Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:During the past academic year, my graduate student and I presented a paper entitled "Family Embeddedness During the Transition to Adulthood of Second Generation Immigrants" at the Annual Conference of the National Council on Family Relations in Vancouver, British Columbia. The audience for this presentation included researchers, scientists, graduate students, and practitioners. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided unique opportunities for my graduate students to participate in collaborative research and gain valuable practical skills in quantitative data analysis. Through working on this research project, my graduate students learned how to code and clean data, develop and test models, and conduct basic and advanced statistical analyses including multiple regression using STATA software. My students also learned how to interpret the results of our analyses, and write and submit academic papers for peer review in academic journals. They also gained invaluable experience and bolstered their social networks by preparing and giving oral presentations on our research at major national and international conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the course of this project, I and my graduate students have presented our work atfive national and international academic conferences. I also presented this research at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois on two occasions. We have completed five manuscripts related to this research and published two manuscripts in highly respected academic journals. We also have three working papers related to this project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Despite decades of policies and programs aimed at reducing educational inequality, significant race and class gaps in achievement and attainment persist. The goal of this research project was to examine how family, school, and neighborhood conditions influence children's early cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional development. In particular, we focused on residential and school mobility, stratification processes in schools (i.e., ability grouping for instruction), racial and poverty concentration, parental practices such as racial socialization, and maternal work conditions as key mechanisms to explain educational inequality. In our project, we used several nationally representative, longitudinal data sets from the U.S. Department of Education including the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth and Kindergarten cohorts, and the Education Longitudinal Study, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, as well as geographical data on neighborhood quality from the U.S. Census. There were several noteworthy findings from our research. First, we found students who experience nonroutine school changes, especially coupled with residential changes, were more likely to develop internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, were less engaged in classroom activities, and had slower reading growth compared to stable students. Since low income and racial minority students are more likely to move during the early years of schooling and to enter kindergarten already behind their peers, they may be at further risk of early disengagement from school and slower reading growth because of the additional disadvantages that tend to come with a move. Our results suggest that while schools should support all students who are experiencing transitions during elementary school, special attention, particularly with respect to engagement and reading supports, should be given to students who are experiencing both residential and school moves coupled with other factors such as greater economic disadvantage. A second major finding from our research highlights the impact maternal work schedules have on early child development. Our results show that preschool children whose mothers work nonstandard hours are at greater risk of developing behavioral problems, have poorer beginning math and early literacy skills, compared to similar children whose mothers were employed in jobs with standard work hours (i.e., M-F, 9am to 5pm). These effects persisted even after taking into account a host of maternal characteristics (i.e., education), family socioeconomic status, and prior behavior. These findings highlight the important source of potential conflict and strain working nonstandard hours may place on the working mothers with young children and informs policy efforts to promote flexible work schedules, particularly for mothers of young children. Lastly, our research showed that stratification processes within schools including the use of ability grouping for instruction can exacerbate educational inequality, particularly between racial groups. Our findings suggested African American students were more likely to be placed in lower groups for reading instruction compared to similar White students during elementary school. Rather than a rising tide that lifts all boats, our findings showed that lower grouped students not only had slower reading growth but also developed more behavioral problems and diminished attachment to school by the end of third grade, compared to similar students who were not placed in higher ability groups for instruction or were in classrooms where grouping was not used. These results challenge the widespread practice of ability grouping for instruction in the elementary schools across the U.S. and demonstrate how the practice may actually exacerbate racial gaps in educational outcomes. We completed three studies to meet Objective 1. In the first study, we utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and the U.S. Census to examine how neighborhood characteristics, school context, and child's sex influenced Black parents' engagement in proactive racial socialization in kindergarten. We found that parents were less likely to engage in racial socialization in more disadvantaged neighborhoods and if their children attended predominantly Black schools. Further, Black girls were more likely to receive messages of racial socialization compared to boys. However, this finding reversed for families that lived in more disadvantaged neighborhoods or attended rural or suburban schools. The results highlight the importance of examining the intersection between parenting, neighborhood and school contexts to understand the role children's sex plays in racial socialization practices in Black families. In a second study, we utilized data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY: 1997) to examine how socioeconomic and contextual factors during adolescence impact educational attainment and income, as well as alternative measures of "success", including health and life satisfaction, among second generation immigrants. Results from our regression analysis indicated neighborhood and family circumstances during adolescence have an enduring impact on the quality of the transition to adulthood among second generation immigrant youth in the U.S. In a third study, we utilized data from the Education Longitudinal Study to examine the degree to which second generation immigrant youth were rooted in family relationships and whether these relationships influenced early education and work patterns and later educational attainment. We found the more embedded immigrant youth were in their families and communities, the higher their educational achievement and attainment in early and later adulthood compared to youth with lower levels of embeddedness. To meet my second objective, I completed one study which utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to examine how ability grouping practices during early schooling affected reading growth, socioemotional development, and interest in and attachment to school. The results from our propensity score matching models show that students who are lower grouped for reading instruction are more likely to develop behavioral problems, are less attached to and interested in school, and have slower reading growth compared to non-grouped or higher grouped students. To meet my third objective, I completed one study which utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- birth cohort, to examine how maternal work patterns, including nonstandard work schedules, influence children's early cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Results from our multivariate regression analysis showed children whose mothers worked nonstandard hours had worse cognitive development and greater internalizing behavior problems compared to those whose mothers worked the regular day shift, controlling for various maternal and family characteristics and prior development measured at 2 years old. Our findings further indicated that parent-related stress and maternal depression did little to explain the negative association between maternal nonstandard work and child outcomes. Thus, our study highlights the importance of further examining the relationship between maternal work shifts and child well-being and other possible pathways through which nonstandard hours affect children's outcomes. To meet my fourth objective, I completed several activities. First, I developed measures of formal and informal social support from existing variables in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. I then developed empirical models to represent the direct and indirect relationship between social support and children's development. I am in the process of testing these models and plan to prepare a manuscript reporting our findings during the Spring of 2017.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Lleras, Christy and Mary McKillip. 2016. When children move: Behavior and achievement outcomes during elementary school. The Journal of Educational Research (2016): 1-11.
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Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:During the past year, my graduate student presented one of our co-authored papers from this project entitled "Parents` Engagement in Racial Socialization with Young Black Boys and Girls: Does Neighborhood Disadvantage and School Context Mater?" at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Association in New York. A secondgraduate studentpresented another co-authored paper from this project entitled "Educational Attainment and Civic Participation among Second Generation Immigrants: The Importance of Social Embeddedness during Adolescence" at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago. The audience for both of these presentations included faculty and graduate students from major universities in the U.S. and outside the U.S. as well as policymakers. I also presented another paper from this project entitled "Educational and Occupational Pathways of U.S. Immigrant Youth: The Importance of Embeddedness in Social Relationships 10 Years Later" at the National Conference on Family Relations in Vancouver, British Columbia. The audience for this presentation included researchers and graduate students from the fields of human development, sociology and education. I was also invited to give a presentation on my research from this project entitled "Understanding the Roots of Inequality: Race, Poverty and Stratification in Families, Schools and Neighborhoods" at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. The audience for this presentation included the Director of the Institute and faculty and graduate students from biology, psychology, sociology, and other departments from the University of Illinois. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided the opportunity for graduate students to analyze data, write up results in an academic paper, revise and resubmit their work and present their work at national conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?I have disseminated our results to policymakers, research scientists and graduate students through conference presentations and publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, I plan to finish the path analysis using structural equation modeling of nonstandard work and child development and submit a paper for publication on this topic. I also plan to present findings from this study at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We met the first objective by completing two manuscripts examining the role of racial socialization practices in African American families. One of the papers was presented at a national conference and we are revising for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. The second objective was met by completing a study on residential and school mobility which is in press at a leading journal in the field of education. With respect to the third and fourth objectives, I hired a graduate research assistant to continue coding and analyzing the ECLS-B to examine the role of nonstandard work in early child development. Specifically, we are using path analysis to determine the direct and indirect effects of nonstandard work conditions on early child development. In addition, a graduate student and I submitted a paper to a peer-reviewed journal on results from a study examining how nonstandard work affects maternal mental health and, in turn, child socioemotional health.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Lleras, C. and McKillip, M. 2015. Does Mobility Help or Hurt Student Behavior and Achievement During Elementary School? The Journal of Educational Research.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Wu, Joanna and Lleras, C. 2015. Family Embeddedness During the Transition to Adulthood of Second Generation Immigrants. Special Issue on Immigrant Families in Family Science Review, 20 (2), 64-92.
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Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: During the past year, my graduate student presented one of our co-authored papers from this project entitled "Children’s Cognitive and Behavioral Development among Single Mothers Working a Nonstandard Schedule" at the Work and Family Researchers Network Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania. The audience for her presentation included faculty from major universities across the U.S. as well as graduate students. Another graduate student presented our co-authored paper entitled "Educational and Occupational Pathways among Immigrant Youth in the U.S.: The Importance of Embeddedness in Social Relationships 10 Years Later" at The Society of Longitudinal and Life Course Studies in Lausanne, Switzerland. The audience for this presentation included research scientists, professors, and graduate students from around the world in the fields of demography, population studies, sociology and psychology. Changes/Problems: We extended our analysis of the role family social support plays in promoting successful development to include adolescence using the Education Longitudinal Study. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project has provided the opportunity for my graduate students to learn how to write up results for publication, revise and resubmit manuscripts for publication, and present our findings on academic panels at national and international conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We have disseminated results from this project through conference presentations toresearch scientists, faculty, and graduate students (domestically and internationally). We have also submitted manuscripts for publication in peer reviewed journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, I plan to finish the analyses examining the direct and indirect pathways by which social support influence early child development. We also plan to present results from the paper examining racial socialization parenting practices and early child development at the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society in New York. We are also planning to present our work at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Society in Chicago.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the past year, we completed and sent out for review four manuscripts for publication in peer reviewed academic journals. To meet the first objective, we completed a manuscript examining how racial socialization influences early emotional and behavioral development in African American families. We also completed one study which meets the first and fourth objectives of this research project. This study extended our analyses of the mechanisms in educational and labor market inequality by examining how social ties and embeddedness in families, schools, peers and communities impacts the transition from adolescence to adulthood. This study utilized data from the Education Longitudinal Study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. The paper emphasizes the role social support plays in fostering successful early educational and labor market trajectories among second-generation immigrant youth in the U.S. The paper is currently undergoing peer review at the Journal of Family Issues. To meet the first objective, my graduate student and I also submitted a paper for peer review which examines whether maternal stress and depression mediate the relationship between maternal work hours and early child development to the journal Family Relations. To meet the third objective, I also completed analysis and finished a paper which is currently under peer review at the Journal of Educational Research which examines how early residential and school mobility impact the cognitive and behavioral development of children during the first four years of formal schooling.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The academic fields of sociology, education and psychology, federal and state policymakers, school boards, and daycare providers and practitioners in education (i.e., school administrators, principals, and teachers). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project provided specific opportunities for my graduate students to work one-on-one with myself including practical skills such as coding data and more specific technical skills such as conducting multiple regression analysis using STATA statistical software. My graduate students also learned how to interpret results from these analysis and write them up in a paper to be submitted to a peer reviewed academic journal. My students also gained valuable experience presenting results from our studies at national and professional conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? During the past year, I was invited to give a presentation on my work related to this project entitled Inequality in Child Development: The Role of Race, Poverty and Social Stratification in Schools at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in April, 2013. A paper co-authored with one of my graduate students entitled Nonstandard Work and Preschool Children's Development in Single Mother Families was accepted through peer review to be presented at a roundtable session at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, my graduate students and I will finish conducting analyses, writing manuscripts and submit two papers for publication from the studies conducted to meet the first three goals of the project. We also plan to conduct a third study which examines how differences in early childhood care affect preschool children's school readiness.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The first five years of a child’s life constitute a critical period in child development. It is in these years that children learn many of the skills and behaviors necessary to make a successful transition into and master the demands of formal schooling. However, a significant number of children, particularly low-income and racial minority children, enter elementary school with fewer of these skills and as a result are at increased risk for problems later on in middle and high school. Therefore, it is essential to examine how family conditions and social institutions impact these early developmental processes. The proposed study utilizes a national sample of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth cohort (ECLS-B) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and statistical regression to examine how family structure and parental work conditions as well as the quality of daycare and the formal schooling experience affect the socioemotional, behavioral and cognitive development of young children. Since about half of all children will spend some portion of their childhood in a single mother family and most single mothers with young children work in the labor market, this study will also focus on the unique experiences of single working mothers. Equally important has been the growing number of mothers and fathers with young children who are employed in service sector jobs often characterized by nonstandard work hours (e.g.,evening, night, rotating, weekend), lower wages and fewer benefits. This is particularly true in rural areas. Single mothers with young children are more likely to work in service sector jobs often characterized by these kinds of nonstandard schedules, lower wages and fewer benefits. Balancing work and family life is a challenge for most households but it may be particularly difficult for single working mothers as they struggle to find sufficient time to fulfill work responsibilities and provide the care that young children require for healthy development. While numerous studies have examined the impact of family structure, employment status and number of hours worked on a variety of cognitive and behavioral outcomes in children and adolescents, less attention has been paid to the effects of work schedules on maternal health and parenting experiences, particularly within the context of single mother families with young children. This is important given the number of single mothers working nonstandard hours and the added strains they are likely to encounter as they parent young children. Finally, this study will extend prior work on the relationship between family and school factors and the early development of children by considering how sources of formal and informal social support including from friends, family, and the wider community may help parents who work in jobs with nonstandard hours meet the needs of their children and ultimately foster healthier child development. This study highlights several areas that may be amenable to change either through policy or preventative intervention such as the availability and quality of childcare, the nature of parent-child relationships and the home environment, and employment conditions including standard and flexible work hours. There are four main objectives in this project: First, to determine how socioeconomic factors including employment, income, and marital status impact early cognitive, behavioral and socioemotional development, paying particular attention to the mediating role of maternal mental health and parenting behavior. Second,to examine how work schedules including nonstandard work hours influence early development, particularly within the context of single mother families. To meet these objectives, my graduate students and I conducted statistical analysis and completed one study which examined the relationship between nonstandard work schedules and children’s well-being in single mother families. In this study we also examined possible pathways including parental stress and depression, through which work schedules may influence children’s development. We utilized data from a national sample of children who were surveyed every two years from birth through kindergarten (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth cohort). This data was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and included survey instruments for children's behavioral and cognitive development, detailed survey data on mother's employment and job characteristics, as well as information on maternal stress and mental health. The results of our study suggest that nonstandard work hours do play a role in young children's cognitive, social, and behavioral development within the context of single mother households. Nonstandard work is negatively associated with early literacy and math ability and increased internalizing of behavior problems among preschool children of single working mothers, even after controlling for income, child, and maternal characteristics such as maternal education. However, we find little evidence that the relationship between employment and early literacy is mediated by maternal depression which suggests that mother’s mental health may be only one of many factors to consider when trying to understand how nonstandard work matters for single mothers. The results of our study suggest the need for future research to examine other ways nonstandard work may affect child development. The third objective of this project was to investigate what role childcare arrangements and early school experiences may play in exacerbating or lessening the impact of family poverty, job conditions and family structure on the healthy development of preschool and elementary age children. To meet this objective, my graduate students and I conducted statistical analysis and completed one study utilizing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten cohort where we examined how ability grouping practices for reading instruction during the early years of formal schooling influenced reading growth, student engagement and school-related behaviors among African-American girls and boys. The results of our regression analysis suggest that ability grouping for reading instruction may be particularly harmful for African-American girls who show an increased risk for behavior problems and lower student engagement over time compared to girls who were not grouped for reading instruction. These results are significant and call into question the benefits of the widespread practice of grouping for early reading instruction particularly for African-American children during elementary school. The last objective of this project was explore the direct and indirect ways formal and informal sources of social support may impact early child development. My graduate students and I have begun coding national longitudinal data from the ECLS-B which includes specific survey data on various sources of informal and formal support.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Despite decades of policies and programs aimed at reducing educational inequality, gaps in student achievement, school-related behaviors and attainment persist between students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Research suggests that these gaps are present before kindergarten begins and endure throughout the elementary and secondary school years. The goal of this study is to analyze the complex relationships between family factors, early daycare and school settings and the cognitive and socioemotional development among children and adolescents. The study utilizes survey data from a national longitudinal sample of children collected by the U.S. Department of Education. During the past year, I conducted two studies on this project. The first study examined how maternal work schedules and specifically, nonstandard work hours (i.e., outside the regular 8 am to 5pm workday) affected preschool childrens socioemotional development and early literacy and math skills among a national sample of single mothers. The second study examined how the quality of the neighborhood environment coupled with family socioeconomic conditions impacted adolescent success in the transition to early adulthood among a national sample of second generation immigrant youth and their families. PARTICIPANTS: Christy Lleras, Director of Project, conducts data analysis and supervises and trains graduate students in coding and data analysis using SPSS and Stata statistical software programs. Collaborates with graduate students in writing and manuscript preparation for presentation at academic conferences and for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Graduate Students who worked on project: Joanna Wu, Ph.D. student in Department of Human and Community Development assisted with coding, data analysis and manuscript preparation and presentation at a national conference and for submission to an academic peer-reviewed journal. Sarai Coba-Rodriguez, MS student in Department of Human and Community Development assisted with coding, data analysis and manuscript preparation for submission to an academic peer-reviewed journal. TARGET AUDIENCES: Academic fields of sociology, education and psychology, federal and state policymakers and local school boards, daycare providers and practitioners in Education (i.e., school administrators/principals/teachers). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: I added another national data set for this project, The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), to better estimate how family conditions, maternal characteristics, neighborhoods and schools impact adolescent development.
Impacts
During this past year, I developed statistical models, conducted regression analysis, and prepared two manuscripts with my graduate students for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal. I also continued to train my graduate students in statistical techniques, academic writing and manuscript preparation. I have disseminated findings from this project by participating in a presentation co-authored with my graduate student at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver, Colorado in August. The results from the first study showed that children whose mothers work nonstandard hours are more at risk of developing behavioral problems and have lower math ability and less early literacy skills compared to similar children whose mothers work standard hours. These effects persist even after controlling for a host of maternal characteristics, prior behavior and family and work conditions. These findings highlight the potential source of conflict and stress working nonstandard jobs may cause, particularly for single mothers with young children, and demonstrate the importance of examining how nonstandard work may negatively affect mothers ability to care for their children. The results from the second study show that the home environment experienced during early adolescence as well as the quality and safeness of the neighborhood impact the ability of second generation immigrant youth to make a successful transition to adulthood defined by educational attainment and earnings as well as general health and life satisfaction. This study adds to the growing body of literature on immigrant youth by examining how multiple contextual factors including neighborhood poverty and family environments have persistent effects on adolescents as they move into early adulthood.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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