2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

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IntroductionOver the last three decades, considerable progress has been made in understanding the ecological andcultural context for children’s development and, in particular, the harmful effects of poverty and itscorrelates on family functioning and child development (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986; Brooks-Gunn,2003; Gomby, 2005; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000; Olds, Kitzman, Hankset al., 2007; Weisner, 2002). At the same time, a variety of early intervention strategies have beendesigned to ameliorate the effects of poverty on children’s development and readiness for school.Increasingly, comprehensive, integrated systems of health, educational, and social services are viewed asa promising strategy for supporting healthy family functioning and child development in low-income, atriskfamilies (Brooks-Gunn 2003; Brooks-Gunn, Duncan & Aber, 1997; Gomby 2005; Olds et al,. 2007;Reynolds, Ou, & Topitzes 2004).This growing body of evidence prompted the Children’s Services Council (CSC) of Palm Beach County(FL) to undertake a long-term initiative to build an integrated system of care to promote and support thehealthy development of children, with a focus on the first 5 years of life. The primary goals for the PalmBeach County system of care are to increase the number of healthy births, to reduce the incidence of childabuse and neglect, and to increase school readiness, as indicated by the number of children who enterkindergarten ready to learn. 1 These goals are based on the assumption that strengthening the system ofcommunity supports and services available to families in the targeted geographical areas (TGAs) willenhance families’ abilities to raise their children in healthy ways and, in turn, improve children’sdevelopment and well-being. With improved family functioning and improved child health anddevelopment, it is further expected that children will be better prepared for school and families will bebetter able to support them in school. Moreover, it is believed that by strengthening the system of1 “Palm Beach County’s Pathway to Early Childhood Development,” CSC draft planning document, August 2007.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 1
informal community supports and prevention and early intervention services, families are less likely toneed more intensive mental health, child welfare, and juvenile justice services.To pursue these aims, CSC and other stakeholders have developed a set of prevention and earlyintervention programs and systems serving low-income families and their young children in four targetedgeographic areas (TGAs). 2 The primary programs and systems designed to support children at differentstages of their development are presented below.Table 1. Components of CSC System of CareProgram/System NameMaternal Child HealthPartnership (MCHP)Early Care and EducationSchool Behavioral HealthProgramsAfterschool ProgramsProgram DescriptionA network of health and social services for high-risk pregnant women andmothers, which includes universal risk screening before and after birth; targetedassessment and home visitation; and coordinated services for familiesexperiencing medical, psychological, social, and environmental risks thatnegatively impact pregnancy and birth outcomesSeveral initiatives intended to identify and provide services for children withdevelopmental delays and to improve children’s school readiness, and QualityCounts, a quality improvement system for childcare programsDesigned to improve children’s adjustment to school and enhance their schoolsuccess by identifying social-emotional and other developmental problems andproviding referrals and interventions to respond to these problemsA network of afterschool programs for elementary and middle school youthsupported by Prime Time, an intermediary working to improve the quality ofschool-based and community programsThe Palm Beach County Longitudinal StudyA central concern for CSC and other stakeholders in the county is the effectiveness of this emergingsystem. Is the service system functioning and being used by families as expected? Is it achieving itsintended outcomes? Separate evaluations have been conducted on several individual programs andnetworks that are part of the system (e.g., Spielberger, Haywood, Schuerman, Richman, & Michels, 2005;Lyons, Karlstrom, & Haywood, 2007). Yet, these evaluations alone cannot provide information on howfamilies use the system of services or the relationship between use of multiple services and children’swell-being and development.Thus, CSC funded Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to conduct a 6-year longitudinal study toexamine the use and potential effectiveness of an array of services in the county in promoting school2 About the time this study was conceived, 75 to 93 percent of children in these targeted communities received free or reduced-costlunch; the rate of child abuse and neglect was between 4.1 and 6.6 times the county average; and crime rates in the TGAs rangedfrom 14 to 93 percent above the county rate (Children’s Services Council report, State of the Child in Palm Beach County, 2003).Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 2
Page 1 and 2: FifthMarciaGouvêa2011
Page 3: AcknowledgmentsThis fifth report of
Page 6 and 7: Chapin Hall at the University of Ch
Page 8 and 9: List of TablesTable 1. Components o
Page 10 and 11: Table 58. Logistic Regression of Mo
Page 12 and 13: Table C- 24. Mothers’ Baseline an
Page 16 and 17: • In addition, we observed a pote
Page 18 and 19: kind of out-of-home educational exp
Page 22 and 23: eadiness and school success and in
Page 24 and 25: The study’s comprehensive, longit
Page 26 and 27: Table 2. Characteristics of Mothers
Page 28 and 29: The Year 5 Study SampleTable 4 show
Page 30 and 31: Household Structure, Employment, an
Page 32 and 33: Although mothers continued to repor
Page 34 and 35: Table 6. Family Income and Economic
Page 36 and 37: Specifically, mothers living outsid
Page 38 and 39: at the birth of the focal child tha
Page 40 and 41: Table 10. Reasons for Transportatio
Page 42 and 43: Health, Healthcare, and ChildDevelo
Page 44 and 45: two years of the study. In year 1 1
Page 46 and 47: Subsequent Pregnancies and Prenatal
Page 48 and 49: Children’s HealthcareMost (80%) o
Page 50 and 51: private plans or HMOs increased sig
Page 52 and 53: outside the TGAs to report that all
Page 54 and 55: Children’s Behavior and Developme
Page 56 and 57: cultural norms regarding what sorts
Page 58 and 59: Table 21. Emerging Pre-academic Ski
Page 60 and 61: the year 5 interview, over three-qu
Page 62: various activities, mothers reporte
Page 66 and 67: Negative Parenting PracticesThere i
Page 68 and 69: 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
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Table 49. Type of Family/Friends Su
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Access to Support by TGAFigure 5 sh
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Use of Formal ServicesA central que
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Correlates of At-Risk StatusA large
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services after 6 months. Among the
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Enhanced ServicesEnhanced services
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Termination of MCHP ServicesAs prev
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services were fairly stable, althou
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languages. The fact that more mothe
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In interpreting these results, it s
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Overall, mothers reported seeking h
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We found that in years 2 and 3, aft
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We also found that mothers tended t
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variables that could potentially be
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significant levels of stress. Paren
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positive parenting items and 5 nega
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friend/neighbor/other), which were
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Table 60. Logistic Regression of Ch
Page 136 and 137:
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County in either fall 2009 or fall
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Figure 6. Percent of Focal Children
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Next, we conducted logistic regress
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Table 68. Selected Maternal and Chi
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R 2 .180*p < .05, **p < .01, or ***
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SummarySimilar to previous analyses
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less than a high school education,
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Parenting PracticesWhen surveyed in
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We also looked at the stability of
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Service Use, Maternal Functioning,
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Conclusions and ImplicationsMore th
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Meanwhile, our findings indicate th
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literacy skills, families who do no
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BibliographyAbidin, R. R. (1995). P
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Dinan, K. A. (2005a). Federal polic
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Leventhal, T., Brooks-Gunn, J., McC
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Weisner, T. S. (1984). A cross-cult
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What are pathways to service use? W
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Table A- 1. FOCiS Codes for MCHP Se
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Table A- 2. Interview Study Samplin
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Table A- 3. Household Survey Topics
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Table A- 5. Reasons for Sample Attr
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we sought to identify the ecologica
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Table B- 2. Characteritics of TGA M
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Figure B- 1. Characteristics of Mot
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Figure B- 5. Percentage of PBC Moth
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Table B- 5. Logistic Regression Pre
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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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