Thursday, January 31, 2008

Early motherhood and subsequent life outcomes

Journal Child Psychology & Psychiatry
q:
..
Results: Early motherhood was associated with higher levels of mental health disorders, lower levels of educational achievement, higher levels of welfare dependence, lower levels of workforce participation, and lower income. Control for confounding factors reduced the associations between early motherhood and later mental health disorders to statistical non-significance. However, the associations between early motherhood and later educational achievement and economic circumstances persisted after control for potentially confounding factors.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that early motherhood puts young women at risk for educational underachievement and poorer economic circumstances. The linkages between early motherhood and later mental health difficulties can largely be accounted for by childhood, family, and related circumstances that occurred prior to parenthood.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Reducing Maternal Depression and Its Impact on Young Children

NCCP
q:
Maternal depression is a significant risk factor affecting the
well-being and school readiness of young children. Low-income
mothers of young children experience particularly high levels
of depression, often in combination with other risk factors.
This policy brief provides an overview of why it is so important
to address maternal depression as a central part of the effort
to ensure that ALL young children enter school ready to succeed.
...

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Early motherhood and subsequent life outcomes

Blackwell Synergy - J Child Psychol & Psychiat, Volume 49 Issue 2 Page 151-160, February 2008 (Article Abstract)
q:
...
Results: Early motherhood was associated with higher levels of mental health disorders, lower levels of educational achievement, higher levels of welfare dependence, lower levels of workforce participation, and lower income. Control for confounding factors reduced the associations between early motherhood and later mental health disorders to statistical non-significance. However, the associations between early motherhood and later educational achievement and economic circumstances persisted after control for potentially confounding factors.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that early motherhood puts young women at risk for educational underachievement and poorer economic circumstances. The linkages between early motherhood and later mental health difficulties can largely be accounted for by childhood, family, and related circumstances that occurred prior to parenthood.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Programs that Work | Healthy Families New York (HFNY)

Promising Practices Network | RAND
Q;
The Healthy Families New York program seeks to improve the health and well-being of children at risk for abuse and neglect by providing intensive home visitation services. The study on which the updated HFNY program summary is based found that this Proven program continued to reduce child abuse and neglect in the second year of the study. This study is noteworthy because it is one of the few evaluations of home visiting programs that have used a rigorous randomized control design. Additionally, it is the only study of a program using the Healthy Families America guidelines that meets PPN study design criteria, and it finds significant and sizeable effects at a much lower cost than models that rely exclusively on nurses.