2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

the year 5 interview, over three-quarters (77%) said they had initiated care in the first trimester, while 16percent reported doing so in the second trimester.More than three-fourths (76%) of the focal children were covered by health insurance in year 5. However,the fact that 13 percent of all children in the study (focal as well as other children in the study families)were not covered is a concern. An additional concern is that only 45 percent of the sample mothersreported having health insurance for themselves; this percentage is fairly stable from years 2 through 5and is significantly lower than the percentage in year one. There were marked differences betweenforeign-born and U.S.-born mothers with respect to health insurance coverage; 75 percent of U.S.-bornmothers had health insurance, compared to only 19 percent of foreign-born mothers. In addition, the focalchildren of foreign-born mothers were less likely than the children of U.S.-born children to have healthinsurance, although the difference is much smaller (81% vs. 90%).The results for children’s health and development are generally positive. Most mothers reported theirfocal child to be in “good” to “excellent” physical health, although 19 percent of the mothers reported thattheir focal child had “special needs,” with asthma and other respiratory problems being the dominantneed. In terms of development, a majority of the children were demonstrating a range of early literacy,social-emotional, and communicative behaviors typical for their ages. More than two-thirds of thechildren were reported to be talking in sentences, and 90 percent or more were demonstrating appropriatelistening and speaking skills when conversing with other people. However, we did find that foreign-bornmothers were more likely than U.S.-born mothers to report some social-emotional problem behaviors(such as the inability to sit still) of their focal child, which may be attributed, in part, to culturaldifferences in their expectations for the behavior of preschool children. In addition, foreign-born motherswere less likely than U.S.-born mothers to report that their child was demonstrating certain preliteracybehaviors. Such differences might be the result of differences in opportunities to develop and use theseskills.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 41