Reports, Research & Policy

Child Trends News Service in partnership with Ivanhoe Broadcast News, August 12, 2021 Studies find that parental involvement in a child’s education can lead to more learning, higher test scores, graduation rates, and more opportunities to pursue higher education. Susan Sheridan, PhD, from the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools, studied the effects of the program TAPP, or Teachers and Parents as Partners. The study found that students whose parents...

By Guest Author, 9/7/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released the fifth snapshot in the Family Snapshots: Life during the Pandemic series. In past blogs , we discussed the results of the survey that the HOPE team, in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics , Prevent Child Abuse America , and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) , conducted using the national online platform YouGov.com . This survey asked a national...

By Bobbi Dempsey, The Guardian, August 25, 2021 F our weeks ago the Biden administration officially began implementing the child tax credit in what was hailed by Columbia University as an initiative that could “cut child poverty in half in the US”. Most eligible families have received just one monthly installment so far – but for many American parents struggling to make ends meet during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, it has already made a huge difference. The American Rescue Plan – passed in...

By Diane Mehta, New York Times, August 25, 2021 With some employers looking to bring staff back to work on-site, here’s how parents can ask for schedule accommodations. Kate Westrin, a mother of two in Denver, used to commute to the office four days a week for her job as a people experience manager at Xero, a cloud-based accounting software company. After working from home throughout the pandemic, returning to her previous schedule felt impossible, she said. With the Delta variant...

By Eric Moskowitz, Bostonia, July 28, 2021 Near the end of the strangest school year of her life, Julia, a Newton North High School freshman, found herself scrolling an Instagram feed full of her friends posting COVID-vaccine selfies. Some boasted that they felt like superheroes, newly powerful. One said she could finally exhale, calling it her “first deep breath” in over a year. Neither captured what Julia was feeling as she worked up the nerve to get her first shot. “I was really nervous...

Research links adverse childhood experiences, known as ACEs , such as abuse, neglect or experiencing or witnessing violence, to health and well-being challenges in adulthood. But in her research, Dr. Christina Bethell , director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found that many people who experienced ACEs also had positive experiences as children that made a difference in adulthood. Here, Dr. Bethell discusses...

By Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli, Fordham Institute, August 2021 America’s hardnosed focus on academic achievement in recent decades has not improved schools nearly enough. Part of the recent move to incorporate other educational goals, such as perseverance and self-discipline—often under the banner of “social-emotional learning” (SEL)—is a response to our schools and students still being off-track two decades after passage of No Child Left Behind and almost four decades after A...

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)—From fear to stress, the global pandemic has forced children everywhere to deal with a wide range of emotions and feelings. Some might act out, while others learn to keep their cool. But a new study shows how parents respond to their child’s emotions matters a great deal. When your child loses control, how do you act? A new study finds that a parent’s response to big emotions can impact kids’ behavior. Researchers followed 207 children in kindergarten, first,...

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been tremendous disruptions in family routines, employment, and finances. Families have had to adapt to new routines because of changes in their children’s schools, after-school activities, sports, and play. In a prior snapshot , we noted that more than one third (40%) of respondents indicated that their household financial situation was worse than it had been before the pandemic. Family disruptions and financial stress may have affected...

Father figure involvement in parenting is associated with better outcomes for children, including better social-emotional, behavioral and psychological outcomes and improved academic performance. Although home visiting (HV) programs have traditionally focused on pregnant women and first-time mothers, fathers can also benefit from these parenting supports. However, engaging fathers in HV programs presents unique challenges. Young fathers may have relationship instability, logistical obstacles...

By Stephen Marche, The New York Times, September 5, 2018 The use of spanking to discipline children has been in decline for 50 years. But yelling? Almost everybody still yells at their kids sometimes, even the parents who know it doesn’t work. Yelling may be the most widespread parental stupidity around today. Households with regular shouting incidents tend to have children with lower self-esteem and higher rates of depression. A 2014 study in The Journal of Child Development demonstrated...

Offers information on unaccompanied and separated immigrant youth in the US who have experienced migration-related trauma and family separation. This brief includes information about: who unaccompanied children are and how many are in the US; how traumatic separation affects immigrant children, youth, families, and systems; and what can be done to assist immigrant children, youth, and families who experience traumatic separation. Click here to access this resource.