Half a century of research and program evaluation has fueled a diverse landscape of early childhood policies and practices that produce a range of positive effects on the life prospects of children ...who face the burdens of significant adversity. Drawing on advances in neurobiology, developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology, and prevention science, this paper presents a framework for elucidating underlying causal mechanisms that explain differences in outcomes, formulating enhanced theories of change about how to shift developmental trajectories, designing creative interventions and rethinking the concept of a two-generation strategy to produce breakthrough impacts, and launching a new era of investment in young children and their families that will achieve greater reductions in intergenerational disparities in learning, behavior, and health than those produced by current best practices. Particular attention is focused on the hypothesis that substantially better outcomes for vulnerable, young children could be achieved by greater attention to strengthening the resources and capabilities of the adults who care for them rather than by continuing to focus primarily on the provision of child-focused enrichment, parenting education, and informal support. Central to achieving this goal is the need to establish an innovation-friendly environment that embraces fast-cycle sharing, supports risk taking, and celebrates learning from failure.
The fate of the terrestrial biosphere is highly uncertain given recent and projected changes in climate. This is especially acute for impacts associated with changes in drought frequency and ...intensity on the distribution and timing of water availability. The development of effective adaptation strategies for these emerging threats to food and water security are compromised by limitations in our understanding of how natural and managed ecosystems are responding to changing hydrological and climatological regimes. This information gap is exacerbated by insufficient monitoring capabilities from local to global scales. Here, we describe how evapotranspiration (ET) represents the key variable in linking ecosystem functioning, carbon and climate feedbacks, agricultural management, and water resources, and highlight both the outstanding science and applications questions and the actions, especially from a space-based perspective, necessary to advance them.
Although one quarter of US and UK families rely on grandparents as the main providers of informal childcare, grandparental perspectives on the feeding and physical activity of young children remain ...understudied.
The study's aim was to elucidate parents' and grandparents' perspectives on young children's feeding and physical activity, and identify how they negotiate potential differences between these perspectives.
We interviewed 22 parents and 27 grandparents from 16 families of children aged 3–5 years in the Pacific Northwest, US. Using familial homeostasis as a novel theoretical framework, the interviews were analyzed to assess differences between parental and grandparental perspectives on feeding and physical activity.
The analysis yielded six thematic categories: (1) disagreements about feeding stem from parents' and grandparents' differing definitions of healthy feeding; (2) differences between parents' and grandparents' feeding practices reflect differences in perceived caretaking roles; (3) parents and grandparents negotiate differences in feeding practices through grandparental compliance and parental compromise; (4) differences in preschoolers' physical activity are influenced by parents' and grandparents' own access to and engagement in physical activity; (5) parents and grandparents express few disagreements about preschoolers' screen-time; (6) parents and grandparents rarely discuss preschoolers' physical activity. The findings suggest that parental and grandparental decision-making about feeding and exercise is informed by ideas of what constitutes familial balance and a balanced lifestyle for a preschool aged child, rather than by the child's weight status.
Parents and grandparents appear to engage in practices designed to preserve familial homeostasis, which may provide a compelling explanation for the persistent difficulties in implementing family-based childhood obesity interventions.
•Parental and grandparental practices were examined in families with preschoolers.•Grandparents' “indulgent feeding” was perceived as reflecting their familial role.•Parents and grandparents expressed few disagreements about children's’ screen-time.•Parents and grandparents speak of offsetting children's unhealthy practices with healthy practices.•Parents and grandparents seek familial balance when making feeding and exercise decisions.
Abstract
Objective
This study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic differently affected households of children with versus without special healthcare needs. We compared caregivers’ and children’s ...emotional well-being (Aim 1), the utilization of preventive healthcare services for young children (Aim 2), and the promotive effects of social support on well-being outcomes (Aim 3) during the pandemic between the two groups.
Methods
Data were drawn from an ongoing, large, longitudinal, and national survey that assessed the pandemic impact on households of young children (0–5). Analyses for Aims 1 and 2 were based on 10,572 households, among which 10.96% had children with special healthcare needs. Analyses for Aim 3 were based on a subsample of 821 families, among which 12.54% had children with special healthcare needs.
Results
Caregivers of children with special healthcare needs exhibited more emotional distress and reported higher levels of household children’s behavioral problems during the pandemic. The percentages of missed preventive healthcare visits and vaccinations were also higher in families of children with special healthcare needs due to structural barriers. Lastly, emotional social support was indirectly related to children’s decreased behavioral problems through caregivers’ reduced emotional distress, only among households of children without special healthcare needs. In other words, social support alone was not sufficient in promoting caregivers’ and children’s better well-being outcomes among households of children with special healthcare needs.
Conclusions
The pandemic has caused extensive burdens on families of children with special healthcare needs. Actions from policymakers and early intervention service providers are urgently needed to mitigate these impacts.
Extensive evidence links adverse experiences during childhood to a wide range of negative consequences in biological, socioemotional, and cognitive development. Unpredictability is a core element ...underlying most forms of early adversity; it has been a focus of developmental research for many years and has been receiving increasing attention recently. In this article, we propose a conceptual model to describe how unpredictable and adverse early experiences affect children’s neurobiological, behavioral, and psychological development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We first highlight the critical role of unpredictability in child development by reviewing existing conceptual models of early adversity as they relate to subsequent development across the lifespan. Then, we employ a translational neuroscience framework to summarize the current animal- and human-based evidence on the neurobiological alterations induced by early experience unpredictability. We further argue that the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a global “natural experiment” that provides rare insight to the investigation of the negative developmental consequences of widespread, clustered, and unpredictable adverse events among children. We discuss how the pandemic helps advance the science of unpredictable early adverse experiences. As unpredictability research continues to grow, we highlight several directions for future studies and implications for policymaking and intervention practices.
•Unpredictability is a core dimension that manifests in most forms of early adversity.•The corticolimbic neural circuitry underlies unpredictability impact on development.•Unpredictability also affects development via stress response and immune functions.•The COVID-19 pandemic provides rare insight to advance unpredictability research.•Policy & intervention practices need to account for unpredictable early experience.
•Inflammation has been identified as a biological process relevant in depression.•C-reactive protein is a biomarker of inflammation.•Methodological inconsistences are widespread in the ...field.•Methodological inconsistences in the literature hinder reproducibility.•Methodologically rigorous studies are needed to drive progress in the field.
One of the most common inflammatory markers examined in depression is C-reactive protein (CRP). However, the magnitude of the association between CRP and depression when controlling for potentially confounding factors such as age, sex, socio-economic status, body mass index, medication and other substance use, and medical illness, is unclear. Inconsistencies in other methodological practices, such as sample collection, assaying, and data cleaning and transformation, may contribute to variations in results. We aggregate studies that examined the association between CRP and depression in two ways. First, a systematic review summarizes how studies of CRP and depression have reported on methodological issues. Second, a tiered meta-analysis aggregates studies that have adhered to various levels of methodological rigor. Findings from the systematic review indicate a lack of protocol detail provided. The effect between depression and CRP was small, but highly significant across all stages of the meta-analysis (p < 0.01). The effect size in the most methodologically rigorous stage of the meta-analysis, which included studies controlling for age, sex, obesity, medical conditions and substance, medication, or psychosocial factors, was small (r = 0.05). There were also only 26 articles in this stage (13% of studies from the systematic review), suggesting that more studies that consistently account for these confounding factors are needed. Additionally, an a priori quality score of methodological rigor was a significant moderator in this stage of the meta-analysis. The effect size was strikingly attenuated (r = 0.005) and non-significant in studies with higher quality scores. We describe a set of recommended guidelines for future research to consider, including sample collection and assaying procedures, data cleaning and statistical methods, and control variables to assess.
Childhood adversity is a potent risk factor for mental health conditions via disruptions to stress response systems. Dysregulations in oxidative stress systems have been associated with both ...childhood adversity and several psychological disorders (e.g., major depressive disorder) in adult populations. However, few studies have examined associations between childhood adversity, oxidative stress, and mental health in pediatric populations. Childhood adversity (Adverse Childhood Events ACE), oxidative stress F2t-isoprostanes (IsoPs), and mental health pathology were assessed in 50 adolescent females recruited primarily through the Department of Youth Services. Standard ordinary least squares regression models were run co-varying for age, race/ethnicity, adolescent nicotine use, study condition, and parent history of ACEs. Adolescents who reported experiencing four or more ACEs had significantly elevated IsoP levels. Further, internalizing symptom scores across diagnoses were significantly associated with elevated IsoPs, whereas no externalizing symptoms scores, except Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, were related to altered oxidative stress. Results indicate that IsoPs may be a global marker of childhood adversity and mental health symptomatology, particularly within internalizing symptom domains. A limitation is that body mass index was not collected for this sample. Future studies are needed to replicate and extend these findings in larger, more diverse samples.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Both chronic and acute stressors have typically been understood to produce elevations in cortisol, as a means to maintaining homeostatic balance. In the past two decades, however, individuals ...experiencing high levels of chronic early adversity have been shown to manifest an alternate profile involving blunted cortisol levels. In the context of this emerging evidence, a number of questions about diminished cortisol have remained unclear. The study by White et al. (2017) is the first to measure hair cortisol concentrations in the context of adversity, and provides validation for the stability of diminished cortisol in maltreated individuals, the association between neglect and low cortisol, and a mediating role for dysregulated hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity in the association between early maltreatment and behavioral dysregulation.
Read the full article at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12700
Read the Response to this Commentary at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12770
Video Feedback Intervention With Children Balldin, Stina; Fisher, Philip A.; Wirtberg, Ingegerd
Research on social work practice,
09/2018, Letnik:
28, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Objective:
Present a systematic analysis of the outcome research concerning video feedback (VF) programs.
Method:
Twenty-nine studies published between 1990 and 2014 were examined. They focused on ...children 0–12 years old and had at least one control group.
Results:
VF programs were similar in design, with interventions focusing on parental and child behavior, parental sensitivity and attachment. In 41% of the measurements, the program effects were moderate or large in favor of the intervention groups, particularly regarding maternal sensitivity and children’s behavior. Components of the VF programs were also examined. Two general problems emerged: lack of transparency/specificity of many programs with respect to the components, and heterogeneity among instruments used for measurement.
Conclusions:
Future research should focus on articulating intervention components and a standardized approach to measurement. This would facilitate comparisons of approaches and increase the possibility of implementing VF programs with fidelity in different professional settings.
PDF
