9 research outputs found
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Children's Mental Health: What Every Policymaker Should Know
Mental health is a key component in a child's healthy development; children need to be healthy in order to learn, grow, and lead productive lives. The mental health service delivery system in its current state does not sufficiently meet the needs of children and youth, and most who are in need of mental health services are not able to access them. With the addition of effective treatments, services, and supports, the mental health system can become better equipped to help children and youth with mental health problems, or those who are at risk, to thrive and live successfully
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Improving Supports for Parents of Young Children: State-level Initiatives
Most states are working to strengthen supports for young children's health and development across the different systems that affect family and child wellbeing. Increasingly, efforts to support parenting are an important focus of this work. While states' strategies are varied, most strive to provide families with information and access to programs that help parents keep their children safe and healthy while nurturing their development and promoting their school readiness. These efforts make a great deal of sense in view of growing evidence that parents and young children can benefit in many ways from parent education, and that children in families experiencing economic hardship are at higher risk of poor health and educational outcomes in the absence of parenting supports. New federal funding for home-visiting programs, along with the cross-systems planning being carried out by states' Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) initiatives and Early Childhood Advisory Councils, create new opportunities for states to strengthen supports for parents with young children. At the same time, this area of work is likely to pose special challenges for states. One challenge is the still limited evidence concerning effective programs. Another is that stakeholders may lack information about the full array of existing programs in their state and the extent to which these programs are meeting the needs of different types of families. States also face the complex task of identifying resources and opportunities in different systems that could be marshaled to strengthen parenting supports along the continuum from promotion to intervention. This issue brief presents information that states can use as they address these challenges and opportunities
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Environmental Health in Early Childhood Systems Building: Opportunities for States
Exposure to environmental hazards has negative outcomes for healthy child development. Household and community pollutants affect people of all ages, but for a number of important reasons young children face a significantly higher risk of developing disease and experiencing cognitive and psychomotor developmental delays. Fortunately, many common forms of exposure are preventable, and there are abundant opportunities for state-level stakeholders to initiate and support effective interventions. This brief identifies some of the substances that threaten young children inside and nearby the home or early care and learning setting. It describes the importance of early intervention for disease prevention, and provides examples of strategic approaches to regional policy and program reform. Finally, it explores specific actions states can take to successfully address environmental health issues affecting children. Statewide environmental health initiatives can play an important role in broader early childhood systems-building efforts. Coordinating cross-agency interventions requires some preparation to learn the basics of the issue, and there are many resources available to get started on a path to prevent and remediate environmental threats to the health of young children
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Adolescent Substance Use in the U.S.: Facts for Policymakers
Adolescence is an important period of physical, social, psychological, and cognitive growth. No longer children and not yet adults, adolescents make significant choices about their health and develop attitudes and health behaviors that continue into adulthood. Substance use disorders among adolescents can impede the attainment of important developmental milestones, including the development of autonomy, the formation of intimate interpersonal relationships, and general integration into adult society. Similarly, the use of alcohol and illicit substances by youth often leads to adverse health outcomes. Because heightened peer influence and a tendency towards risk taking are normal developmental changes in adolescence, experimentation with substances during this period is common. However, using drugs and alcohol at a young age increases the risk of dependency and addiction, and early onset of drinking increases the likelihood of alcohol-related injuries, motor vehicle crash involvement, unprotected intercourse, and interpersonal violence. The more risk an adolescent is exposed to, the more likely it is he or she will abuse substances. Some risk factors, such as peer influence, may be more powerful during adolescence, and likewise some protective factors, such as a strong sense of school belonging and a meaningful positive adult presence, can have a greater positive impact during this period. An important goal of substance abuse prevention is to reduce risk and increase protective factors in the lives of all adolescents, and particularly among disadvantaged youth
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Young Children at Risk: National and State Prevalence of Risk Factors
Across the U.S., large numbers of young children are affected by one or more risk factors that have been linked to academic failure and poor health. Chief among them is family economic hardship, which is consistently associated with negative outcomes in these two domains. As early as 24 months, children in low-income families have been found to show lags in cognitive and behavioral development compared to their peers in higher-income families (see box for definitions of economic hardship). Other risk factors, such as living in a single-parent family or low parent education levels, especially when combined with poverty, can markedly increase children’s chances of adverse outcomes. Children affected by multiple risks – three or more risk factors – are the most likely to experience school failure and other negative outcomes, including maladaptive behavior. This fact sheet highlights important findings about the prevalence of children experiencing risk factors in the U.S. These findings were produced with the Young Child Risk Calculator, a tool of the National Center for Children in Poverty (see box). The national and state prevalence data presented here, along with additional results available from NCCP’s Young Child Risk Calculator, highlight groups of vulnerable children and families whose needs can be addressed through a wide range of family support, health, and education policies. Information about the size and characteristics of a state’s population of young, at-risk children can inform policy decisions about investments in new or expanded supports that help mitigate risks and improve life outcomes for these children
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Parent Engagement from Preschool through Grade 3: A Guide for Policymakers
Parent engagement in children’s education is increasingly viewed as an essential support to children’s learning in early care and education programs and throughout the school years. While there are many definitions of “parent engagement,” the term is used here to describe parents’ efforts to promote their children’s healthy development and learning through activities that can be encouraged by educators in child care, preschool and school settings. (We also use the term “parent involvement” in the same way.) This report makes the case that effective parent engagement during the span from preschool through the early grades is a key contributor to children’s positive academic outcomes. During this period, young children acquire foundational competencies – including language, literacy, early math, and social-emotional skills – that strongly affect their capacity for grade-level learning. When young children fall behind in developing these skills, they often face an uphill path for the rest of their school years. For example, children who have weak language skills upon school entry are more likely to struggle while learning to read, and weak reading skills in third grade greatly hamper children’s learning across the curriculum in later grades. While high-quality teaching in preschool and the early grades is essential, parents can also play a vital role in helping children acquire foundational competencies that fuel school success. The following sections of this report present research, program, and policy information that can inform state initiatives to strengthen parent engagement during preschool through grade 3. Key findings from research: Studies relating parenting behavior to child’s learning and achievement; studies that evaluate interventions; and research on factors affecting parent involvement; Promising models designed for culturally diverse, low-income families; Exemplary state parent engagement initiatives; Opportunities for states to advance parent engagement policies and practices; Summary of research; Recommendation
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Practices for Promoting Young Children's Learning in QRIS Standards
Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS) have emerged as a central strategy in states' efforts to improve the quality of early care and education programs and the capacity of these programs to promote positive outcomes for children. Currently, 23 states have a statewide QRIS. At the heart of each QRIS is a set of standards that describe the requirements a center-based program or home-based early care and education setting must meet in order to qualify for a QRIS rating. Because children's school readiness is a key goal of QRIS, requirements concerning practices that can promote children's learning and development are of special interest. These requirements are typically found in standards' descriptions of acceptable curricula or learning activities, including methods for promoting the learning of children with special needs and children who are English language learners, as well as practices related to child assessment and parent involvement
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Building Strong Systems of Support for Young Children's Mental Health: Key Strategies for States and a Planning Tool
Young children's mental health provides an essential foundation for early learning and development. In the early years, children's mental health can be seen in a wide range of behaviors that promote engagement in social relationships and learning. An infant who joyfully participates in "conversation" with parents is acquiring a capacity for strong social relationships while learning language and the patterns of communication. A toddler shows positive mental health by actively investigating her environment while gaining new cognitive and motor skills during play and exploration. A preschooler who helps his friend build a robot, shares his favorite markers, and rebuilds his block tower after it tumbles is learning social and problem-solving skills that will fuel learning in preschool and beyond. In sum, young children's "mental health" refers to emotional wellbeing and positive social development from birth through age 5. Young children with mental health problems miss out on developmental experiences that promote early learning. The behavior problems of some children result in actual expulsion from early care and education settings. For other children, mental health problems and challenging behavior may limit positive engagement in learning by contributing to conflictual relationships with teachers and classmates. Young children experiencing sadness or anxiety may find it hard to fully participate in growth-promoting play and learning activities. At home, young children with problem behaviors may be caught in a cycle of negative interactions with parents that disrupt a nurturing parent-child relationship and further limit support for the child's healthy development. Recent estimates suggest that between nine and 14 percent of children under age experience emotional and behavioral problems. The prevalence of mental health problems is markedly higher for children in families facing economic hardship and other stressful circumstances, such as maternal depression. In the absence of interventions, mental health conditions that emerge in the early years tend to persist and interfere with healthy development and learning. State leaders increasingly recognize the critical link between young children's mental health and later social adjustment and success in school. In recent years, states have begun to develop new policies and programs that help establish supports for young children's mental health across a wide range of settings, including pediatric offices and community clinics, early childhood and home-visiting programs, and child welfare agencies. These efforts focus on promoting positive mental health, preventing potential mental health problems, and treating identified delays or difficulties in social-emotional development. Many states' efforts include the use of evidence-based models and training experiences for service providers to increase their knowledge and skills. Part I of this report describes key strategies that should be part of a comprehensive system of supports for young children's mental health and examples from states that are developing and implementing them. These strategies are: promoting early childhood mental health (ECMH) in home visiting and parenting programs; enhancing supports for ECMH in early care and education programs; screening parents for depression; screening children for social-emotional problems; developing a better-trained workforce to address the social-emotional needs of young children; using evidence-based practices and evaluation to promote effective ECMH programs; and supporting the well-being of exceptionally vulnerable children. Part II of this report presents a simple tool that state planners can use for two purposes: 1) to assess the current status of the state's ECMH supports; and 2) to plan for specific enhancements in the state's current system, including expansion of certain ECMH strategies, such as child screening or training for early childhood teachers, and improvements in the quality of interventions. Since the creation of strong systems of ECMH supports requires collaboration among multiple agencies and programs, this tool may be especially useful for Early Childhood Advisory Councils, Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems initiatives, and similar state-level planning entities that bring together leaders from different sectors
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Unclaimed Children Revisited: California Case Study
The purpose of the Unclaimed Children Revisited: California Case Study is to identify, document, and analyze effective fiscal, infrastructural, and related policies that support research-informed practices for mental health services to children and adolescents in California. The study also generates “lessons learned” from individual initiatives. CCS, together with the other components of UCR, examines the current status of children’s mental health policies in the United States, particularly those that support improved outcomes for children, adolescents, and their families