Deborah A. Phillips - US grants

The broad intent of the proposed collaborative research is to examine the concurrent and long term development effects of varying patterns and qualities of in-home and out-of-home care for infants and toddlers. The site-specific study proposed at the University of Virginia examines the effects of infant child care on children's socioemotional development, and focuses on the predictive role of variation in the stability and quality of children's day care environments. Within this conceptual framework, the timing and extent of day care experience, family environment and background factors (including maternal stress and separation anxiety), and characteristics of the children and examine for their moderating influence on the contribution of day care quality and stability. The research is designed to improve upon methodological weaknesses of prior day care research, to contribute to theoretical issues in this area, and to inform policy debates about infant day care. The study has five specific aims: (1) To assess, prospectively and longitudinally, the socioemotional development of children who have varying child care experiences, including exclusive maternal care, during infancy. A cohort-sequential design is employed in which one cohort of families is first assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and followed to the child's third birthday, and a second cohort is first seen when the child is 12 months old and followed to age four years. (2) To examine the contribution of variation in the quality of the day care setting to any effects found for early entry into infant day care. We hypothesize that quality of care, rather than "age of entry" into and amount of day care, is the primary predictor of developmental outcomes. (3) To examine variation in the stability of day care as a component of quality. Day care has been studied primarily as a static intervention: one arrangement at one point in a child's life. We propose to examine stability and change in care over time as a predictor of children's adaptation to day care. (4) To examine the interactive effects of children's home and day care environments on their socioemotional development. Both in-home and out-of-home care experiences are assessed repeatedly during the course of the study. We hypothesize that either a positive home or day care environment can buffer children from one detrimental environment, and that particularly negative developmental effects will be found when both day care and home environments are of low quality or highly unstable. (5) To test the hypothesis that pre-enrollment designs in day care research yield less biased results than do designs in which families are recruited after decision about maternal employment and day care have been made.

The broad intent of the proposed collaborative research is to examine the concurrent and long term development effects of varying patterns and qualities of in-home and out-of-home care for infants and toddlers. The site-specific study proposed at the University of Virginia examines the effects of infant child care on children's socioemotional development, and focuses on the predictive role of variation in the stability and quality of children's day care environments. Within this conceptual framework, the timing and extent of day care experience, family environment and background factors (including maternal stress and separation anxiety), and characteristics of the children and examine for their moderating influence on the contribution of day care quality and stability. The research is designed to improve upon methodological weaknesses of prior day care research, to contribute to theoretical issues in this area, and to inform policy debates about infant day care. The study has five specific aims: (1) To assess, prospectively and longitudinally, the socioemotional development of children who have varying child care experiences, including exclusive maternal care, during infancy. A cohort-sequential design is employed in which one cohort of families is first assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and followed to the child's third birthday, and a second cohort is first seen when the child is 12 months old and followed to age four years. (2) To examine the contribution of variation in the quality of the day care setting to any effects found for early entry into infant day care. We hypothesize that quality of care, rather than "age of entry" into and amount of day care, is the primary predictor of developmental outcomes. (3) To examine variation in the stability of day care as a component of quality. Day care has been studied primarily as a static intervention: one arrangement at one point in a child's life. We propose to examine stability and change in care over time as a predictor of children's adaptation to day care. (4) To examine the interactive effects of children's home and day care environments on their socioemotional development. Both in-home and out-of-home care experiences are assessed repeatedly during the course of the study. We hypothesize that either a positive home or day care environment can buffer children from one detrimental environment, and that particularly negative developmental effects will be found when both day care and home environments are of low quality or highly unstable. (5) To test the hypothesis that pre-enrollment designs in day care research yield less biased results than do designs in which families are recruited after decision about maternal employment and day care have been made.

Preventing adolescent male violence is a multidimensional, complex problem, and a critical issue in the United States. The long-term goal of the proposed study is to contribute to understanding of the discursive cultural dimensions of masculinities and adolescent male violence in order to press forward in areas of cultural accountability in relation to prevention of interpersonal violence. The purpose of the proposed study is to explore links between cultural definitions of masculinities and the acting out of gendered behaviors, such as high risk behaviors like violence, and then to locate those connections in the cultural context of competing masculinities and gender socialization. This is a beginning exploratory study that takes into account poststructural understandings of language and discourse, and innovative cross-disciplinary scholarship on gender identity and a beginning critique of masculinities. This recent scholarship has begun to question the discursive cultural prescriptions for masculinities and the normative referent status of traditional male norms for men. Research is beginning to examine masculinity as a complex and problematic construct. In an effort to understand and prevent adolescent male violence, the study will explore complex, cultural maps of masculinities, violence, and the stories adolescent boys tell about their behaviors, about the behaviors of men and boys they know, and about cultural representations of men and boys in the media. The specific aims of the study are: 1) Describe the meanings of masculinities from the perspectives of adolescent boys; 2) Explore how cultural constructions of masculinities contribute to adolescent male violence, as well as non-violent behaviors; 3) Describe ways to prevent adolescent male violence based on insights from boys. The study will be applied ethnographic research. It will consist of a prospective, longitudinal design in a naturalistic setting. Ethnographic methods will include; participant observation, a series of focus groups followed by individual interviews, field notes, and collection of cultural artifacts.

Abstract
There have been a number of recent controversies surrounding vaccine adverse events (VAE) (e.g., measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism). There has been speculation that the typical vaccination promotion message, with its focus on individual risk of vaccine-preventable disease, may have the unintended effect of reinforcing parents' concerns about the risk of their child experiencing a VAE. There has also been speculation that a message that emphasizes the societal benefits of vaccination may not have this effect. In this project the co-Principal Investigator will use a framing paradigm to investigate which kinds of messages effectively convey the importance of childhood vaccination and community immunity in the promotion of children?s health and, ultimately, healthy child development. The effects of individual- and community-framed vaccination messages on people?s attitudes toward both vaccination uptake and vaccination policy will be compared and the ways in which individual characteristics, like cultural worldviews and parenting attitudes, interact with the message frames to produce particular attitudes toward vaccination uptake and vaccination policy examined. The goal of this research is to contribute to efforts to align personal decision-making about vaccination and vaccination policy with the current scientific understanding of vaccination and its importance to health child development.
This research will establish a critical link between existing theory of risk perception and existing understanding of how parenting attitudes influence child development. In terms of broader impacts, findings from this research will have implications for efforts to promote vaccination decision-making and policy in a manner that reflects the scientific consensus on vaccination. More broadly, this research can inform the development of communications that promote the well-being of children and families.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): About 40% of the nation's 4-year olds now attend either a state-funded pre-K or Head Start program. These high rates of participation in formal early childhood programs represent a national experiment focused on finding the best means of launching all young children on a trajectory of school success. Empirical work on pre-K education is thus directed to two core questions. First, under what conditions does pre-K education produce gains in children's cognitive and social development? Second, for whom does pre-K education produce such gains? From the perspective of developmental science, answers to these questions will inform enduring questions about beneficial environmental influences on early life trajectories (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). From a policy perspective, answers to these questions will guide efforts to focus public resources on program elements and children for whom strong impacts are most likely. The proposed research will address these questions in the context of Tulsa, Oklahoma's universal pre-K program, which has generated strong impacts across racial and income groups in three cohorts of children (Gormley & Gayer, 2005; Gormley, Gayer, Phillips, & Dawson, 2005; Gormley, Phillips, & Gayer, 2008). Replication analyses will be run using the 11-state NCEDL/SWEEP prekindergarten dataset to compare findings from the Tulsa pre-K program to a larger set of state pre-kindergarten programs. Using both a regression discontinuity design and propensity score matching, this study will address two aims. The first aim is to identify the specific aspects of children's experiences in pre-K and Head Start classrooms that are associated with cognitive and social-emotional gains at kindergarten entry. The contribution of classroom instructional and emotional climate, time on math and literacy instruction, patterns of curricula use, and teacher characteristics will be examined. This aim will inform pressing policy questions about the elements of pre-K education that contribute most strongly to preparing young children for school and thus guide efforts to direct resources to the active ingredients of preschool programs. The second aim is to examine the impact of pre-K education for children who differ in special education status on cognitive and social-emotional functioning at kindergarten entry. This aim will supplement available knowledge about differential preschool program impacts on subgroups of children defined by demographic features (e.g., race-ethnicity and income) with information on this additional subgroup of children who, as with children in poverty, are a focus of public investments in early education. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: There is increasing awareness of the public health implications of ensuring that young children experience early environments that support their academic and social-emotional development. Preschool settings, now commonly experienced by young children, are among the most important contexts in which these emerging developmental capacities are either supported or undermined. Direct investigation of the most important features of these settings and of subgroups of children who may be especially vulnerable to variation in these features is highly warranted.

publicly-funded, child care, policy;