Highlights of 2011 - Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern ...

Child, Adolescent, AND Family Studies
and career training of low-income parents to their children’s
development through early childhood education centers. Past
research by Chase-Lansdale and Sommer indicates that such
a program could harness parents’ hopes for their children’s
educational success as motivation for their own educational
progress. In addition to early childhood education centers
and community college healthcare work force programs,
CareerAdvance® also provides a number of key supportive
components—career coaches, financial incentives, and peer
group meetings—to prepare parents for high-demand jobs
in the healthcare sector. Chase-Lansdale was also selected as
one of the inaugural fellows of the Aspen Institute’s Ascend
Fellowship, which supports national leaders who are working
to move families out of poverty using two-generation strategies
(see p. 58).
Welfare Reform and Youth Outcomes
Drawing upon the longitudinal data set called Welfare Children
and Families: A Three-City Study, Chase-Lansdale and her colleagues
examined the long-term strategies families have used to
respond to welfare reform, in terms of employment, schooling,
residential mobility, and fertility from 1999 to 2006. In general,
changes in mothers’ work and welfare patterns were not associated
with deterioration or improvement in youth development.
The few significant associations suggested that youth
whose mothers increased employment were more likely to
show declines in serious behavior problems and delinquency
compared with youth whose mothers were unemployed or
employed part-time during the study period. Welfare roll exits
were unrelated to adolescent and young adult outcomes, and
mothers’ employment transitions were linked to improvements
in household income and mothers’ self esteem, in addition to
reductions in financial strain and their own illegal activities. However,
these associations did not explain the relation between
maternal employment and youths’ improved behavior. The
researchers also note that these results do not support the predictions
of either supporters or opponents of welfare reform.
Underlying Problems of Delinquency
Each year between 300,000 and 600,000 youth spend time
in juvenile detention facilities around the nation, with a
disproportionate number being low-income and minority
youth. IPR economist Jonathan Guryan, with Sara Heller and
Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago, is examining the
underlying problems that cause youth to become involved
with delinquency and violence. Previous research indicates
that deficits in noncognitive skills—such as self-regulation,
impulse control, social information processing, and moral
reasoning—might account for involvement with, and relapses
into, delinquency. Using a randomized experimental design
and with support from the Smith Richardson Foundation, the
researchers will begin collecting data on all the approximately
4,000 male juveniles, most of whom are Latino or African
American, entering a county juvenile detention system over
14 months. These youth have been randomly assigned to
either a typical residential center or one providing a cognitive
behavioral therapy intervention to promote noncognitive skill
development. The researchers have uncovered themes shared
by a number of effective interventions, which might prove to be
efficacious in part because they promote adaptive personality
trait development.
Maltreatment Among Detained Youth
Childhood maltreatment is common among detained youths
and is also highly associated with psychiatric disorders. As part
of the Northwestern Project, a team of clinical researchers
assessed the history of childhood maltreatment and psychiatric
diagnosis for 1,829 youths detained at the Cook County Juvenile
Temporary Detention Center. The project, led by behavioral
scientist and IPR associate Linda Teplin, Owen L. Coon
Professor, is the nation’s largest longitudinal, epidemiological
study of the mental health needs and outcomes of delinquent
youth, many of whom are now young adults. Of those they
interviewed for the study, more than three-quarters of
females and more than two-thirds of males had a history of
moderate or severe physical abuse. More than 40 percent of
females and 10 percent of males had a history of sexual abuse.
Females and non-Hispanic whites had the highest prevalence
rates of childhood maltreatment. Among youths who were
sexually abused, abuse with force was associated with anxiety
disorders among females and attention-deficit hyperactivity,
or disruptive behavior disorders and substance use disorders,
among males. Teplin calls for the mental health, child welfare,
and juvenile justice systems to collaborate to ensure that these
youth receive protection and care when they return to their
communities. The article was published in Psychiatric Services.
Children of Incarcerated Parents
Sociologist and legal scholar John Hagan continues his work
with Holly Foster of Texas A&M University to trace how
having an incarcerated parent can affect a child’s life. Parental
incarceration affects about one-fifth of elementary school
children in the United States. Using data from the National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health for 2,000 children of
incarcerated fathers, Hagan and Foster are following the children
into mid-adolescence and early adulthood. One finding is that
having an imprisoned father and also attending a school where
many other children have fathers in prison can lower college
completion rates from 40 to 10 percent. Another finding is that
these fathers go missing during a critical development period
for the children, and this absence then follows their children
through life, compounding their inability to complete college
and severely limiting their future opportunities. Hagan is John
D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law.
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