Many women experience depressive symptoms after birth, and rates among African Americans are as high as 40 percent. Spirituality and religiosity are valued in African American communities, but their ...relevance to new mothers has not been empirically tested. We examined effects of religiosity and spirituality on trajectories of depressive symptoms during the year following childbirth. Data were collected by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Community and Child Health Network (CCHN) focused on maternal-child health disparities. The sample consisted of 702 low SES African American predominantly Christian women. Participants were interviewed in their homes throughout the year following a birth. Spirituality and religiosity each independently predicted changes in depressive symptoms with low levels predicting increases over time. Effects of religiosity were mediated by a woman's spirituality. Religiosity and spirituality functioned as significant, interrelated protective factors in this study which provides novel insight about lower income African American women following birth.
Most studies of gifted students have looked at already identified groups, often convenience samples. This study takes a more epidemiological approach. Of the 5,400 children in the National Head ...Start/Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration group Project tested at the end of third grade, the highest achieving 3% (N = 162) were selected by conducting a principal components analysis on their scores on the vocabulary and achievement measures. Compared with the remaining children, the high-achieving children were thriving both socially and academically, and, although as a group they were not enamoured of school, fewer were strongly disaffected. On the whole, the families of these children had somewhat more resources on which to call and somewhat fewer stresses with which to deal than the families of the remaining children, although their mean income was only 1.26 times the Poverty Index. Compared to caretakers of the remaining children, caretakers of high achievers ascribed to more positive parenting attitudes and were seen by teachers as more strongly encouraging their children's progress. Of the 113 third-grade high achievers with test scores at grades 1, 2, and 3, 52 had met the 3% criterion in at least 2 grades, and 37 had done so in all 3. Years of high achievement correlated with family resources. These findings demonstrate that even families sorely stressed by life circumstances can support very positive intellectual and social competence in their children.
This article presents information from interviews and questionnaires administered to 4,582 kindergartners who were former Head Start participants and their primary caregivers. Also, students' ...kindergarten, first-, and second-grade teachers rated their academic performance. Most children (74%) had extremely positive perceptions of all aspects of school. However, a subset of children (7%) reported they did not like school very much and were not doing well; further, they reported that they and their parents did not highly value doing well in school. These children with less positive school perceptions were significantly more likely to be boys and to have lower receptive language skills (as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) than children with more positive perceptions. Rates of special education placement and family risk variables (i.e., single-parent status, income, welfare status, mother's age, parent education, parent working status) did not differ for children with higher and lower ratings of school. Parents had highly favorable impressions of children's early school adjustment, even more favorable than their children's. Teachers' ratings of children's academic performance were significantly higher for children with more rather than less positive school perceptions in kindergarten, first, and second grades. Efforts needed to minimize poor transition-to-school experiences and to identify children with negative perceptions of school as early as possible are discussed.
OBJECTIVE To test the ability of a 3-item screening tool (Parenting Responsibility and Emotional Preparedness PREP) to detect adolescent mothers at elevated risk for nonoptimal parenting and poor ...child development outcomes at 2 years of age. DESIGN A 4-site prospective cohort study conducted from December 2001 to August 2007 of adolescent mothers recruited in the third trimester of pregnancy and followed up at 4, 8, 18, and 24 months post partum. SETTING Community clinics and home settings in Birmingham, Alabama; Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri; South Bend, Indiana; and Washington, DC. PARTICIPANTS A total of 270 first-time adolescent mothers (aged 15-19 years) and their infants (birth to 2 years of age). MAIN EXPOSURES Naturalistic observations of parent-child interactions and quality of home environment during the first 2 years of life. OUTCOME MEASURES Maternal mental health and cognitive indicators, positive mother-child interactions, quality of home environment, child social-emotional development, and child cognitive development (Bayley scales). RESULTS PREP scores identified adolescent mothers with significantly elevated depressive symptoms and childhood trauma and lower scores of knowledge of infant development and maternal IQ. PREP predicted significantly lower quality of home environments and higher levels of nonoptimal mother-child interactions at 4, 8, and 18 months. PREP also predicted significantly lower child outcomes at 2 years of age for cognitive scores and higher levels of depressive and withdrawal symptoms and dysregulation and negative emotionality. CONCLUSIONS PREP is a low-cost, easily administered, nonstigmatizing screening tool that identifies adolescent mothers who self-recognize that they need help to meet their infants' social, emotional, and cognitive needs.
Two multisite studies were conducted to assess the feasibility of using cell phone interviews (the Parent-Child Activities Interview) to learn more about the quality of daily parenting among ...high-risk mothers, including child neglect. In Study 1, 45 primiparous teenage mothers with 3- to 9-month-old infants were recruited and randomly assigned to two groups: one received frequent cell phone interviews and the other group less frequent interviews over their home telephone. Relationships among paper-and-pencil surveys of parenting (gathered in person) and a Parenting Essentials score (coded from the phone interviews) were significantly correlated. In Study 2, adolescent and adult mothers and their first-born children ( n = 544) completed 2 observations of parenting in their home as well as a series of 3 PCA calls at ages 4 and 8 months. Parenting Essentials coded from the interviews were significantly related to observed measures of parenting at both time points. The Parent-Child Activities Interview shows promise as a reliable and valid measure of parenting, capturing frequent and detailed information about daily parenting practices. Cell phones may prove useful in intervening with mothers at risk of suboptimal parenting and child neglect.
To examine correlates of maternal depressive symptoms in a diverse, national sample of mothers whose kindergarten-aged children attended a Head Start program.
A cross-sectional study of 5820 mothers ...was conducted during their child's kindergarten year.
Rates of maternal depressive symptoms were assessed by a validated 3-item depression screen.
The ethnic makeup of the group of mothers was non-Hispanic white, 46%; African American, 30%; Hispanic, 13%; American Indian, 6%; Asian American, 1%; and other, 4%. The mean (SD) age of the mothers was 30.1 (5.55) years, 57% were unemployed, and 68% had at least a high school diploma or had earned a high school equivalency diploma. More than 40% of the mothers screened positive for depressive symptoms. The strongest associations after controlling for several biological and demographic variables were maternal chronic health problem (adjusted odds ratio, 2.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.98-3.87), homelessness (adjusted odds ratio, 2.00; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-2.77), and lowest income level (adjusted odds ratio, 1.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.30-1.88).
Depressive symptoms were common among mothers of young children in this national sample. Interventions must be targeted at alleviating maternal depressive symptoms by decreasing poverty, providing support programs for single parents, and establishing accessible and affordable medical care for all parents and their children. Primary care physicians can play a key role in early identification and intervention.
Intelligence and Experience Ramey, Craig T.; Ramey, Sharon Landesman; Lanzi, Robin Gaines
Environmental Effects On Cognitive Abilities,
2001
Book Chapter
This chapter reviews the evidence on nutritional deficiencies affecting children's development. The effect of stunting on intellectual development used cross-sectional, longitudinal, and ...interventional designs. It describes protein-energy-malnutrition (PEM), breastfeeding, iron, iodine, and zinc deficiencies, and short-term hunger. It discusses the studies of severely malnourished children who were hospitalized with marasmus, kwashiorkor, or marasmic kwashiorkor followed by studies of mild to moderate malnutrition. The chapter explains possible mechanisms linking iron deficiency to poor development, followed by observational studies and then treatment trials. Child development is affected by many environmental factors both psychosocial and biological. The biological factors include poor health and nutrition which frequently occur together the one predisposing to the other. The diagnosis of PEM depends on having weights, heights, or weights-for-height below a certain cut-off level when compared with internationally accepted references. The term Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) describes the spectrum of effects of iodine deficiency and includes goiter, endemic cretinism, neuromotor delays, and increased pre and postnatal mortality.
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