2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

The study’s comprehensive, longitudinal design has allowed us to examine in depth the relationshipsamong child and family characteristics, use of the service system, and child and family outcomes. It hasalso allowed us to explore explanations for any relationships that are found and to document changes thatoccur within families over time that might be attributable to use of particular services. Appendix A, aswell as previous reports (Spielberger et al., 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010), provide other information about thestudy design and methodology.Organization of This ReportThis report presents findings from the fifth year of the in-person household survey, conducted when thefocal children were between 48 and 54 months of age, and makes comparisons with findings from theprevious years of the study. In all analyses, we use 310 as the sample population, which is the number ofmothers who completed all five in-person surveys. This report also draws on administrative data fromFOCiS, Vital Statistics, the Enhanced Field System (EFS) childcare subsidy data, and DCF data on childabuse and neglect. 4Chapter 2 begins with an overview of the demographic characteristics of the 2004–2005 birth cohort, aswell as a description of the 310 mothers who participated in all 5 years of in-person interviews. We thenpresent, in chapter 3, a description of the mothers’ health and healthcare practices, as well as theirchildren’s health and development. In chapter 4, we describe mothers’ reports of their parenting activitiesand those of their husbands/partners. In chapter 5, we discuss findings on families’ experiences withchildcare and the factors that affect their use of childcare. In chapter 6, findings on informal andcommunity supports are presented. In chapter 7, we report on families’ use of formal services by drawingon administrative data and mothers’ self-reports. We go on, in chapter 8, to examine the patterns andcorrelates of service use in year 5 and present findings on the relationships between patterns of serviceuse and maternal functioning and child development. In the final chapter, we summarize the findings andconsider their implications for the Palm Beach County service system.4 Other study reports will include results of analyses of qualitative interview data with a subsample of mothers and malecaregivers.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 5