2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

eadiness and school success and in improving family functioning among children and families most inneed of support. The goal of the study is to describe the characteristics and needs of families the servicesystem is intended to serve, how they use the services that make up the service system in Palm BeachCounty, and how service use relates to child and family outcomes. It began in 2004 and addressesquestions in the following areas:What services and supports are available and how do families of young children in the TGAs usethem? Are there patterns of service use?What are the correlates of service use, including demographic and other family characteristics,indicators of risk and service need, geographic location, nativity, and prior service use?How does service use relate to child and family outcomes, including children’s school readiness;school success; and physical, social-emotional, and behavioral health; and to family functioning, ratesof abuse and neglect, and parent involvement in schools? 3Conceptual Framework for this StudyWe use an ecological model to guide this study. As described above, the Palm Beach County system ofcare is being built on the premise that families in the TGAs will function better and be better equipped toraise their children to be healthy and ready for school—cognitively, socially, emotionally, andphysically—with the support of a system of prevention and early intervention programs. The conceptualframework for the longitudinal study, shown in Figure 1, reflects this premise.This model assumes that families’ access to and use of the system of care will affect proximal outcomes(e.g., parenting practices, maternal functioning, and reports of child abuse and neglect), which, in turn,will affect children’s long-term outcomes. The model also suggests that a number of factors influenceservice use, including child, family, and community characteristics, and use of other services. Forexample, preliminary findings indicated that service use differs as a function of demographiccharacteristics such as age, education, and employment, as well as individual beliefs and attitudes aboutservices, perceptions of need and the costs of service use, and willingness to seek help (Spielberger,Lyons, Gouvea, Haywood, & Winje, 2007). In addition, mothers may be more likely to use services iftheir prior experiences with services were positive, or if the services used are a source of informationabout other services. Moreover, the conceptual framework suggests that the availability of social support3 It is important to note that, because families voluntarily chose whether or not to use services, and were not randomly assigned toreceive services, we cannot draw any conclusions about causal relationships between families’ service use and child and familyoutcomes. We are, however, able to examine the strength and direction of these relationships, after controlling for a wide varietyof child and family characteristics associated with both service use and child/family outcomes.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 3