Publications by authors named "Walter Gilliam"

Introduction: Given their central role in supporting children's development, childcare professionals' overall physical and mental health is important. We evaluated the prevalence of chronic diseases, depression, and stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic among US childcare professionals.

Methods: Data were obtained from US childcare professionals (N = 81,682) through an online survey from May 22, 2020, through June 8, 2020.

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Background: The relationship between the use of nonpharmaceutical interventions and COVID-19 vaccination among U.S. child care providers remains unknown.

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This case series examines the differences in COVID-19 vaccine mandates for schoolteachers vs childcare professionals from US states that have implemented them.

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Importance: It is not known how effective child masking is in childcare settings in preventing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This question is critical to inform health policy and safe childcare practices.

Objective: To assess the association between masking children 2 years and older and subsequent childcare closure because of COVID-19.

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The COVID-19 pandemic led to a worldwide lockdown and school closures, which have placed a substantial mental health burden on children and college students. Through a systematic search of the literature on PubMed and Collabovid of studies published January 2020-July 2021, our findings of five studies on children and 16 studies on college students found that both groups reported feeling more anxious, depressed, fatigued, and distressed than prior to the pandemic. Several risk factors such as living in rural areas, low family socioeconomic status, and being a family member or friend to a healthcare worker were strongly associated with worse mental health outcomes.

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Objectives: Ensuring high coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccine uptake among US child care providers is crucial to mitigating the public health implications of child-staff and staff-child transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; however, the vaccination rate among this group was previously unknown.

Methods: To characterize vaccine uptake among US child care providers, we conducted a multistate cross-sectional survey of the child care workforce. Providers were identified through various national databases and state registries.

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Early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) has been promoted by the federal government as a promising model for reducing early childhood expulsions and suspensions and is now implemented by numerous states. Despite growing ECMHC proliferation, this study is only the second randomized controlled trial of ECMHC, extending the methodologies of the first to include assessment of effects on random peers. Classrooms were assigned randomly to treatment or waitlist-control condition (n = 51 classrooms, 57 preschool teachers, and 190 preschoolers).

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Objectives: Central to the debate over school and child care reopening is whether children are efficient coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmitters and are likely to increase community spread when programs reopen. We compared COVID-19 outcomes in child care providers who continued to provide direct in-person child care during the first 3 months of the US COVID-19 pandemic with outcomes in those who did not.

Methods: Data were obtained from US child care providers ( = 57 335) reporting whether they had ever tested positive or been hospitalized for COVID-19 ( = 427 cases) along with their degree of exposure to child care.

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Well-child care has suboptimal outcomes regarding adherence to appointments and recall of guidance, especially among families facing structural barriers to health. Group well-child care (GWCC) aims to improve these outcomes by enhancing anticipatory guidance discussions and peer education. We conducted a randomized controlled trial, comparing GWCC with traditional, individual well-child care (IWCC) and assessed health care utilization, immunization timeliness, recall of anticipatory guidance, and family-centered care.

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Objective: Despite recent federal recommendations calling for increased funding for early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) as a means to decrease preschool expulsions, no randomized-controlled evaluations of this form of intervention have been reported in the scientific literature. This study is the first attempt to isolate the effects of ECMHC for enhancing classroom quality, decreasing teacher-rated behavior problems, and decreasing the likelihood of expulsion in targeted children in early childhood classrooms.

Method: The sample consisted of 176 target children (3-4 years old) and 88 preschool classrooms and teachers randomly assigned to receive ECMHC through Connecticut's statewide Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP) or waitlist control treatment.

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In planning interventions it is essential to understand how adverse risk factors in early childhood are associated with child mental health problems, whether some types of problems can be better explained by the specific risk factors, and whether early risk factors are differently related to different types of child behavior problems. A community sample of 692 1.5-3.

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