (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993; Kowaleski-Jones, 2000). Other research has related perceptions of community environment to youth development (Aneshensel & Sucoff, 1996). This work seeks to bridge these two streams of research by considering the influence of both objective and subjective measures of the community environment on school-aged children. Data are drawn from the 1990 Census and the 1997 Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement (PSID-CDS). Results indicate a negative influence of living in a community with low socioeconomic resources for academic achievement. In contrast, in some models, results suggest a positive role for living in a community rich in immigrant concentration for school-related behavioral adjustment and achievement outcomes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR

Family structure and child well-being: examining the role of parental social connections

ManuscriptThis paper examines the role of parental social connections in accounting for subgroup differences in the influence of family structure on children. Our previous work found that white, but not black, children were negatively influenced by living in a singleparent family (Dunifon and Kowaleski-Jones, 2002). This paper examines whether parental social connections account for such differences in the influence of family structure on child well-being. Using data from the 1988 to 2000 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we estimate fixed effect models that suggest a key role for living with a grandparent in accounting for the race difference in the influence of single-parenthood on children. In contrast, visiting friends and relatives did not explain differences in the relationship between single-parenthood and child delinquency within sub-groups

Sex, contraception and childbearing among high-risk youth: do different factors influence males and females?

Journal ArticleDuring adolescence, many young people begin to experiment with new roles. One important area of exploration is sexual activity, which involves a certain amount of risk-taking

Exploring the influence of the National School Lunch Program on children using the early childhood longitudinal study

Working PaperUsing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 1998-1999 Kindergarten Cohort, the proposed study examines two research questions. First, what are the effects of participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) on changes in children's behavior, test scores, and body weight? Second, do these effects differ by gender? To address issues of selection, we use first difference regression techniques. These techniques reduce the bias resulting from unobserved time-invariant characteristics that influence a family's enrollment in the NSLP. The results from this project provide important insight into the role of the National School Lunch Program in influencing child health, academic well-being, and social development

Determinants of first sex by age 14 in a high-risk adolescent population

Journal ArticleA study using data for mothers from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and their children aged 14 or older indicates that, after accounting for a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic antecedents, children are significantly more likely to become sexually active before age 14 if their mother had sex at an early age and if she has worked extensively. In addition, early sexual debut is eight times as likely among black boys as among non-Hispanic white boys

Double impact: what sibling data can tell us about the long-term negative effects of parental divorce

Journal ArticleMost prior research on the adverse consequences of parental divorce has analyzed only one child per family. As a result, it is not known whether the same divorce affects siblings differently. We address this issue by analyzing paired sibling data from the 1994 General Social Survey (GSS) and 1994 Survey of American Families (SAF). Both seemingly unrelated regressions and random effects models are used to study the effect of family background on offspring's educational attainment and marital stability. Parental divorce adversely affects the educational attainment and the probability of divorce of both children within a sibship; in other words, siblings tend to experience the same divorce the same way. However, family structure of origin only accounts for a trivial portion of the shared variance in offspring's educational attainment and marital stability, so parental divorce is only one of many factors determining how offspring fare. These findings were unchanged when controlling for a number of differences both between and within sibships. Also, the negative effects of parental divorce largely do not vary according to respondent characteristics

Physical activity during the transition from adolescence to adulthood

Background: We examine how age, life course roles, and contextual variables relate to both the composition and the overall level of physical activity in late adolescence and early adulthood. Methods: Data on respondents age 15 to 29 y in the 2003 American Time Use Survey are used to estimate multivariate logistic regressions that assess what factors are associated with meeting the recommended level of physical activity. Results: The proportion of respondents who do 30 min or more of team sports declines over the 15 to 29 y age range even after controlling for life course and contextual covariates. Parenthood, employment status, and school enrollment have selective effects on the odds of meeting physical activity recommendations. Conclusions: Given the declines in team sports activities, schools and public health officials should consider the potential benefits of promoting other options such as cardiovascular activities, strength training activities, and/or active transportation

The Multiple Contexts of Food Insecurity: Evaluating the Impact on Child Energy Balance

This study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten Class of 1998 to explore the impact of food insecurity, school environment and food infrastructure on elementary school-aged children’s body weight, food purchasing decisions and physical activity choices. Results show that Federal support for nutrition in the form of expenditures, a lower county unemployment rate, higher average wages, and access to unemployment compensation are associated with a lower risk of being food insecure. Using longitudinal methods, the study finds a positive association between household food insecurity and child BMI, but the connection is not consistent across gender and racial groups

Patterns of household food expenditures: a cluster analysis

Journal ArticleIn this study we use the Diary Survey component of the 2001 and 2002 Consumer Expenditure Survey to investigate patterns of household food expenditures. We identify eight constellations of food expenditures that are more and less likely to be associated with healthy eating habits. These clusters include: Balanced, Full-service-dominated, Fast-food-dominated, Meat-eater, Miscellaneous-foods-dominated, Alcohol-dominated, Beverage-dominated, and Food-at-work-dominated. Only 29% of the households are in the Balanced cluster, which is likely to represent the most healthy eating pattern. A full 40% of the households are in one of the three food-away-fromhome clusters. Exploratory multivariate analysis shows that younger households are more likely to be in the Fast-food-dominated cluster, single male-headed households more likely to be in the Alcohol-dominated cluster, and minorities more likely to be in the Meat-eater cluster. Adult work hours and income-to-needs ratios are found to be positively associated with membership in the Full-service and Fast-food clusters