Search Results

Results: Records of 1351 children aged 4-12 years were examined: 837 resided in dayshift households, 36 in split shift households, 13 in night shift households [excluded due to small sample size], and 481 in discordant workshift households. Bivariate analysis revealed an association between maternal report that behavior requires counseling and households in which both parents work split shifts, compared to discordant workshift households and dayshift households (9.4% vs. 2.7% vs.3.4%, respectively; p<0.05). This association was maintained in multivariate models, which revealed that mothers of children in split shift households were three times more likely to report behavior problems(OR=3.0, 95% CI: 1.2-7.9) than mothers in comparison groups. This independent association was stronger than male sex of child (OR=1.6, 95%CI: 1.1-2.6) and household size (OR=.52, 95% CI: 0.3-0.9), which were the only other variables to predict the outcome of interest. Workshift variables were not significant in the models that examined extreme BPI scores or pharmacologic treatment of ADHD.

Conclusions: Mothers of children who reside in households in which both parents work split shifts are more likely to report behavior problems. Additional studies are needed to determine whether disruption of household sleep patterns is the causal mechanism for this association.

DESIGN/METHODS: We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a nationally representative sample of 14-21 year olds in 1978. Our analysis includes all female respondents from this longitudinal survey who gave birth since 1978. Using Ordinary Least Squares regression for children between the ages of 5 and 7 years of age, we model the child's score on the Behavioral Problems Index (BPI) as a function of mother's age, child characteristics, mother's social characteristics, and grandparent's social characteristics.

RESULTS: We report on several models. In the first, maternal age (age 15-19 at first birth vs age 20 or older) is used as the sole predictor of BPI. Status as a teen mother is highly predictive of a child's later behavioral problems. As control variables are added in subsequent models, the ability of maternal age to predict child behavior problems decreases dramatically. Rather, measures of poverty, mother's level of education, and grandparent's level of education best predict behavioral difficulties in the children.

CONCLUSIONS: A simple model suggests that teen motherhood predicts behavior problems. This relationship disappears when other social factors are considered. This work suggests that adolescent childbearing and parenting cannot be considered in isolation from the factors that promote its occurrence. Pediatricians working with young mothers must consider the larger social influences at work in the lives of adolescents.

DESIGN/METHODS: We conducted an analysis involving 3285 five to 14 year old children in the 1996 NLSY survey, a nationally representative sample of mothers and their children. Children were defined as being school mobile if they were age 5-9 and attended 2 or more elementary schools or if they were age 9.1-14 and had attended 3 or more schools. Outcomes were the total standard score of the BPI, as well as the externalizing and the internalizing subscales (mean 100, S.D. 15). Bivariate analyses examined the relationship between various demographic, environmental, and clinical variables known to be associated with the 3 BPI measures and school mobility. Multivariable analyses identified those factors independently associated with behavioral problems. Multiple regresion was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS: 14% of children were school mobile. Mean BPI scores for children that were school mobile were 108.2, 107.8, and 105.5 for the total, externalizing, and internalizing scales respectively, versus 103.7, 103.4, and 102.2 for non-mobile children. School mobile children were more likely to have a non-married mother, a mother with lower levels of involvement at school, and a mother with increased depressive symptoms as measured by the CESD. Maternal percpeption of school quality was lower for school mobile children than school non-mobile children. In multivariable analyses adjusting for demographic, environmental, and clinical variables, school mobility was independently associated with behavioral health problems for the total scale and the externalizing subscale (p<0.01), but not for the internalizing subscale.

CONCLUSIONS: School mobility is independently associated with total and externalizing behavioral problems in children ages 5 to 14. While the cross-sectional nature of the data limits conclusions about causality, policies or programs enacted to reduce school mobility may have a positive impact on behavioral health problems of children. Further research to elucidate this relationship is warranted.