2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

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SummarySimilar to previous analyses, we did not find much evidence of a relationship between the mothers’overall (or specific) service use and maternal and child outcomes. The evidence we did find suggests thatmothers with greater needs tend to use more services over time. This implies that those who may havegreater need for services are using them but that, once observable differences in circumstances betweenmothers with high and low need are accounted for, greater use of services overall—at least as measuredby this study—is not associated with improved outcomes.However, consistent with the literature on child development, we did find evidence of the important roleof parenting skills and practices in children’s development and school readiness. That is, mothers’parenting scores in year 1 are significantly and positively related to several of the child outcomes weexamined. These results suggest that effective interventions targeted at improving parenting skills aroundthe time of a child’s birth may be able to positively influence his or her development.A third finding concerns the potential positive impact of QIS center-based care, as opposed to parentaland other informal care, on child outcomes. When we examined possible differences between childrenenrolled in programs participating in Quality Counts (QC) and other formal childcare arrangements, wealso found some evidence that children in non-QC centers have better outcomes related to use of booksand other preliteracy outcomes—as reported by mothers—than those QC centers. However, we do nothave specific information on the characteristics of these childcare arrangements or the attendance andparticipation of the study children in them. These findings should be explored further. 73Finally, as in year 4, we also found that the children of foreign-born Hispanic mothers may be lagging intheir development when compared to the children of black mothers, both foreign- and U.S.-born. It is notclear whether these data from mothers’ self-reports point to real differences in development, differencesin interpretations of survey questions, or both. Teachers’ assessments of children’s development on thestandardized Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screen soon after they entered kindergarten were mixed inthis regard. There were no significant race/ethnicity or nativity differences in teachers’ ratings on theECHOS, a comprehensive child development screen. However, children of foreign-born Hispanicmothers were not assessed as highly on the FAIR, a screen of literacy skills. In addition, children in thestudy sample did not perform as well as other children entering kindergarten in the school district. Thiswas not surprising given their overall higher risk characteristics.73 A recently completed study of the school readiness rates of children attending programs in the Quality Counts system suggestspositive effects of the QC (Shen, Tackett, Ma 2009).Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 131
Summary and ConclusionsThis is the fifth and final report of a longitudinal study examining the use and effects of a comprehensivesystem of prevention and early intervention services in Palm Beach County and its effects on children andfamilies living in four targeted geographic areas (TGAs) with high rates of poverty, teen pregnancy,crime, and child abuse and neglect. Parenting in any circumstance is challenging, but low- mothers faceadditional hurdles—fewer economic and social resources, limited education, unstable livingarrangements, transportation difficulties, etc.—that place them and their children at risk of pooroutcomes. By strengthening the services offered to families in the TGA communities, CSC seeks toincrease the number of healthy births, reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect, and enhanceparents’ abilities to raise socially, emotionally, and physically healthy children who are eager to learn andready for school.The primary goal of this study was to better understand families’ patterns of service use over time andtheir impact on child and family outcomes. Although the main concern of the study is the system ofprevention and early intervention services funded by CSC, the study also collected data on the use ofother services and community supports. Data sources included administrative records on Palm BeachCounty families who gave birth between 2004 and 2009; data from annual in-person household surveyswith a baseline sample of 531 mothers drawn from the 2004–2005 TGA birth cohort; and qualitative datafrom interviews with a subgroup of 40 mothers randomly selected from this larger survey sample. Thisreport covers information from 5 years of the study and focuses on findings for 310 mothers whoparticipated in all five of the annual surveys. Below we summarize the key findings for this sample ofmothers.Family CharacteristicsNewly delivered mothers in the TGAs of Palm Beach County in 2004–2005, from which the study samplewas drawn, are more likely than mothers outside the TGAs to be unmarried, to be a teen mother, to haveChapin Hall at the University of Chicago 132
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FifthMarciaGouvêa2011
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AcknowledgmentsThis fifth report of
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Chapin Hall at the University of Ch
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List of TablesTable 1. Components o
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Table 58. Logistic Regression of Mo
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Table C- 24. Mothers’ Baseline an
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• In addition, we observed a pote
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kind of out-of-home educational exp
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IntroductionOver the last three dec
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eadiness and school success and in
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The study’s comprehensive, longit
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Table 2. Characteristics of Mothers
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The Year 5 Study SampleTable 4 show
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Household Structure, Employment, an
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Although mothers continued to repor
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Table 6. Family Income and Economic
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Specifically, mothers living outsid
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at the birth of the focal child tha
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Table 10. Reasons for Transportatio
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Health, Healthcare, and ChildDevelo
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two years of the study. In year 1 1
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Subsequent Pregnancies and Prenatal
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Children’s HealthcareMost (80%) o
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private plans or HMOs increased sig
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outside the TGAs to report that all
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Children’s Behavior and Developme
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cultural norms regarding what sorts
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Table 21. Emerging Pre-academic Ski
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the year 5 interview, over three-qu
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various activities, mothers reporte
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Negative Parenting PracticesThere i
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Table 28. Fathers’ Negative Paren
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Table 30. Parent Involvement Activi
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Table 32. Mothers’ Positive Paren
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Table 34. Mothers’ Parent Involve
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The most frequent parent involvemen
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Figure 3. Primary Childcare Arrange
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for 6 months, but when the subsidy
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ecause it is of particular interest
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types of care between mothers whose
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Table 40. Characteristics of Mother
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Table 41). Of the 204 children, 91
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commented on their children’s nee
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nonparental childcare arrangement f
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Informal and Community SupportAn un
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Table 46. Frequency of Husband/Part
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We also asked the mothers about the
Page 100 and 101: Table 49. Type of Family/Friends Su
Page 102 and 103: Access to Support by TGAFigure 5 sh
Page 104 and 105: Use of Formal ServicesA central que
Page 106 and 107: Correlates of At-Risk StatusA large
Page 108 and 109: services after 6 months. Among the
Page 110 and 111: Enhanced ServicesEnhanced services
Page 112 and 113: Termination of MCHP ServicesAs prev
Page 114 and 115: services were fairly stable, althou
Page 116 and 117: languages. The fact that more mothe
Page 118 and 119: In interpreting these results, it s
Page 120 and 121: Overall, mothers reported seeking h
Page 122 and 123: We found that in years 2 and 3, aft
Page 124 and 125: We also found that mothers tended t
Page 126 and 127: variables that could potentially be
Page 128 and 129: significant levels of stress. Paren
Page 130 and 131: positive parenting items and 5 nega
Page 132 and 133: friend/neighbor/other), which were
Page 134 and 135: Table 60. Logistic Regression of Ch
Page 140 and 141: County in either fall 2009 or fall
Page 142 and 143: Figure 6. Percent of Focal Children
Page 144 and 145: Next, we conducted logistic regress
Page 146 and 147: Table 68. Selected Maternal and Chi
Page 148 and 149: R 2 .180*p < .05, **p < .01, or ***
Page 152 and 153: less than a high school education,
Page 154 and 155: Parenting PracticesWhen surveyed in
Page 156 and 157: We also looked at the stability of
Page 158 and 159: Service Use, Maternal Functioning,
Page 160 and 161: Conclusions and ImplicationsMore th
Page 162 and 163: Meanwhile, our findings indicate th
Page 164 and 165: literacy skills, families who do no
Page 166 and 167: BibliographyAbidin, R. R. (1995). P
Page 168 and 169: Dinan, K. A. (2005a). Federal polic
Page 170 and 171: Leventhal, T., Brooks-Gunn, J., McC
Page 172 and 173: Weisner, T. S. (1984). A cross-cult
Page 174 and 175: What are pathways to service use? W
Page 176 and 177: Table A- 1. FOCiS Codes for MCHP Se
Page 178 and 179: Table A- 2. Interview Study Samplin
Page 180 and 181: Table A- 3. Household Survey Topics
Page 182 and 183: Table A- 5. Reasons for Sample Attr
Page 184 and 185: we sought to identify the ecologica
Page 186 and 187: Table B- 2. Characteritics of TGA M
Page 188 and 189: Figure B- 1. Characteristics of Mot
Page 192 and 193: Figure B- 5. Percentage of PBC Moth
Page 194 and 195: Table B- 5. Logistic Regression Pre
Page 198 and 199: Table B- 7. Characteristics of TGA
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Table B- 9. Logistic Regression Pre
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Type of Enhanced Service2009N% of M
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Table B- 12. Logistic Regression Pr
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Numberof BirthswithReferrals2009 TG
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Table B- 15. OLS Logistic Regressio
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Table C- 1. Selected Characteristic
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Table C- 4. Social and Emotional Be
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Table C- 7. Communication Skills of
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Table C- 11. Emerging Literacy and
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Table C- 14. Mothers’ Negative Pa
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Number of Different Arrangements ac
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Figure C- 1. Mean Days of MCHP Serv
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Table C- 19. Characteristics of Mot
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Table C- 22. Number of Service Area
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Table C- 23. Number of Services Use
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Table C- 25. Linear Regression Anal
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Table C- 27. Baseline Characteristi
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2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

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