Search Results

Author: Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Resulting in 53 citations.
1. Aber, J. Lawrence
Gershoff, Elizabeth Thompson
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Social Exclusion of Children in the United States: Identifying Potential Indicators
In: Beyond Child Poverty: The Social Exclusion of Children. A. Kahn and S. Kamerman, eds., New York: The Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University, 2002: 245-286
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: The Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University
Keyword(s): Child Health; Children, Poverty; Children, Well-Being; Family Environment; Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this paper, we will very briefly describe several current conceptual definitions of social exclusion of children, noting that most now consider social exclusion to be a dynamic, multidimensional concept. The main portion of the paper will lay out for American audiences descriptions of eight potential domains of exclusion and identify numerous specific measures of social exclusion in each domain. Throughout, we also identify: (1) national data sources when they exist in the U.S.; (2) if U.S. sources do not exist, European sources as exemplars; and (3) critical features of social exclusion for which we have been unable to identify any data sources.
Bibliography Citation
Aber, J. Lawrence, Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Social Exclusion of Children in the United States: Identifying Potential Indicators" In: Beyond Child Poverty: The Social Exclusion of Children. A. Kahn and S. Kamerman, eds., New York: The Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University, 2002: 245-286
2. Argys, Laura M.
Peters, H. Elizabeth
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Smith, Judith R.
Contributions of Absent Fathers to Child Well-being: The Impact of Child Support Dollars and Father-Child Contact
Presented: Bethesda, MD, Conference on Father Involvement, October 1996
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Author
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Support; Children, Behavioral Development; Cognitive Development; Family Background and Culture; Family Income; Fathers, Absence; Fathers, Involvement; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this paper we address three questions. First, other than its role in increasing income, does the receipt of child support have additional beneficial effects for children with absent fathers? Second, do the effects of child support differ when child support awards and payments are made cooperatively as opposed to non-cooperatively (eg., court ordered). Third, how do family policies affect the probability of child support awards and payments, and, in particular, the probability of cooperative awards and payments? In regressions that control for family income and other socio-economic family background characteristics, we find that child support receipt has additional positive effects on some measures of children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. The effect varies by the type of outcome, race, and reason for father's absence. Cooperative child support awards and payments appear to be more beneficial than child support that is court ordered. Turning to our policy variables, we see that child support guidelines promote awards that are cooperative, while increases in the paternity establishment rate increases court ordered (i.e. non-cooperative) awards. More generous state welfare benefits reduce court ordered awards, but do not reduce cooperative awards.
Bibliography Citation
Argys, Laura M., H. Elizabeth Peters, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Judith R. Smith. "Contributions of Absent Fathers to Child Well-being: The Impact of Child Support Dollars and Father-Child Contact." Presented: Bethesda, MD, Conference on Father Involvement, October 1996.
3. Argys, Laura M.
Peters, H. Elizabeth
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Smith, Judith R.
The Impact of Child Support on Cognitive Outcomes of Young Children
Demography 35,2 (May 1998): 159-173.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/du641383632n8048/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Child Support; Children, Preschool; Cognitive Development; Fathers and Children; Fathers, Absence; Intelligence; Marital Status; Parental Influences; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Variables, Instrumental; Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child data to address three questions. First, does the receipt of child support have beneficial effects for children with absent fathers apart from increasing income? Second, do the effects of child support differ when child-support awards and payments are made cooperatively as opposed to being court ordered? Third, are any positive effects of child support solely a product of unmeasured differences among fathers and families? Controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of the child and family, we find some evidence that receipt of child support has a positive impact on children's cognitive test scores over and above its contribution to total income. However, the effects vary by test, by race, and by reason for father's absence. Our results also indicate that the distinction between cooperative and noncooperative awards is important. Finally, our instrumental variables estimates show that the effects of child support persist after we control for unobserved characteristics of fathers and families.
Bibliography Citation
Argys, Laura M., H. Elizabeth Peters, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Judith R. Smith. "The Impact of Child Support on Cognitive Outcomes of Young Children." Demography 35,2 (May 1998): 159-173.
4. Baydar, Nazli
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Dynamics of Child Support and its Consequences for Children
In: Child Support and Child Well-Being. I. Garfinkel, S. S. McLanahan and P. K. Robins, eds. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 1994
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Urban Institute
Keyword(s): Child Support; Children; Children, Academic Development; Children, Adjustment Problems; Children, Behavioral Development; Children, Home Environment; Fathers, Absence; Fathers, Involvement; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Parents, Non-Custodial; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

The focus of this paper is on children who are eligible for child support rather than the custodial parent who receives the payments and the non-custodial parent who makes the payments. The paper investigates (1) the patterns of receipt of child-support and (2) its impact on children. Child-support payments are examined from a child's point of view. First, the process of becoming eligible for child support and the process of receiving child support are examined. Next, whether child-support payments have observable beneficial effects on children's well-being is examined. The study of the process of child-support receipt shows the extent of pre-existing differences between the children receiving child support payments and children who are eligible but not receiving child support payments. In the study of the effects of child support on children's developmental outcomes, a model that will statistically control for these pre-existing differences to the extent possible is developed. Although the data do not allow us to fully identify the factors that might mediate the effects of child support on child outcomes, an effort is made to account for likely mediators of these effects, such as mother's working hours, the quality of the home environment, and the frequency of contact with the father.
Bibliography Citation
Baydar, Nazli and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Dynamics of Child Support and its Consequences for Children" In: Child Support and Child Well-Being. I. Garfinkel, S. S. McLanahan and P. K. Robins, eds. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 1994
5. Baydar, Nazli
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Effects of Maternal Employment and Child Care Arrangements in Infancy on Preschoolers' Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes
Developmental Psychology 27,6 (November 1991): 932-945.
Also: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/27/6/932/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Child Development; Children, Academic Development; Children, Behavioral Development; General Assessment; Maternal Employment; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

The intersection of maternal employment and child care in the first three years of life is considered with respect to its effects on cognitive and behavioral outcomes in preschool children from the Children of the NLSY. Three sets of questions are addressed relating to the effects of maternal employment in the first three years, the effects of continuity, intensity and timing of employment in the first year, and the effects of different types of child-care arrangements over and above the expected maternal employment effect. The PPVT-R and BPI scores of 572 white children who were three and four years old were examined. Employment effects on children were considered in the early years of life. For children of employed mothers, babysitter care, grandmother care, and mother care in the first year of life were associated with lower BPI scores than father care. The beneficial effects of babysitter or grandmother care were stronger for girls than for boys, and the effects of maternal care were found for boys but not for girls. Grandmother and mother care during the first year were associated with higher PPVT-R scores for children in poverty and for boys. Reasons for the greater sensitivity in boys and children in poverty to child care type are discussed and several methodological issues considered.
Bibliography Citation
Baydar, Nazli and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Effects of Maternal Employment and Child Care Arrangements in Infancy on Preschoolers' Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes." Developmental Psychology 27,6 (November 1991): 932-945.
6. Baydar, Nazli
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Effects of Maternal Employment and Child-Care Arrangements in Infancy on Preschoolers' Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes: Evidence from the Children of the NLSY
Working Paper, Seattle WA: Battelle Human Affairs Research Center, January 1991
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Battelle Human Affairs Research Center
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Child Development; Children, Academic Development; Children, Behavioral Development; General Assessment; Maternal Employment; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Bibliography Citation
Baydar, Nazli and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Effects of Maternal Employment and Child-Care Arrangements in Infancy on Preschoolers' Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes: Evidence from the Children of the NLSY." Working Paper, Seattle WA: Battelle Human Affairs Research Center, January 1991.
7. Baydar, Nazli
Greek, April A.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of the Birth of a Sibling During the First 6 Years of Life
Journal of Marriage and Family 59,4 (November 1997): 939-956.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/353794
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavioral Problems; Birth Order; Cognitive Development; Family Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Income Dynamics/Shocks; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; Poverty; Preschool Children; Self-Esteem; Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC); Siblings; Skills; Social Emotional Development

We investigate links among the birth of a new infant, changes in the family environment, changes in the relationship between the mother and an older child, and changes in an older child's cognitive and socioemotional development. We hypothesize that the effects of sibling birth are mediated in the associated changes in the family environment and changes in the interaction patterns of the family members. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used on a cohort of nonminority children between 6 and 23 months old. The birth of a sibling results in significant chances in the family environment. At the same rune, positive interactions with the older child diminish, especially if the birth interval is short, and the mother increasingly adopts controlling parenting styles. These changes result in lower levels of verbal development. About 2.5 years after the sibling birth, negative effects are detected on achievement and on socioemotional adjustment. Some positive effects of sibling birth also are done on verbal ability and peer relations.
Bibliography Citation
Baydar, Nazli, April A. Greek and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of the Birth of a Sibling During the First 6 Years of Life." Journal of Marriage and Family 59,4 (November 1997): 939-956.
8. Baydar, Nazli
Hyle , Patricia
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of the Birth of a Sibling During Preschool and Early Grade School Years
Journal of Marriage and Family 59,4 (November 1997): 957-965.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/353795
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavioral Problems; Birth Order; Family Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Mothers, Education; Preschool Children; Self-Esteem; Self-Perception; Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC); Siblings

This study investigates the changes in socio-emotional development, achievement, and self-concept after the birth of a sibling in a cohort of preschool-aged children over a 2-year period and a 4-year period. We test whether the birth of a sibling is associated with changes in the family environment and in children's developmental trajectories. We use data from nonminority children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The birth of a sibling is associated with a significant increase in the behavior problems of the children, but these increases are temporary. The birth of a sibling also is associated with lower reading recognition scores among economically disadvantaged children. The impact of the birth of a sibling on self-perception is large and negative, and this effect is stronger among the children of economically disadvantaged families.
Bibliography Citation
Baydar, Nazli, Patricia Hyle and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of the Birth of a Sibling During Preschool and Early Grade School Years." Journal of Marriage and Family 59,4 (November 1997): 957-965.
9. Baydar, Nazli
Paikoff, Roberta L.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Effects of Childcare Arrangements on Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes: Evidence from a National Sample of 3-4 Year Olds
Unpublished Manuscript, Seattle WA: Battelle Human Affairs Research Center, 1990
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Battelle Human Affairs Research Center
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; General Assessment; Maternal Employment; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Bibliography Citation
Baydar, Nazli, Roberta L. Paikoff and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Effects of Childcare Arrangements on Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes: Evidence from a National Sample of 3-4 Year Olds." Unpublished Manuscript, Seattle WA: Battelle Human Affairs Research Center, 1990.
10. Brady-Smith, Christy
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Waldfogel, Jane
Fauth, Rebecca
Work or Welfare? Assessing the Impacts of Recent Employment and Policy Changes on Very Young Children
Evaluation and Program Planning 24,4 (November 2001): 409-425
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Child Care; Children; Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Education; Family Circumstances, Changes in; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Income; Welfare

We explore the implications of the rapid influx of low-income mothers into the workforce and PRWORA work requirements during the middle to late 1990s for the well-being of young children. Our premise is that some families with young children will be better off, while others will be worse off than low-income cohorts from a decade ago. We focus on six policy provisions from the 1990s that are likely to influence the well-being of young, low-income children in the coming decades: (a) work requirements for mothers of young children; (b) education requirements for teenage mothers of young children; (c) child care subsidies; (d) child care regulations; (e) family leave; and (f) the Earned Income Tax Credit. For each of these provisions, we discuss the actual policy as well as the implementation (i.e. practice) of the policy at the state level. We then consider what policy-relevant research has to say about the possible impact of early maternal employment, income, and child care on young children, highlighting research on low-income families where possible. Much of the research we review is based on data collected prior to the rapid changes in the proportion of low-income mothers in the workforce and in state and federal requirements and programs that occurred in the mid-1990s. Thus, we conclude with speculations on how the current trends in workforce participation and welfare and other policies may impact young children in the coming decades.
Bibliography Citation
Brady-Smith, Christy, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Jane Waldfogel and Rebecca Fauth. "Work or Welfare? Assessing the Impacts of Recent Employment and Policy Changes on Very Young Children." Evaluation and Program Planning 24,4 (November 2001): 409-425.
11. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Do You Believe in Magic? What We Can Expect from Early Childhood Intervention Programs
Presented: Washington, DC, Congressional Briefing, U.S. House of Representative, Subcommittee on Ways and Means, May 2000.
Also: http://ccf.tc.columbia.edu/pdf/Magic%20article.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Child Development; Children, Poverty; Cognitive Development; Family Income; I.Q.; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Poverty; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Preschool Children; Welfare

Excerpt: It is a pleasure to participate in this research briefing on "Early Childhood Intervention Programs: Are the Costs Justified", sponsored by the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and the Joint Center for Poverty Research. My goal is to provide a context in which to interpret the results from the evaluations of several early intervention programs, all of which provided high quality, center-based early childhood education (and family-oriented services). The title "Do You Believe in Magic?" is taken from a popular song from the 1960's (performed by the Lovin' Spoonful). The large effects seen at the end of early education are not due to magic; they are based on what is known about young children's development, and the conditions and circumstances that promote or impede it. The ingredients of high quality early education are not magic, either, and may be repeated across centers, settings, populations, and regions of the country. To expect effects to be sustained throughout childhood and adolescence, at their initial high levels, in the absence of continued high quality schooling, however, is to believe in magic. Indeed, the fact that effects are sustained, albeit at more modest levels, through adolescence in some cases, highlights the potential power of such initiatives.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne. "Do You Believe in Magic? What We Can Expect from Early Childhood Intervention Programs." Presented: Washington, DC, Congressional Briefing, U.S. House of Representative, Subcommittee on Ways and Means, May 2000.
12. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Baydar, Nazli
Effects of Child-Care Arrangements on Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes in 3- and 4-Year-Olds: Evidence from the Children of the NLSY
Presented: Seattle, WA, Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 1991
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
Keyword(s): Child Care; Child Development; Children, Academic Development; Children, Behavioral Development; General Assessment; Maternal Employment; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Effects of early childhood care experience using data from the Children of the NLSY are examined, focusing on patterns of child care over the first three years of life and their effects on black and white and poor and non-poor 3- and 4-year olds. Child verbal ability (PPVT-R) was associated with early child-care arrangements for white children living in poverty, such that: (1) grandmother care was the optimal form of early care; (2) care by relatives other than mothers and grandmothers exerts a negative effect; (3) the transition to center-based care in the second year of life was negative, compared to grandmother or mother care; and (4) the transition to center-based care in the third year was not negative. Small but significant maternal employment effects are seen for employment in the first but not the second or third years of the child's life. For employed mothers, type of child care used in the first, but not the second and third years of life, is associated with PPVT-R scores.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne and Nazli Baydar. "Effects of Child-Care Arrangements on Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes in 3- and 4-Year-Olds: Evidence from the Children of the NLSY." Presented: Seattle, WA, Biennial Meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 1991.
13. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Brown, Brett V.
Duncan, Greg J.
Moore, Kristin Anderson
Child Development in the Context of Family and Community Resources: An Agenda for National Data Collections
In: Integrating Federal Statistics on Children: Report of a Workshop. Committee on National Statistics and Board on Children and Families, ed. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1995: pp. 27-97.
Also: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309052491/html/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: National Academy Press
Keyword(s): Child Development; Overview, Child Assessment Data

In this paper we suggest specific national data collection projects that could improve research on child and adolescent development. Our explicit aim is to encourage continued expansion of both the outcome domains covered and the explanatory variables measured, to enhance the richness and quality of the data obtained, and to improve the representativeness of the samples that are drawn. These improvements would serve both the policy and academic research communities in their efforts to specify and estimate causal models of child, adolescent, and young adult behavior.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Brett V. Brown, Greg J. Duncan and Kristin Anderson Moore. "Child Development in the Context of Family and Community Resources: An Agenda for National Data Collections" In: Integrating Federal Statistics on Children: Report of a Workshop. Committee on National Statistics and Board on Children and Families, ed. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1995: pp. 27-97.
14. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Crane, Jonathan
Duncan, Greg J.
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Phillips, Meredith
How Might Genetic Influences on Academic Achievement Masquerade as Environmental Influences?
Smart Library on Children and Families, 2003.
Also: http://www.children.smartlibrary.org/NewInterface/segment.cfm?segment=2606
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Qontent
Keyword(s): Cognitive Development; Educational Attainment; Ethnic Differences; Family Background and Culture; Family Environment; Family Income; Genetics; I.Q.; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Background; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This article reports on Phillips et al.'s study of the effects of families on black and white children's test scores. This abstract comes from the article's description of the researchers' methodology:

"Part of the problem in determining "how much" of the black-white achievement gap results from heredity versus environment is that a person's genes and environment influence each other in complicated ways. It is often difficult to tell what part of a person's situation is influenced by their genetic makeup and what part is shaped by their environment."

"Phillips and her colleagues sought to determine the relative importance of a wide range of family characteristics for children's vocabulary test scores. They did this by running statistical models in which they would factor in different influences and examine how the included variables changed the differences in black and white children's test scores."

Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Jonathan Crane, Greg J. Duncan, Pamela Kato Klebanov and Meredith Phillips. "How Might Genetic Influences on Academic Achievement Masquerade as Environmental Influences?" Smart Library on Children and Families, 2003.
15. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Duncan, Greg J.
The Effects of Poverty on Children
The Future of Children: Children and Poverty 7,2 (Summer/Fall 1997): 55-71.
Also: http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/07_02_03.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs - Princeton - Brookings
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Children; Children, Home Environment; Family Income; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Poverty; School Completion

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Although hundreds of studies have documented the association between family poverty and children's health achievement and behavior few measure the effects of the timing depth and duration of poverty on children, and many fail to adjust for other family characteristics (for example, female headship, mother's age, and schooling) that may account for much of the observed correlation between poverty and child outcomes. This article focuses on a recent set of studies that explore the relationship between poverty and child outcomes in depth. By and large, this research supports the conclusion that family income has selective but, in some instances, quite substantial effects on child and adolescent well-being. Family income appears to be more strongly related to children's ability and achievement than to their emotional outcomes. Children who live in extreme poverty or who live below the poverty line for multiple years appear, all other things being equal, to suffer the worst outcomes. The timing of poverty also seems to be important for certain child outcomes. Children who experience poverty during their preschool and early school years have lower rates of school completion than children and adolescents who experience poverty only in later years. Although more research is needed on the significance of the timing of poverty on child outcomes, findings to date suggest that interventions during early childhood may be most important in reducing poverty's impact on children.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne and Greg J. Duncan. "The Effects of Poverty on Children." The Future of Children: Children and Poverty 7,2 (Summer/Fall 1997): 55-71.
16. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Duncan, Greg J.
Britto, Pia Rebello
Are Socioeconomic Gradients for Children Similar to Those for Adults?: Achievement and Health of Children in the United States?
In: Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations: Social, Biological, and Educational Dynamics. D. Keating and C. Hertzman, eds., New York: Guilford Press, 1999: 94-124
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Guilford Publications
Keyword(s): Child Health; Children, Poverty; Family Income; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Motor and Social Development (MSD); Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Poverty

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Excerpt from chapter: The data reported for the three age groupings are in part based on a 1995 conference entitled "Growing Up Poor," which was sponsored by the NICHD Research Network on Child and Family Well-being and the Russell Sage Foundation (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 1997a). Longitudinal data from almost a dozen developmental studies were examined to understand the extent to which childhood poverty influences life chances. All of the research teams were asked to conduct "replication" analyses in which the same set of measures were included in regression models. These measures were family income, maternal schooling, family structure, and--if multiple race/ethnic groups were included--race/ethnicity. Our goal was to provide an estimate of income effects independent of the most common poverty cofactors (parental education, marital structure). Almost all of the studies had at least three annual observations of family income; consequently, the estimates of income-to-needs ratios are based on multiple years (since family income is known to vary from year to year, multiple year estimates yield more stable estimates.

Our data demonstrate the existence of income gradients during chilldhood. These gradients are seen in the earliest years of life--starting with low birth weight (and other complications at birth), including physical growth and exposure to lead and other toxins in the first few years of life), and moving to cognitive ability by the end of the toddler stage of development (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). The gradients do not seem to be reduced by the advent of school. We suspect that schools tend to reinforce existing disparities in children's outcomes rather than reducing them, although some recent data suggest that the primary reason for continuing disparities has to do with stimulating experiences in the home rather than school (Gamoran, Mane, & Bethke, 11998). And the gradients are much more pronounced for school achievement and growth th an for behavior problems.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Greg J. Duncan and Pia Rebello Britto. "Are Socioeconomic Gradients for Children Similar to Those for Adults?: Achievement and Health of Children in the United States?" In: Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations: Social, Biological, and Educational Dynamics. D. Keating and C. Hertzman, eds., New York: Guilford Press, 1999: 94-124
17. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Han, Wen-Jui
Waldfogel, Jane
Maternal Employment and Child Cognitive Outcomes in the First Three Years of Life: The NICHD Study of Early Child Care
Child Development 73,4 (July-August 2002): 1052-1072.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8624.00457/abstract
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Child Care; Cognitive Development; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Parenting Skills/Styles

With increased numbers of women employed in their children's first year of life and with increased attention being paid by parents and policy makers to the importance of early experiences for children, establishing the links that might exist between early maternal employment and child cognitive outcomes is more important than ever. Negative associations between maternal employment during the first year of life and children's cognitive outcomes at age 3 (and later ages) have been reported using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement. However, it was not known whether these findings would be replicated in another study, nor whether these results were due to features of child care (e.g., quality, type), home environment (e.g., provision of learning), and/or parenting (e.g., sensitivity). This study explored these issues using data on 900 European American children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, which provides information on child cognitive scores at 15, 24, and 36 months, as well as data about the home environment (as assessed by the Home Observation of the Measurement of the Environment Scale), parental sensitivity, and child-care quality and type over the first 3 years of life. Maternal employment by the ninth month was found to be linked to lower Bracken School Readiness scores at 36 months, with the effects more pronounced when mothers were working 30 hr or more per week and with effects more pronounced for certain subgroups (i.e., children whose mothers were not sensitive, boys, and children with married parents). Although quality of child care, home environment, and maternal sensitivity also mattered, the negative effects of working 30 hr or more per week in the first 9 months were still found, even when controlling for child-care quality, the quality of the home environment, and maternal sensitivity. Implications for policy are also discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Wen-Jui Han and Jane Waldfogel. "Maternal Employment and Child Cognitive Outcomes in the First Three Years of Life: The NICHD Study of Early Child Care." Child Development 73,4 (July-August 2002): 1052-1072.
18. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Smith, Judith R.
Duncan, Greg J.
Lee, Kyunghee
The Black-White Test Score Gap in Young Children: Contributions of Test and Family Characteristics
Applied Developmental Science 7,4 (2003): 239-252.
Also: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532480XADS0704_3
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Birthweight; Ethnic Differences; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); I.Q.; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

This study examined Black-White test score gaps in young children. Scores from a receptive verbal test (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised [PPVT-R]) and 2 full-scale intelligence tests (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence [WPPSI]) were examined in 2 samples: (a) the Infant Health and Development Program: 315 premature, low birth weight 3- and 5-year olds; and (b) the National Longitudinal Study of Youth-Child Supplement: 2,220 3- to 4-year-olds and 1,354 5- to 6-year-olds. Questions addressed by the study included the following: Would similar test score gaps be seen on both tests and at both ages? Would gaps be reduced by controlling for family conditions and home environment? Would similar gaps be seen for the different tests? Fifteen- to 25-point differences in Black-White test scores were seen at both ages. The addition of demographic conditions reduced the disparities to 9 to 17 points. Including home environment measures further reduced the disparities to 4 to 13 points. Test score gaps were 11/2 to 3 times larger for the PPVT-R than for the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the WPPSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Pamela Kato Klebanov, Judith R. Smith, Greg J. Duncan and Kyunghee Lee. "The Black-White Test Score Gap in Young Children: Contributions of Test and Family Characteristics." Applied Developmental Science 7,4 (2003): 239-252.
19. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Magnuson, Katherine A.
Waldfogel, Jane
Long-Run Economic Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Adult Earnings
Issue Paper #12, Partnership for America's Economic Success (PAES), Pew Charitable Trust, Washington, DC, February 2009.
Also: http://www.partnershipforsuccess.org/uploads/20090504_LongRunAdultEarningsReport.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Pew Charitable Trust
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Home Environment; Earnings; Economic Well-Being; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Labor Market Outcomes; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Researchers and policymakers alike want to better understand the long-run effects of investments in children's well-being. Yet, only a few studies have examined how participants in early childhood interventions fare as adults. These studies suggest that early investments may have sizable payoffs for children's later success. In the absence of long-run data on children's outcomes, how can we determine the long-run monetary value of improvements in young children's well-being?

In this report we describe a way to link improvements in aspects of children's early health, achievement, and behavior to improved labor market outcomes when they become adults. We apply the same method to link improvements in the parenting children receive with their success in the labor market as adults. Our results suggest that investments in early childhood that improve these aspects of development will likely have important payoffs. However, the magnitude of these payoffs is strongly dependent on the extent to which early program effects are maintained over time.

We draw both substantive and methodological conclusions from this research. Both are important to understanding and quantifying the potential of early interventions to improve later outcomes. Our key substantive finding is that early improvements in child health, academic achievement, and behavior as well as improved parenting can yield sizable economic benefits for adult earnings. Our key methodological contribution is the application of a two-step method for linking improvements in early outcomes to long-run economic gains.

Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Katherine A. Magnuson and Jane Waldfogel. "Long-Run Economic Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Adult Earnings." Issue Paper #12, Partnership for America's Economic Success (PAES), Pew Charitable Trust, Washington, DC, February 2009.
20. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Smith, Judith R.
Berlin, Lisa
Lee, Kyunghee
Implementations of Welfare Changes for Parents of Young Children [Revised June 1998]
Presented: Evanston, IL, Family Process and Child Development in Low Income Families, Joint Center for Poverty Research, May 1998
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Joint Center for Poverty Research
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Children, Preschool; Children, Well-Being; Employment; Family Studies; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Adolescent; Mothers, Health; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Preschool Children; Teenagers; Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This is a revised edition dated June 15, 1998. Four questions related to welfare and work in the context of the family are addressed: (i) The Newark Young Family Study data set from the TPD is used to ask, "Does participation in a mandatory welfare to work demonstration program that includes mandatory work, sanctioning of the welfare stipend for non-participation, and intensive case management affect teenage mothers and their preschool children?"; (ii) The second issue involves whether or not transitions off of welfare in the first few years of life have any impact upon parenting behavior, maternal emotional health, and child cognitive test scores. The IHDP data set is used, with the focus being on natural transitions (i.e., not those attached with a specific welfare to work program); (iii) The IHPD and the NLSY-CS data sets provide clues as to the benefits (or costs) of combining welfare and work strategies to make ends meet during the early childhood years, which is the third issue discussed; (iv) The final question has to do with the efficacy of family-focused early intervention programs, with a child care component, in influencing the work behavior of mothers. We also ask treatment effects upon children's wellbeing are being mediated by employment of the mother, using the IHDP data set.
Bibliography Citation
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Judith R. Smith, Lisa Berlin and Kyunghee Lee. "Implementations of Welfare Changes for Parents of Young Children [Revised June 1998]." Presented: Evanston, IL, Family Process and Child Development in Low Income Families, Joint Center for Poverty Research, May 1998.
21. Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Escape from Poverty: What Makes a Difference for Children?
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Keyword(s): Child Care; Children, Well-Being; Family Studies; Fathers; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Overview, Child Assessment Data; Poverty; Racial Differences; Welfare; Women's Roles

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

First published: 1995. Includes bibliographical references and index. Whose responsibility? An historical analysis of the changing roles of mothers, fathers, and society -- The life circumstances and development of children in welfare families: a profile based on national survey data -- Welfare- to-work through the eyes of children -- Strategies for altering the outcomes of poor children and their families -- Policy issues of child care -- Child care and children of color -- Health policy in the Family Support Act of 1988 -- Economic issues of health care -- Dealing with dads: the changing roles of fathers -- The effects of child support reform on child well-being -- Losing ground or moving ahead? Welfare reform and children -- National surveys as data resources for public policy research on poor children -- An interdisciplinary model and data requirements for studying poor children -- Two-generation programs: a new intervention strategy and directions for future research .
Bibliography Citation
Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. Escape from Poverty: What Makes a Difference for Children? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
22. Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay
Gordon, Rachel A.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Neighborhood and Family Influences on the Intellectual and Behavioral Competence of Preschool and Early School-Age Children
In: Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, Volume 1. G. Duncan, J. Brooks-Gunn, and J. Aber, eds., New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; 1997: 79-118
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Children, Academic Development; Children, Poverty; Children, Preschool; Children, School-Age; Cognitive Ability; Family Income; Family Resources; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP); Maternal Employment; Neighborhood Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Chapter 4: In this chapter we examine neighborhood-and family-level effects on the functioning of preschool (three- and four-year-old) and early school-age (five- and six-year-old) children. We use data from the Children of the NLSY, a survey of children based on a national survey of adolescents and young adults begun in 1979, and from the IHDP, a large eight-site study of an early educational intervention for premature and low-birth-weight children and their parents.
Bibliography Citation
Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay, Rachel A. Gordon, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Pamela Kato Klebanov. "Neighborhood and Family Influences on the Intellectual and Behavioral Competence of Preschool and Early School-Age Children" In: Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, Volume 1. G. Duncan, J. Brooks-Gunn, and J. Aber, eds., New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; 1997: 79-118
23. Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay
Mott, Frank L.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Phillips, Deborah A.
Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY): A Unique Research Opportunity
Developmental Psychology 27,6 (November 1991): 918-931.
Also: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/27/6/918/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLS General, NLSY79
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Child Care; Children; General Assessment; Household Composition; Life Course; Maternal Employment; Mothers; NLS Description; Overview, Child Assessment Data; Research Methodology

The data set known as Children of the NLSY offers unusual opportunities for research on questions not easily pursued by developmental psychologists. This article provides a history of children of the NLSY, describes the data set with special focus on the child outcome measures and a subset of maternal life history measures, highlights several of the research and policy relevant issues that may be addressed, and shows how the intersection of children's and mother's lives may be studied in less static, more life-course oriented ways. Exemplars are given in the topics of maternal employment and child care, adolescent pregnancy and child rearing, divorce, poverty, and multigenerational parenting. Implications of research using children of the NLSY for the field of developmental psychology and interdisciplinary collaboration are discussed. [PsycINFO]
Bibliography Citation
Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay, Frank L. Mott, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Deborah A. Phillips. "Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY): A Unique Research Opportunity." Developmental Psychology 27,6 (November 1991): 918-931.
24. Duncan, Greg J.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Consequences of Growing Up Poor
New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, May 1997.
Also: http://www.russellsage.org/publications/titles/consequences_growing.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Child Health; Children, Well-Being; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Educational Attainment; Fertility; Gender Differences; High School Completion/Graduates; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Motor and Social Development (MSD); Parental Influences; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Poverty; Pre-natal Care/Exposure; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Pre/post Natal Health Care; Racial Differences; Self-Esteem; Siblings; Verbal Memory (McCarthy Scale); Wealth

Eighteen papers examine the consequences and correlates of growing up poor as well as the mechanisms through which poverty influences children. Papers discuss the effects of poverty for the prenatal period and infancy, early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence; poverty trends; whether parent absence or poverty matters more; trends in the economic well-being and life chances of America's children; the effects of long-term poverty on the physical health of children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth; poverty and patterns of child care; consequences of living in poverty for young children's cognitive and verbal ability and early school achievement; economic resources, parental practices, and children's well-being; psychosocial morbidity among poor children in Ontario; family economic hardship and adolescent adjustment; the influence of poverty on children's classroom placement and behavior problems; the role of family income and sources of income in adolescent achievement; poverty during adolescence and subsequent educational attainment; childhood poverty and adolescent schooling and fertility outcomes; race, sex, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty; the effects of parents' income, wealth, and attitudes on children's completed schooling and self-esteem; whether poverty in adolescence affects the life chances of high-school graduates; and income effects across the life span. ISBN: 0-87154-143-2.
Bibliography Citation
Duncan, Greg J. and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, May 1997..
25. Duncan, Greg J.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Income Effects Across the Life Span: Integration and Interpretation
In: Consequences of Growing Up Poor. G. Duncan and J. Brooks-Gunn, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, May 1997: 596-610
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Family Income; Family Structure; General Assessment; Mothers, Education; Poverty

One in five American children now live in families with incomes below the poverty line, and their prospects are not bright. Low income is statistically linked with a variety of poor outcomes for children, from low birth weight and poor nutrition in infancy to increased chances of academic failure, emotional distress, and unwed childbirth in adolescence. To address these problems it is not enough to know that money makes a difference; we need to understand how. Consequences of Growing Up Poor is an extensive and illuminating examination of the paths through which economic deprivation damages children at all stages of their development...

Based on their findings, the editors and contributors to Consequences of Growing Up Poor recommend more sharply focused child welfare policies targeted to specific eras and conditions of poor children's lives. They also weigh the relative need for income supplements, child care subsidies, and home interventions. Consequences of Growing Up Poor describes the extent and causes of hardships for poor children, defines the interaction between income and family, and offers solutions to improve young lives. (Source: http://www.russellsage.org/publications/titles/consequences_growing.htm. Russell Sage Foundation.)

Bibliography Citation
Duncan, Greg J. and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Income Effects Across the Life Span: Integration and Interpretation" In: Consequences of Growing Up Poor. G. Duncan and J. Brooks-Gunn, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, May 1997: 596-610
26. Duncan, Greg J.
Dowsett, Chantelle J.
Claessens, Amy
Magnuson, Katherine A.
Huston, Aletha C.
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Pagani, Linda S.
Feinstein, Leon
Engel, Mimi
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Sexton, Holly
Duckworth, Kathryn
Japel, Crista
School Readiness and Later Achievement
Presented: Atlanta, GA, Society for Research in Child Development, Biennial Meetings, April 10, 2005.
Also: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/training/Duncan_SchoolReadiness_04253.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); British Cohort Study (BCS); Children, Academic Development; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); School Entry/Readiness

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using six longitudinal data sets, we estimate links between three key elements of school readiness—school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills—and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to illuminate how naturally occurring changes in these early skills are associated with children's subsequent learning, most of our regression models control for cognitive, attention and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry.

Across all six studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading skills and then attention. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Bibliography Citation
Duncan, Greg J., Chantelle J. Dowsett, Amy Claessens, Katherine A. Magnuson, Aletha C. Huston, Pamela Kato Klebanov, Linda S. Pagani, Leon Feinstein, Mimi Engel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Holly Sexton, Kathryn Duckworth and Crista Japel. "School Readiness and Later Achievement." Presented: Atlanta, GA, Society for Research in Child Development, Biennial Meetings, April 10, 2005.
27. Duncan, Greg J.
Dowsett, Chantelle J.
Claessens, Amy
Magnuson, Katherine A.
Huston, Aletha C.
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Pagani, Linda S.
Feinstein, Leon
Engel, Mimi
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Sexton, Holly
Duckworth, Kathryn
Japel, Crista
School Readiness and Later Achievement
Developmental Psychology 43,6 (November 2007): 1428-1446.
Also: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/43/6/1428/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); British Cohort Study (BCS); Children, Academic Development; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); School Entry/Readiness

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness—school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills—and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. (Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association)
Bibliography Citation
Duncan, Greg J., Chantelle J. Dowsett, Amy Claessens, Katherine A. Magnuson, Aletha C. Huston, Pamela Kato Klebanov, Linda S. Pagani, Leon Feinstein, Mimi Engel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Holly Sexton, Kathryn Duckworth and Crista Japel. "School Readiness and Later Achievement ." Developmental Psychology 43,6 (November 2007): 1428-1446.
28. Fuligni, Allison Sidle
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Healthy Development of Young Children: SES Disparities, Preventing Strategies, and Policy Opportunities
In: Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research. B.D. Smedly and S.L. Syme, eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2000.
Also: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9939.html
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: National Academy Press
Keyword(s): Child Health; Education; Family Income; Overview, Child Assessment Data; Poverty; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

In 1994, the federal government passed the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which adopted into law six national goals for improving the education system. Foremost on this list was Goal 1: "By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn." (National Education Goals Panel, 1998). Now that the new millenium has arrived, examination of the status of young children entering school shows that we have fallen short of meeting this goal. In this paper, we explore some reasons that the nation is not appreciably nearer to achieving this laudatory outcome and offer research and policy strategies that may help move the nation in this direction.
Bibliography Citation
Fuligni, Allison Sidle and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Healthy Development of Young Children: SES Disparities, Preventing Strategies, and Policy Opportunities" In: Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research. B.D. Smedly and S.L. Syme, eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2000.
29. Fuligni, Allison Sidle
Han, Wen-Jui
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Infant-Toddler HOME in the 2nd and 3rd Years of Life
Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 139-159.
Also: http://www.parentingscienceandpractice.com/Past_Contents/V4_2_3/v4_2_3.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Development; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infants; Parenting Skills/Styles; Preschool Children

Permission to reprint the abstract has been denied by the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Fuligni, Allison Sidle, Wen-Jui Han and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Infant-Toddler HOME in the 2nd and 3rd Years of Life." Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 139-159.
30. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Morgan, S. Philip
Adolescent Mothers and Their Children in Later Life
Family Planning Perspectives 19,4 (July-August 1987): 142-151.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2135159
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Alan Guttmacher Institute
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Children; Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Educational Attainment; First Birth; Marital Status; Mothers, Adolescent; National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG); Socioeconomic Status (SES); Teenagers; Work Attachment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Reviews the results of a longitudinal study of over 300 primarily urban black women who gave birth as adolescents in the 1960s with follow-up results obtained from reinterviews in 1972 and 1984 with both the mothers and their then teenage children. This study found that a substantial majority of the mothers completed high school, found regular employment, and escaped dependence on public assistance. However, while many teenage mothers do break out of the cycle of poverty, the majority did not fare as well as they would have had they been able to postpone parenthood. Data from the 1982 NLSY, 1983 Current Population Survey, and 1982 National Survey of Family Growth are used to provide comparisons with national samples of women. Interviews with the teenage children of the mothers originally interviewed in 1966 revealed that: (1) mother's economic status had pervasive effects on the child's academic performance; (2) receipt of welfare in the first five years after the child's birth had a negative impact on preschool behavior and temperament; and (3) mother's marital status was clearly associated with poor academic performance and behavior problems among adolescents.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and S. Philip Morgan. "Adolescent Mothers and Their Children in Later Life." Family Planning Perspectives 19,4 (July-August 1987): 142-151.
31. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Morgan, S. Philip
Adolescent Mothers in Later Life
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1987
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Children; Educational Attainment; Fertility; First Birth; Marital Status; Mothers, Adolescent; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Teenagers; Work Attachment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) are a set of studies designed to examine the sources of variation in labor-market experience and behavior among four age and sex groups in the United States population: women 30-44, men 45-59 and men and women 14-24. The surveys began in 1966 and have been continued through 1984. In 1979 a new cohort was added, youth ages 14-21. In the analysis presented in Table 2.2 the data from the Survey of Young Women aged 29-36 are used. The women were interviewed for the first time in 1968 and followed through 1982. The cohort is represented by a multistage probability sample of 5,533 women, designed to represent the civilian, noninstitutional population of the United States at the time of the initial survey. A weight is used to correct for noninterviews, oversampling of certain population subgroups, sample attrition and chance variation from population distributions. Included in the NLS is information about labor-market experience: current employment status, characteristics of current or more recent job, and work experience; human-capital and other socioeconomic variables: early formative influences, migration, education, training, health, marital and family characteristics, financial characteristics, job and work attitudes, educational and job aspirations, retrospective evaluation of labor-market experiences, socialpsychological measures; and environmental variables.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and S. Philip Morgan. Adolescent Mothers in Later Life. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
32. Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr.
Levine, Judith A.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
The Children of Teenage Mothers: Patterns of Early Childbearing in Two Generations
Family Planning Perspectives 22,2 (March-April 1990): 54-61.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2135509
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Alan Guttmacher Institute
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Inner-City; Mothers and Daughters; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Teenagers; Underclass

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Twenty years after a mostly black group of Baltimore women became adolescent mothers, the majority of their first-born children had not become adolescent parents, a finding that challenges the popular belief that the offspring of teenage mothers are themselves destined to become adolescent parents. Almost all of the offspring had had intercourse by age 19. About half of the young women had experienced a pregnancy before that age, and approximately one-third of the young men reported having impregnated a partner before age 19. The Baltimore youths were just as likely to have had a live birth before age 19 as were the children of teenage mothers in a national sample of urban blacks, and both of these groups were more likely to have done so than were the children of older mothers in the national sample. In the Baltimore sample, maternal welfare experience only increased a daughter's likelihood of early childbearing if welfare was received during her teenage years. Within the Baltimore sample, a direct comparison of the daughters who became adolescent mothers with their own mothers at a comparable age reveals that the daughters have bleaker educational and financial prospects than their mothers had, and are less likely to ever have married. These results suggest that today's teenage parents may be less likely than were previous cohorts of adolescent mothers to overcome the handicaps of early childbearing. This trend could portend the growth of an urban underclass, even though only a minority of the offspring of teenage mothers go on to become adolescent parents.
Bibliography Citation
Furstenberg, Frank F. Jr., Judith A. Levine and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "The Children of Teenage Mothers: Patterns of Early Childbearing in Two Generations." Family Planning Perspectives 22,2 (March-April 1990): 54-61.
33. Guo, Guang
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Harris, Kathleen Mullan
Persistent Economic Deprivation and Grade Retention among Urban Black Children
Working Paper, Chapel Hill NC, Carolina Population Center, January 1993
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Carolina Population Center (CPC)
Keyword(s): Black Studies; Black Youth; Urbanization/Urban Living

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Earlier version presented: American Sociological Association Meetings, Pittsburgh, May 1992.
Bibliography Citation
Guo, Guang, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Kathleen Mullan Harris. "Persistent Economic Deprivation and Grade Retention among Urban Black Children." Working Paper, Chapel Hill NC, Carolina Population Center, January 1993.
34. Han, Wen-Jui
Waldfogel, Jane
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Long-Run Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Children's Achievement and Behavior
Presented: New York, NY, Population Association of America Meetings, March 1999
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Children, Home Environment; Cognitive Ability; Fathers, Presence; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper investigates the long-term impact of maternal employment and childcare utilization on children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Baydar and Brooks-Gunn (1991) used data from the 1986 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to investigate the effects of continuity, intensity, and timing of maternal employment in the first year and of child-care arrangements in the first three years on children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes as assessed at ages 3 and 4. This paper revisits the same children, four years later, when they are 5/6 and 7/8 years of age, to see whether the effects that Baydar and Brooks-Gunn found at age 3 to 4 persist into the school-age years or whether those effects attenuate over time. As such, this paper will provide valuable new insights into the potential long-term effects of early maternal employment and early child care. Specifically, this paper will provide evidence on: 1) how the continuity, intensity, and timing of maternal employment in the first year of life affect children's development as assessed at age 5/6 and 7/8; 2) how maternal employment and child care arrangements in the first 3 years of life affect children's cognitive and socioemotional functioning at age 5/6 and 7/8 and what factors might mediate these effects; and 3) whether there are interactive influences of the types of early childcare arrangements and early maternal employment on later child outcomes.
Bibliography Citation
Han, Wen-Jui, Jane Waldfogel and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Long-Run Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Children's Achievement and Behavior." Presented: New York, NY, Population Association of America Meetings, March 1999.
35. Han, Wen-Jui
Waldfogel, Jane
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Maternal Employment, Child Care, and Child Behavioral Outcomes: What Do We Know?
Presented: Atlanta, GA, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, May 2002
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper investigates the impact of early maternal employment and child care on children's behavioral outcomes, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and NICHD Study of Early Child Care (SECC). The NLSY is limited in that its behavioral outcomes are based on mothers' reports. Further, the NLSY has no information on the quality of care and only limited information on the quality of children's home environments. Therefore, we use a second dataset, the NICHD-SECC, which has, in addition to early maternal employment and mother-reported behavior problems, the quality of the home environment, the quality of the child care environment, and several additional measures of children's behavior and socioemotional adjustment. Thus, we will be able to use the NICHD-SECC dataset to determine whether the findings from the NLSY hold up when controls for home and child care quality are introduced and when other outcome variables are studied.
Bibliography Citation
Han, Wen-Jui, Jane Waldfogel and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Maternal Employment, Child Care, and Child Behavioral Outcomes: What Do We Know?" Presented: Atlanta, GA, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, May 2002.
36. Han, Wen-Jui
Waldfogel, Jane
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
The Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Later Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes
Journal of Marriage and Family 63,2 (May 2001): 336-354.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654596
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Hispanics; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Poverty; Welfare

This article investigates the long-term impact of early maternal employment on children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Non-Hispanic White and African American children aged 3 to 4 in the 1986 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were followed longitudinally to see whether the effects that prior studies found at age 3 to 4 persist into the school-age years (ages 7 to 8) or whether those effects attenuate over time. The empirical results indicate that maternal employment in the 1st year of a child's life has significant negative effects on White children's cognitive outcomes. These effects persist to ages 7 or 8 for some children but not for others. We also found some negative effects of maternal employment in the 1st year on behavioral problems assessed at age 7 or 8, but again these effects are found only for white children.
Bibliography Citation
Han, Wen-Jui, Jane Waldfogel and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "The Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Later Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes ." Journal of Marriage and Family 63,2 (May 2001): 336-354.
37. Hill, Jennifer L.
Waldfogel, Jane
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Han, Wen-Jui
Maternal Employment and Child Development: A Fresh Look Using Newer Methods
Developmental Psychology 41,6 (November 2005), 833-850.
Also: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/41/6/833/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Propensity Scores

The employment rate for mothers with young children has increased dramatically over the past 25 years. Estimating the effects of maternal employment on children's development is challenged by selection bias and the missing data endemic to most policy research. To address these issues, this study uses propensity score matching and multiple imputation. The authors compare outcomes across 4 maternal employment patterns: no work in first 3 years postbirth, work only after 1st year, part-time work in 1st year, and full-time work in 1st year. Our results demonstrate small but significant negative effects of maternal employment on children's cognitive outcomes for full-time employment in the 1st year postbirth as compared with employment postponed until after the 1st year. Multiple imputation yields noticeably different estimates as compared with a complete case approach for many measures. Differences between results from propensity score approaches and regression modeling are often minimal.

[Editor's Summary]
This study uses data from the NLSY longitudinal study to compare outcomes across four different patterns of maternal employment: no work for three years after a child's birth, work after one year post-birth, part time work in the child's first year, and full time work in the child's first year. Findings indicate small but significant negative effects of full time maternal employment during a child's first year in comparison with the postponement of employment for one year post-birth. The authors also discuss the problem of selection bias and missing data in estimating the effects of maternal employment.

Bibliography Citation
Hill, Jennifer L., Jane Waldfogel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Wen-Jui Han. "Maternal Employment and Child Development: A Fresh Look Using Newer Methods." Developmental Psychology 41,6 (November 2005), 833-850.
38. Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay
Gordon, Rachel A.
Are Neighborhood Effects on Young Children Mediated by Features of the Home Environment?
In: Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, Volume 1. G. Duncan, J. Brooks-Gunn, and J. Aber, eds., New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; 1997: 119-145
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Academic Development; Children, Poverty; Children, School-Age; Cognitive Ability; Family Income; Family Resources; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP); Maternal Employment; Neighborhood Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading)

Chapter 5: Our goal in this chapter is to extend chapter 4's analyses in several ways in order to understand whether or not neighborhood of residence is linked to the actual environments of children's homes, not just to the family's income and educational resources...This chapter has three aims. The first is to look at how neighborhood composition is correlated with indicators in the home environment and cultural characteristics of the young children's mothers. Our measures include the cognitive stimulation provided to the child in the home, the physical environment of the home, the mother's warmth toward the child, the mother's mental health, the mother's coping style, and the social support received by the mother...The second aim of this chapter is to see whether or not the neighborhood effects on child outcomes reported in chapter 4 are mediated by the family-level process variables just specified...Our final aim is to go beyond examining mediated effects to explore a few likely moderated effects. The ways in which the family resource variables operate may differ as a function of the type of neighborhoods in which families reside.
Bibliography Citation
Klebanov, Pamela Kato, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Rachel A. Gordon. "Are Neighborhood Effects on Young Children Mediated by Features of the Home Environment?" In: Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, Volume 1. G. Duncan, J. Brooks-Gunn, and J. Aber, eds., New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation; 1997: 119-145
39. Leventhal, Tama
Martin, Anne
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
EC-HOME Across Five National Data Sets in the 3rd to 5th Year of Life
Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 161-188.
Also: http://www.parentingscienceandpractice.com/Past_Contents/V4_2_3/v4_2_3.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Behavior; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)

Permission to reprint the abstract has been denied by the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Leventhal, Tama, Anne Martin and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "EC-HOME Across Five National Data Sets in the 3rd to 5th Year of Life." Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 161-188.
40. Linver, Miriam R.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Cabrera, Natasha
Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory: The Derivation of Conceptually Designed Subscales
Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 99-114.
Also: http://www.parentingscienceandpractice.com/Past_Contents/V4_2_3/v4_2_3.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP); Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN); Scale Construction

Permission to reprint the abstract has been denied by the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Linver, Miriam R., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Natasha Cabrera. "Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory: The Derivation of Conceptually Designed Subscales." Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 99-114.
41. Linver, Miriam R.
Fuligni, Allison Sidle
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
How Do Parents Matter? Income, Interactions, and Intervention During Early Childhood
In: After the Bell: Family Background, Public Policy, and Educational Success. D. Conley and K. Albright, eds., New York: Routledge, 2004: 25-85
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Routledge ==> Taylor & Francis (1998)
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Poverty; Family Income; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP); Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Parenting Skills/Styles; Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); School Entry/Readiness

The current political climate in the United States places a strong focus on the achievement of young people. At the heart of the concern is the welldocumented and publicized discrepancy in school achievement outcomes for children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds compared to their more affluent counterparts. The difference between poor and non-poor children is often evidenced even earlier in life, before school entry, as young children from disadvantaged families exhibit lower scores on tests of school readiness and enter school less prepared to succeed. A related issue is the disparity between test scores of African American and European American children, which still persists, though diminished, after accounting for income and other family background differences.

What is it about coming from an economically disadvantaged family that is driving these differences in young children's development and achievement? In the 1960s, the Coleman report brought the attention of the sociology field to the importance of the family context for school performance. At the same time, psychologists were focusing on the importance of early experience (and by definition, the family) on later development. Together, these two disciplines helped to shape the terms of President Johnson's War on Poverty, which directed attention to child and family interventions and how these might make a difference in lives of poor families.

In this chapter we discuss the importance of the family environment (including family income, parents' human capital, maternal emotional health, and parenting) as well as neighborhood context and how they may operate to link income and child outcomes. In our discussion, we draw upon our own and others' previous research from several different disciplines to illustrate these pathways. We provide several examples of how we have empirically examined these contextual components and their relation to children's development. We draw upon data from three la rge national datasets to address these issues: the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP), the Panel Study of Income Dynamics - Child Development Supplement (PSID-CDS), and the National Longitudinal Study of Youth - Child Supplement (NLSY-CS).

Bibliography Citation
Linver, Miriam R., Allison Sidle Fuligni and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "How Do Parents Matter? Income, Interactions, and Intervention During Early Childhood" In: After the Bell: Family Background, Public Policy, and Educational Success. D. Conley and K. Albright, eds., New York: Routledge, 2004: 25-85
42. Linver, Miriam R.
Martin, Anne
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Measuring Infants' Home Environment: The IT-HOME for Infants between Birth and 12 Months in Four National Datasets
Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 259-270.
Also: http://www.parentingscienceandpractice.com/Past_Contents/V4_2_3/v4_2_3.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infants; Self-Reporting

Permission to reprint the abstract has been denied by the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Linver, Miriam R., Anne Martin and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Measuring Infants' Home Environment: The IT-HOME for Infants between Birth and 12 Months in Four National Datasets." Parenting: Science and Practice 4, 2-3 (April-September 2004): 259-270.
43. McLanahan, Sara S.
Garfinkel, Irwin
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Zhao, Hongxin
Johnson, Waldo
Rich, Lauren M.
Turner, Mark
Waller, Maureen
Wilson, Melvin
Unwed Fathers and Fragile Families
Presented: Chicago, IL, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, April 1998
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Birth Outcomes; Family Studies; Fathers; Fathers and Children; Fathers, Influence; Fathers, Involvement; Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study; Parental Marital Status

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this paper, we utilize mothers' reports in the NLSY to examine the level and stability of children's involvement with unwed fathers during the first few years after birth. We find surprisingly high levels of involvement and stability of fathers' involvement among these children. Our findings raise a whole host of questions about the characteristics and capabilities of the unwed fathers and the nature of the relationships between the unwed parents that cannot be addressed with the NLSY data. In the second part of the paper we describe a new longitudinal study of unwed parents - Fragile Families - and present a brief description of some of the findings from two pilot studies in Philadelphia and Chicago and from initial data collection in Oakland.
Bibliography Citation
McLanahan, Sara S., Irwin Garfinkel, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Hongxin Zhao, Waldo Johnson, Lauren M. Rich, Mark Turner, Maureen Waller and Melvin Wilson. "Unwed Fathers and Fragile Families." Presented: Chicago, IL, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, April 1998.
44. Mendle, Jane
Harden, K. Paige
Turkheimer, Eric
Van Hulle, Carol A.
D'Onofrio, Brian M.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Emery, Robert E.
Lahey, Benjamin B.
Associations Between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual Intercourse
Child Development 80,5 (September/October 2009): 1463-1480.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01345.x/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Adolescent Sexual Activity; Age at First Intercourse; Family Structure; Fathers, Absence; Genetics; Kinship; Sexual Activity; Siblings

Children raised without a biological father in the household have earlier average ages of first sexual intercourse than children raised in father-present households. Competing theoretical perspectives have attributed this either to effects of father absence on socialization and physical maturation or to nonrandom selection of children predisposed for early sexual intercourse into father-absent households. Genetically informative analyses of the children of sister dyads (N = 1,382, aged 14–21 years) support the selection hypothesis: This association seems attributable to confounded risks, most likely genetic in origin, which correlated both with likelihood of father absence and early sexual behavior. This holds implications for environmental theories of maturation and suggests that previous research may have inadvertently overestimated the role of family structure in reproductive maturation.
Bibliography Citation
Mendle, Jane, K. Paige Harden, Eric Turkheimer, Carol A. Van Hulle, Brian M. D'Onofrio, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Joseph Lee Rodgers, Robert E. Emery and Benjamin B. Lahey. "Associations Between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual Intercourse." Child Development 80,5 (September/October 2009): 1463-1480.
45. Phillips, Meredith
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Duncan, Greg J.
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Crane, Jonathan
Family Background, Parenting Practices, and the Black-White Test Score Gap
In: The Black-White Test Score Gap. C. Jencks, and M. Phillips, et al., eds. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998: pp. 103-145.
Also: http://brookings.nap.edu/books/0815746091/html/103.html
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Brookings Institution
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Cognitive Development; Educational Attainment; Ethnic Differences; Family Background and Culture; Family Environment; Family Income; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); I.Q.; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Preschool Children; Racial Differences; School Quality; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Test Scores/Test theory/IRT

Chapter: Surveyed recent data from 2 samples of children to investigate R. J. Herrnstein and C. Murray's (see record 1994-98748-000) claims about the association between family background and young children's cognitive skills. The authors examine the contribution of parental education and income to the test score gap among 5- and 6-yr-olds. They then look at a much larger set of family environment indicators, including grandparents' educational attainment, mothers' household size, high school quality, and perceived self-efficacy, children's birth weight, children's household size, and mothers' parenting practices. Most of the analyses use data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, focusing on 1,626 African-American and European- American 5- and 6-yr olds. Data on 315 children from the Infant Health and Development Program were used to supplement the analyses. Even though traditional measures of SES account for no more than a third of the test score gap, results show that a broader index of family environment may explain up to two-thirds of it. The results help to identify the family characteristics that matter most for the gap. They suggest that eliminating environmental differences between Black and White families could help to eliminate the test score gap. ((c) 1998 APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved)
Bibliography Citation
Phillips, Meredith, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Greg J. Duncan, Pamela Kato Klebanov and Jonathan Crane. "Family Background, Parenting Practices, and the Black-White Test Score Gap" In: The Black-White Test Score Gap. C. Jencks, and M. Phillips, et al., eds. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998: pp. 103-145.
46. Smith, Judith R.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Jackson, Aurora P.
Parental Employment and Children
In: Indicators of Children's Well-Being. R.M. Hauser, B. V. Brown, and W.R. Prosser, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997: 279-308.
Also: http://www.russellsage.org/publications/titles/indicators_children.htm
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Care; Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Family Resources; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Labor Force Participation; Maternal Employment; Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Includes bibliographical references and index. Indicators of children's well-being : a review of current indicators based on data from the federal statistical system / Brett V. Brown -- Criteria for indicators of child well- being / Kristin A. Moore -- Population indicators of prenatal and infant health / Paula Lantz and Melissa Partin -- Health indicators for preschool children, ages one to four / Barbara L. Wolfe and James Sears -- Health indicators for preadolescent school-age children / Barbara Starfield -- Adolescent health indicators / Arthur B. Elster -- Indicators for school readiness, schooling, and child care in early to middle childhood / Deborah A. Phillips and John M. Love -- Indicators of high school completion and dropout / Robert M. Hauser -- Postsecondary and vocational education : keeping track of the college track / Thomas J. Kane -- Indicators of educational achievement / Daniel Koretz -- Indicators of children's economic well-being and parental employment / Susan E. Mayer -- Longitudinal indicators of children's poverty and dependence / Greg J. Duncan and Leslie Moscow -- Parental employment and children / Judith R. Smith, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Aurora Jackson -- Demographic change and the population of children : race/ethnicity, immigration, and family size / Dennis P. Hogan and David J. Eggebeen -- Family structure, stability, and the well-being of children / Gary D. Sandefur and Jane Mosley -- The influence of neighborhoods on children's development : a theoretical perspective and a research agenda / Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., and Mary Elizabeth Hughes -- Potential and problems in developing community-level indicators of children's well-being / Claudia J. Coulton -- Indicators of positive development in early childhood : improving concepts and measures / J. Lawrence Aber and Stephanie M. Jones -- Indicators of problem behavior and problems in early childhood / John M. Love -- Positive indicators of adolescent development : redressing the negative image of American adolescents / Ruby Takanishi, Allyn M. Mortimer, and Timothy J. McGourthy -- The status of adolescent problem behavior indicators / Bruce P. Kennedy and Deborah Prothrow-Stith -- Potential and problems in developing indicators on child well-being from administrative data / Robert M. Goerge -- Context and connection in social indicators : enhancing what we measure and monitor / Marc L. Miringoff and Marque-Luisa Miringoff -- Children in dire straits : how do we know whether we are progressing? / William R. Prosser and Matthew Stagner.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Judith R., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Aurora P. Jackson. "Parental Employment and Children" In: Indicators of Children's Well-Being. R.M. Hauser, B. V. Brown, and W.R. Prosser, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997: 279-308.
47. Smith, Judith R.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Consequences of Living in Poverty for Young Children's Cognitive and Verbal Ability and Early School Achievement
In: Consequences of Growing Up Poor. G.J. Duncan and J. Brooks-Gunn, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997: 132-189
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Keyword(s): Birthweight; Child Development; Children; Children, Academic Development; Children, Poverty; Children, School-Age; Cognitive Ability; Family Income; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Status; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Poverty; Schooling

In Consequences of Growing Up Poor, developmental psychologists, economists, and sociologists revisit a large body of studies to answer specific questions about how low income puts children at risk intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Many of their investigations demonstrate that although income clearly creates disadvantages, it does so selectively and in a wide variety of ways. Low-income preschoolers exhibit poorer cognitive and verbal skills because they are generally exposed to fewer toys, books, and other stimulating experiences in the home. Poor parents also tend to rely on home-based child care, where the quality and amount of attention children receive is inferior to that of professional facilities. In later years, conflict between economically stressed parents increases anxiety and weakens self-esteem in their teenaged children.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Judith R., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Pamela Kato Klebanov. "Consequences of Living in Poverty for Young Children's Cognitive and Verbal Ability and Early School Achievement" In: Consequences of Growing Up Poor. G.J. Duncan and J. Brooks-Gunn, eds., New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997: 132-189
48. Smith, Judith R.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Klebanov, Pamela Kato
Lee, Kyunghee
Welfare and Work: Complementary Strategies for Low-Income Women?
Journal of Marriage and Family 62,3 (August 2000): 808-821.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566798
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: National Council on Family Relations
Keyword(s): Behavioral Problems; Children; Cognitive Development; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Income; Maternal Employment; Mothers; Welfare; Women

We examine the effects of mothers' strategies of combining employment and welfare receipt during the first 3 years of their child's life on the child's cognitive development, behavior problems, and home learning environment at ages 5 to 6. We compare the child outcomes of those mothers who were continuously employed and received no welfare with (a) those who worked some or all of the 3 years and also received public assistance and (b) those who were totally dependent on public assistance. We studied children in single-parent families (N=1271) living below 200% of the poverty threshold using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement. No negative association was found on most child outcomes with a mother's employment whether or not it was combined with public assistance. However, mothers' not working at all and receiving financial support solely from AFDC was associated with negative child outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the possible effects of the new welfare laws on families and young children.
Bibliography Citation
Smith, Judith R., Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Pamela Kato Klebanov and Kyunghee Lee. "Welfare and Work: Complementary Strategies for Low-Income Women?" Journal of Marriage and Family 62,3 (August 2000): 808-821.
49. Sugland, Barbara W.
Zaslow, Martha J.
Smith, Judith R.
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
The Early Childhood HOME Inventory and HOME-Short Form in Differing Racial/Ethnic Groups: Are There Differences in Underlying Structure, Internal Consistency of Subscales, and Patterns of Prediction?
Journal of Family Issues 16,5 (September 1995): 632-663.
Also: http://jfi.sagepub.com/content/16/5/632.abstract
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Child Health; Children; Children, Home Environment; Cognitive Development; Ethnic Differences; Ethnic Groups; Holland's Typology; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Infants; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Preschool Children; Racial Differences; Racial Studies; Scale Construction

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Examined differences across European-, African-, and Hispanic-American subgroups on the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment) Inventory and the HOME-Short Form and the prediction of these 2 versions to cognitive and socioemotional outcomes among preschool children. Data are taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (n = 1,541 children aged 3-5.9 yrs) and the Infant Health and Development Program (n = 985 low birth weight infants assessed at 12, 24, and 36 mo). Findings suggest few racial/ethnic differences in the psychometric properties of either version of the HOME scale. Both versions showed better prediction of cognitive child outcomes for all 3 racial/ethnic groups as well as better prediction of child outcomes generally for European-American than for Hispanic- and African-American families. ((c) 1997 APA/PsycINFO, all rights reserved).
Bibliography Citation
Sugland, Barbara W., Martha J. Zaslow, Judith R. Smith and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "The Early Childhood HOME Inventory and HOME-Short Form in Differing Racial/Ethnic Groups: Are There Differences in Underlying Structure, Internal Consistency of Subscales, and Patterns of Prediction?" Journal of Family Issues 16,5 (September 1995): 632-663.
50. Waldfogel, Jane
Han, Wen-Jui
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Early Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
Presented: Minneapolis, MN, Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 2001
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
Keyword(s): Maternal Employment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Waldfogel, Jane, Wen-Jui Han and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Early Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth." Presented: Minneapolis, MN, Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, April 2001.
51. Waldfogel, Jane
Han, Wen-Jui
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Early Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children from the NLSY
Presented: Los Angeles, CA, Population Association of America Meetings, March 2000
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Breastfeeding; Employment, History; Ethnic Differences; Fathers, Presence; Hispanics; Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper investigates the long-term impact of early maternal employment on children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes, using data on 1872 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). We analyze non-Hispanic white, African American and Hispanic children separately and find that the effects of early maternal employment on later cognitive outcomes vary by race/ethnicity. For the non-Hispanic white children, employment in the first year of life has small but persistent adverse effects on cognitive outcomes even after controlling for poverty and other maternal and child characteristics, while employment in the second or third year of life has a small but persistent positive effect: having a mother who worked in the first year of life is associated with a 3-point lower score on the PPVT at ages 3 or 4, and a 2- to 3-point lower score on the PIAT Math and PIAT Reading Recognition at ages 5 or 6, and 7 or 8, while employment in the second or third years is associated with a 2- or 3-point higher score on most of these measures. These negative effects of first-year employment on cognitive outcomes, and positive effects of subsequent employment, are not found for the Africa-American children, while the results for the Hispanic children are mixed. The results for behavior problems also vary by race and ethnicity. For non-Hispanic white children, first-year maternal employment is associated with somewhat higher levels of internalizing problems at age 4 while second or third year employment is associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing problems at age 4, but all these effects fade out by age 7 or 8. For African-American children and Hispanic children, we found no significant effects of first, second, or third year employment.
Bibliography Citation
Waldfogel, Jane, Wen-Jui Han and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Early Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of Children from the NLSY." Presented: Los Angeles, CA, Population Association of America Meetings, March 2000.
52. Waldfogel, Jane
Han, Wen-Jui
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
The Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Child Cognitive Development
Demography 39,2 (May 2002): 369-392.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/0644x86357l11872/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Achievement; Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Breastfeeding; Children, Academic Development; Cognitive Development; Ethnic Differences; Hispanics; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We investigated the effects of early maternal employment on children's cognitive outcomes, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on 1,872 children who can be followed from birth to age 7 or 8. We found some persistent adverse effects of first-year maternal employment and some positive effects of second- and third-year maternal employment on cognitive outcomes for non-Hispanic white children, but not for African American or Hispanic children. These effects are present even after we controlled for a range of individual and family characteristics that affect child development, including those that are likely to be correlated with maternal employment, such as breast-feeding and the use of nonmaternal child care. Controlling for family fixed effects reduces the effects of early maternal employment on some cognitive outcomes but not on others.
Bibliography Citation
Waldfogel, Jane, Wen-Jui Han and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "The Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Child Cognitive Development." Demography 39,2 (May 2002): 369-392.
53. Zhao, Hongxin
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
McLanahan, Sara S.
Singer, Burton
Studying the Real Child Rather than the Ideal Child: Bringing the Person into Developmental Studies
In: Developmental Science and the Holistic Approach. Bergman, Lars R. ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2000
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Resilience/Developmental Assets

Permission to reprint the abstract has been denied by the publisher.

Bibliography Citation
Zhao, Hongxin, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Sara S. McLanahan and Burton Singer. "Studying the Real Child Rather than the Ideal Child: Bringing the Person into Developmental Studies" In: Developmental Science and the Holistic Approach. Bergman, Lars R. ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2000