Child Development and Social Policy Lab at Georgetown University on LinkedIn: Tulsa SEED Study — Child Development and Social Policy Lab (2024)

Much hypothesized, rarely tested: Public preschool attendance predicts executive functioning skills in 3rd grade.Public preschool enhances consequential long-term education, economic, and health outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. One much-hypothesized --but rarely tested-- explanation is that preschool predicts improved executive functioning (EF) in middle childhood. Our study provides empirical support linking preschool to middle childhood EF. We draw on a large, racially-diverse sample of children from low-income families in Tulsa, OK (N?=?685, Mage at 3rd?=?8.5?years), home to a nationally-recognized universal public preschool program administered in school-based pre-k and Head Start classrooms. Using propensity score weighting, we compare the 3rd grade EF skills of children who attended school-based pre-k or Head Start to those who did not. School-based pre-k attendance predicts better impulse control and working memory skills in 3rd grade (d?=?.35?.37); Head Start attendance predicts better working memory (d?=?.47). This evidence highlights public preschool?s potential to promote the EF skills of diverse children from low-income families into middle childhood.https://lnkd.in/g4pkCg42(Johnson, Anna D; Partika, Anne; Martin, Anne; Castle, Sherri; Phillips, Deborah)

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Hear what we have to say about the long-term benefits of early investments in preschool:https://lnkd.in/dKG9qpMA

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Our team recently published a brief about key findings for Head Start and Educare preschool attenders in the Tulsa SEED Study. The key takeaway? Attending preschool in a Tulsa Head Start or Educare classroom has lasting, positive impacts on students' skills across the early elementary grades! Read it here: https://lnkd.in/d_Hvz3bJ

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Lab news! The Tulsa SEED Study Team just released a white paper about classroom quality in school-based pre-k classrooms in Tulsa. The paper shares what we've learned from one of our primary measures of classroom quality, the CLASS. You can read it on our website at: https://lnkd.in/d_Hvz3bJ

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CDSP Co-director Rebecca Ryan just launched a three year, WT Grant Foundation funded experimental, survey, and qualitative study of a school-based food assistance program in Pennsylvania. With an amazing team of co-PIs (Carolyn Barnes, Anna Gassman-Pines, Pam Herd, Ariel Kalil and Elizabeth Linos), she will study the role of the program in family life and student wellbeing!

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Food Insecurity and Family Well-Being Outcomes among Households with Young Children.OBJECTIVES: To investigate associations between household food insecurity and multiple family well-being variables in an effort to illuminate previously understudied, policy-amenable mechanisms through which food insecurity threatens healthy development. STUDY DESIGN: Data are drawn from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort contains longitudinal data on household food insecurity and several family well-being factors including maternal physical and mental health, positive parenting practices and disciplinary strategies, and frequency and severity of spousal conflict. We use regression models with lagged dependent variables to estimate associations between food insecurity and family well-being outcomes, on a subsample of low-income families (N ≈ 2100-4700). RESULTS: Household food insecurity was significantly associated with poorer maternal physical health; increased depressive symptoms and use of harsh discipline strategies; and greater frequency and negativity of conflict between parents. Associations were strongest and most consistent when children were preschool aged. Transitions into food insecurity between toddlerhood and preschool were also associated with significantly worse parental physical and mental health outcomes, and more family conflict, with similar though slightly weaker and less consistent associations for transitioning into food insecurity between infancy and toddlerhood. CONCLUSIONS: Food insecurity is associated with significant decreases in family health and well-being. Clinicians and other public health officials play a critical role in assessing risk for children and families, and linking families with supportive services. Screening families experiencing or at risk for food insecurity and connecting them with resources is an avenue through which public health practitioners can support family health.https://lnkd.in/dwW7kkKJ(Johnson, Anna D; Markowitz, Anna J)

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Early Childhood WIC Receipt and Cognitive and Socioemotional Outcomes at School Entry and Middle ChildhoodThe goal of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is to support the health and well-being of low-income women, infants, and children by providing pregnant women, and children up to 5 years old, with access to nutritious food. While the health benefits of WIC for young children have been well established, its potential non-health benefits, including improvements in children’s early cognitive and socioemotional well-being, are underexplored. The goal of this present study is to identify associations between WIC receipt in early childhood and cognitive and socioemotional outcomes at school entry and in middle childhood. Using sibling fixed effect models and data drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement (NLSY-CS, N = 4500), the present study finds that WIC receipt in early childhood predicts lower behavior problems at school entry, although those effects fade by middle childhood. These results suggest the benefits of WIC extend beyond health outcomes to include outcomes important to children’s early school success.https://lnkd.in/d6UMArE2(Fiese, Barbara H; Johnson, Anna D)

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Associations Between Household Food Insecurity in Early Childhood and Children's Kindergarten Skills.Using nationally representative data on a recent birth cohort of U.S.-born children in low-income households (n = 2,800-3,700), this study investigates associations between the timing and intensity of early childhood food insecurity and children's kindergarten reading, math, and social-emotional outcomes. Descriptive patterns reveal that approximately 20% of low-income 0- to 5-year-old children reside in food-insecure households. Food insecurity experienced during early childhood is unfavorably associated with social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten, controlling for household income and prior assessments of child social-emotional skills. Results are less consistent for cognitive outcomes but similar in magnitude. If replicated, findings may inform policy efforts to reduce disparities in early skills for approximately 15 million U.S. children in food-insecure households.https://lnkd.in/dyVXvRTf(Johnson, Anna D; Markowitz, Anna J)

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Understanding patterns of food insecurity and family well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic using daily surveys.This paper investigates economic and psychological hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic among a diverse sample (61% Latinx; 16% White; 9% Black; 14% mixed/other race) of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents (90% mothers; mean age = 35 years) and their elementary school-aged children (ages 4-11; 49% female) in rural Pennsylvania (N = 272). Families participating in a local food assistance program reported on food insecurity (FI) and parent and child mood and behavior daily from January to May 2020. Longitudinal models revealed that FI, negative parent and child mood, and child misbehavior significantly increased when schools closed; only FI and parent depression later decreased. FI decreased most among those who received the local food assistance program; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program receipt uniquely predicted decreases in child FI.https://lnkd.in/dvbBN_Be(Steimle, Samantha; Gassman-Pines, Anna; Johnson, Anna D; Hines, Caitlin T; Ryan, Rebecca M)

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