Search Results
Author: Owens, Jayanti
Resulting in 9 citations.
| 1. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Changes in American Families and the Growth in the Gender Gap in Early Childhood Behavioral Skills Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Cohabitation; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Gender Differences; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Parental Influences; Parental Marital Status; Parents, Behavior; Parents, Single; Sociability/Socialization/Social Interaction; Socioeconomic Factors Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Attention, concentration, and social skills are important indicators of school readiness. Boys have long fallen behind girls in the development of these skills, but prior research has not examined whether changes in American families—namely, the rise of cohabitation and single parenting from birth, as well as the presence of a social as opposed to biological father beginning in early childhood—are associated with a growth in the gender gap in behavioral skills. This study uses two national datasets of children followed from birth to age 6 to examine how changes in family structures, parental conflict, economic resources, parenting, and child health are associated with the gender gap in behavioral development. The study finds that the gender gap in behavioral development has grown between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s, and that changes in families explain much of the growth. Implications for the gender gap in later achievement and delinquency are discussed. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Changes in American Families and the Growth in the Gender Gap in Early Childhood Behavioral Skills." Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012. |
| 2. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Coloring the "Boys Will Be Boys" Chronicle: Race, Gender, and Behavior Problems across Two Decades Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavioral Problems; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Family Structure; Gender Differences; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Scale Construction Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. ADHD diagnoses and school suspensions have increased ten- and two-fold in the U.S. since the 1970s, with African-American boys' higher baseline levels ballooning into the largest gender gaps over the past three decades. Despite implications for black boys' growing educational and economic disadvantage, neither the extent nor the origins of their growing disadvantage are understood. This study leverages consistent behavioral scales from two nationally-representative datasets to document mothers' reports of African-American boys' worsening behavior problems among even the "best-behaved" black boys -- not just among those with the highest levels of behavior problems. Neither gender differences in exposure nor response to salient, racially-patterned changes in families and health explain black boys’ growing disadvantage. Findings carry significant consequences for black males' future rates of delinquency, school drop-out, unemployment, and incarceration, which may result from heightened scrutiny and policing of even the best-behaved black boys' behaviors beginning in early childhood. Note: Also presented at Dublin, Ireland, Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) International Conference, October 2015 |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Coloring the "Boys Will Be Boys" Chronicle: Race, Gender, and Behavior Problems across Two Decades." Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015. |
| 3. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States Sociology of Education 89,3 (July 2016): 236-258. Also: http://soe.sagepub.com/content/89/3/236.full Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; High School Completion/Graduates; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); School Characteristics/Rating/Safety Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Why do men in the United States today complete less schooling than women? One reason may be gender differences in early self-regulation and prosocial behaviors. Scholars have found that boys' early behavioral disadvantage predicts their lower average academic achievement during elementary school. In this study, I examine longer-term effects: Do these early behavioral differences predict boys' lower rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and graduation, and fewer years of schooling completed in adulthood? If so, through what pathways are they linked? I leverage a nationally representative sample of children born in the 1980s to women in their early to mid-20s and followed into adulthood. I use decomposition and path analytic tools to show that boys' higher average levels of behavior problems at age 4 to 5 years help explain the current gender gap in schooling by age 26 to 29, controlling for other observed early childhood factors. In addition, I find that early behavior problems predict outcomes more for boys than for girls. Early behavior problems matter for adult educational attainment because they tend to predict later behavior problems and lower achievement. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States." Sociology of Education 89,3 (July 2016): 236-258.
|
| 4. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Early Childhood Behavioral Skills and the Gender Reversal in Educational Attainment in the United States: A New Perspective Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; College Education; College Enrollment; College Graduates; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; High School Completion/Graduates; Role Models; Sociability/Socialization/Social Interaction Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. The gender reversal in high school completion, college enrollment, and college completion represents one of the most salient demographic shifts in the United States in recent decades. Prior research highlights women’s increased incentives for college via increased returns in the labor market. This study proposes and tests a new and complementary perspective on the gender reversal: the gender gap in early childhood behavioral skills. By age 5, boys lag behind girls in terms of attention, concentration, and social skills. Using two national datasets of children sampled approximately 15 years apart, I propose—and find support for—the hypothesis that the gender gap in behavior has grown over time, as many boys have lost their primary male role model due to changes in American families. Linking this growing behavioral gap to educational attainment, I find that the gap in behavioral skills explains a notable share of the reversal in educational attainment. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Early Childhood Behavioral Skills and the Gender Reversal in Educational Attainment in the United States: A New Perspective." Presented: San Francisco CA, Population Association of America Meetings, May 2012. |
| 5. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Habits That Make, Habits That Break: Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Education in the United States Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Sociability/Socialization/Social Interaction Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Over the past three decades, females in the United States have comprised a growing majority of high school and college graduates. An understudied explanation for this female attainment advantage is females' lower levels of self-regulation problems and social problems. With macro-level social shifts, including gender parity in parental investments in children and the opening of the labor market for women, males' long-standing behavioral disadvantage in childhood may now translate into lower levels of educational attainment compared to females. Using newly-available, prospective panel data on a national sample of children followed from birth in the 1980's through much of their twenties, results show that the life-course origins of today's female advantage in attainment trace back to females' lower levels of early childhood behavior problems. Early behavior problems shape and are shaped by educational achievement and social context but pathways differ for males and females, as does the timing of educational transitions. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Habits That Make, Habits That Break: Early Childhood Behavior Problems and the Gender Gap in Education in the United States." Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014. |
| 6. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Habits that Make, Habits that Break: Gender, Children's Behavior Problems, and Educational Attainment Across Two Decades Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University, 2013 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; College Education; College Enrollment; College Graduates; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; High School Completion/Graduates; Role Models; Sociability/Socialization/Social Interaction Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Prior to the early 1980s, American men graduated from high school and college at higher rates than American women. Since then, women have comprised a growing majority of high school and college graduates. This growing female advantage in educational attainment carries significant implications for labor markets, marriage markets, fertility and family formation, and child well-being. It also is of consequence for racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequality: The gender gap in educational attainment is largest among minorities and the poor. Extant labor market and social accounts explain 30-60% of the gap, leaving up to 70% unexplained. This dissertation proposes a new, but complementary, explanation. Drawing upon newly-available data from the Children of the NLSY79, which tracks children born in the 1980s until 2010, part one of the dissertation shows that boys' higher average level of early childhood behavior problems explains 15-25% of their lower level of educational attainment compared to girls. Introducing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data, the second and third parts of the dissertation compare children born in the 1980s and 2000s to examine whether the gender difference in behavior problems -- like that in educational attainment -- has become most widespread among minorities and low-income Americans. Findings reveal that, by the 2000s, the gender gap in early childhood behavior problems had spread throughout a wide cross-section of minority children and children from low-income families. The behavior gap emerged even between the black and Hispanic and poor boys and girls with the lowest mother-rated behavior problems. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. Habits that Make, Habits that Break: Gender, Children's Behavior Problems, and Educational Attainment Across Two Decades. Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University, 2013. |
| 7. |
Owens, Jayanti |
|
Social Class, Gender, and Children's Behavior Problems across Two Decades Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; Family Influences; Gender Differences; Socioeconomic Status (SES) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Prevalence of diagnosed childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has increased seven-fold in the U.S. since 1987, with a growing absolute gap between boys and girls. Prevalence of clinical levels of ADHD symptoms is most over-represented among low-SES boys. It is unclear whether rising prevalence reflects true changes in underlying symptoms. Using two national samples of children across two decades, this study finds that the gender gap in ADHD-linked behaviors has emerged even between the low-SES (but not high-SES) children with the lowest behavior problems. A large portion of the growing gap among the worst-behaved low- and high-SES children is explained by family and health shifts. Strikingly, almost none of the growing gender gap among the best-behaved low-SES children is explained by family and health shifts. Findings suggest the growing gap among low-income children's behavior problems is related to changing perceptions of behaviors for this well-behaved segment of low-SES boys. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti. "Social Class, Gender, and Children's Behavior Problems across Two Decades." Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014. |
| 8. |
Owens, Jayanti Jackson, Heide Forgues, Angela |
|
The Changing Effects of an Early Childhood Attention Deficity/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Diagnosis on Cognitive Development for Cohorts of Children Born across Three Decades Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Attention/Attention Deficit; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Child Care; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B, ECLS-K); Family Structure; Gender Differences; Insurance, Health; Mothers, Education; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This study investigates how the effect of ADHD diagnosis on cognitive development has changed for children born in the early 2000s compared to those born in the early 1980s and whether the mechanisms linking diagnosis to cognition have changed for these birth cohorts. Using nationally-representative samples of youth surveyed in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979-Children (NLSY-C), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten 1998 Study (ECLS-K 98), and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten 2011 (ECLS-K:2011), we employ OLS regression and matching techniques to test whether the effect of ADHD diagnosis in kindergarten or first grade on third grade cognition scores has changed across cohorts and whether the mechanisms linking ADHD diagnosis to cognition have shifted. Preliminary results indicate that the effect of ADHD diagnosis for subsequent cognition has declined across cohorts. Future analyses will explore whether and which mediating factors linking ADHD diagnosis to subsequent cognitive development have also shifted. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti, Heide Jackson and Angela Forgues. "The Changing Effects of an Early Childhood Attention Deficity/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Diagnosis on Cognitive Development for Cohorts of Children Born across Three Decades." Presented: San Diego CA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April-May 2015. |
| 9. |
Owens, Jayanti Kehal, Prabhdeep |
|
Who Gets to Walk the Straight Line? Racial Differences in Boys' and Girls' Acting Out and the Accumulation of Structural Privilege/Disadvantage in School Presented: Chicago IL, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2017 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: Population Association of America Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavioral Problems; Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Racial Differences Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Although much important research examines the policing of behaviors of adolescent males of color, behavior policing and hyper criminalization, driven by negative stereotyping, start much earlier. We examine whether the same levels of early childhood behavior problems are differentially linked to educational fortunes by intersecting student race-gender identity. We then investigate how differential interactions and treatment within key social institutions of childhood by child race and gender help explain why this might be. We use the latest releases of the NLSY: 1979 Children, which follow a diverse sample of children from birth in the early-to-mid 1980s all the way to their late 20s and early 30s in 2014. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that, for White boys, early behavior problems uniquely predict adult schooling completed. We hypothesize that this reflects a form of privilege conferred uniquely to White males by virtue of their ability to "control their own destinies." |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Owens, Jayanti and Prabhdeep Kehal. "Who Gets to Walk the Straight Line? Racial Differences in Boys' and Girls' Acting Out and the Accumulation of Structural Privilege/Disadvantage in School." Presented: Chicago IL, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2017. |