The role of SNAP and WIC in the bidirectional relationship between food insecurity and maternal depressive symptoms.

Background: The association between food insecurity and maternal depressive symptoms has been established by many cross-sectional and longitudinal studies however the understanding of the reciprocal relationship between them remains unclear. Further, previous research demonstrates that federal nutrition assistance decreases food insecurity and promotes maternal mental well-being but further research is needed to elucidate the moderating role of these programs in the association between food insecurity and maternal depressive symptoms. Therefore, the current study examined the bidirectional associations between maternal depression probability and food insecurity using cross-lagged models and then tested the main and moderating effects of SNAP and WIC.

Mothers' work conditions, income, and parenting of young children.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the interplay of positive work conditions with parenting behaviors across children's first 4 years.

Background: Most mothers in the United States are employed in paid work during their children's early years. Research typically has focused on the ways that such employment can conflict with the intensive demands of parenting, but it can also help mothers socially and psychologically during this important period of children's development.

Foster Care, Kinship Care, and the Transition to Adulthood: Do Child Welfare System Processes Explain Differences in Outcomes?

Despite longstanding policy preferences favoring kinship care placements over non-relative family foster care placements, research findings on the benefits of kinship care vary by measurement, assessed outcome, follow-up period, and other study design elements. We examined early adulthood outcomes-incarceration and teen parenthood-among WI youth who entered foster care in early-to-middle childhood (ages 5-10). Results suggest that initial placement in kin or nonrelative kinship care was not significantly related to imprisonment or teenage parenthood directly; however, first placement in kinship care is associated with fewer moves, longer duration in care, and a higher probability of a new maltreatment investigation, which in turn is related to long-term outcomes.

Can early childhood education be compensatory? Examining the benefits of child care among children who experience neglect.

Children that experience neglect are at risk for maladaptive outcomes. One potential resource for these children is early childhood education (ECE), but there is currently limited evidence which is compounded by data limitations. This study used data from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-being II ( = 1,385) to compare children's cognitive and social-emotional outcomes among children involved in child protective services that experienced either no care, informal care, or formal care, as well as moderation by type of neglect.

Disentangling Poverty From Neglect: Using a Person-Centered Approach to Examine Risk Factors for Neglect Among Families in Poverty.

Approximately 18% of U.S. children under 5 years old live in poverty, which is one of the strongest predictors of child neglect.

Protective factors against child neglect among families in poverty.

Background: Despite neglect being the most common form of maltreatment, it is still understudied relative to other maltreatment types. Further, there is limited evidence on mechanisms through which to prevent child neglect and on mechanisms that might buffer the risk of poverty.

Objective: The current study estimated how different protective factors decreased subtypes of neglect, both physical and supervisory, across early childhood and in relation to poverty.

Predictors of Adoption and Guardianship Dissolution: The Role of Race, Age, and Gender Among Children in Foster Care.

Adoption and guardianship are meant to provide permanency to foster children when reunification is not a viable option. Unfortunately, sometimes adoption and guardianship placements dissolve resulting in children returning to care. Currently, there is limited research on the prevalence and predictors of adoption and guardianship dissolutions.

School Corporal Punishment and Its Associations with Achievement and Adjustment.

Corporal punishment in public schools is legal in nineteen states in the U.S. Over 100,000 students are disciplined with corporal punishment in public schools each year.

Age-specific risk factors associated with placement instability among foster children.

Placement instability places foster children at an increased risk of negative developmental outcomes. Previous research has yielded inconsistent results on risk factors for placement instability. Therefore, we investigated two research questions: (1) Which child attributes and case histories are associated with placement disruptions (moves indicative of child, agency or caregiver dissatisfaction with the existing placement)?; and (2) How do associations of child attributes and case histories with placement disruptions vary by developmental stage --early childhood (0-5 years), middle childhood (6-12 years), and adolescence (13 years or older)? Using a complete entry cohort of 23,765 foster children in Texas, our results demonstrated that the effects of different risk factors varied by placement end reason and across developmental stages.

Strengthening Causal Estimates for Links Between Spanking and Children's Externalizing Behavior Problems.

Establishing causal links when experiments are not feasible is an important challenge for psychology researchers. The question of whether parents' spanking causes children's externalizing behavior problems poses such a challenge because randomized experiments of spanking are unethical, and correlational studies cannot rule out potential selection factors. This study used propensity score matching based on the lifetime prevalence and recent incidence of spanking in a large and nationally representative sample ( N = 12,112) as well as lagged dependent variables to get as close to causal estimates outside an experiment as possible.

Resilience in young children involved with child protective services.

Child maltreatment increases the risk of poor developmental outcomes. However, some children display resilience, meaning they are high-functioning despite their adverse experiences. To date, few research studies have examined protective factors among very young maltreated children.