Fragile Families And Child Wellbeing Study Research Articles

Factors associated with food insecurity among Latinx/Hispanics in the U.S.: evidence from the Fragile Families & Childhood Wellbeing Study

ABSTRACT Objective U.S. Latinx/Hispanic families experience higher food insecurity rates than the general population. Few studies have examined factors that contribute to food insecurity among the Latinx/Hispanic population, and none have done so using a national dataset. Drawing from the ecological theory of human development framework, this study explores the following research questions: What micro-, meso-, and exo/macro-system factors are related to adult and child food insecurity? How do these factors compare for Latinx/Hispanic, Black, and White mothers? Design This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a national survey that follows a birth cohort of mostly unwed parents and their children over a 15-year period. The sample was limited to Hispanic (both foreign-born and native-born), non-Hispanic Black mothers, and non-Hispanic White mothers. This yielded a final sample size of 2,636 for all mothers and 665 for Latinx/Hispanic mothers. Results While micro-level factors were influential for food insecurity, they alone could not explain the variation. Social support, a meso-level factor, remained a consistently significant predictor for both adult and child food insecurity, regardless of race/ethnicity. There were also several key differences in predictors across racial/ethnic groups. Being Spanish speaking and mother’s health status were only significant for Latinx/Hispanic mothers, and neighborhood support was not significant for Latinx/Hispanic mothers. Conclusions Drawing from ecological theory, our study explores the micro-, meso-, and exo-/macro-level variables that influence food insecurity. Findings suggest that access to social support is crucial for disadvantaged families avoiding food insecurity, despite race/ethnicity. Still, factors predicting food insecurity may be racialized and should be recognized as such.

Youth Mental Well-Being Following Witnessed Police Stops.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate mental well-being among youth after witnessing police stops. A national, urban-born sample of youth in the USA from the most recent wave (2014-2017) of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) was employed, with a focus on youth who had not been directly stopped by police (N = 2506). We used t-tests and multivariable ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to estimate direct associations, product-term analysis to test for effect modification by gender and race/ethnicity, and the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method to assess for mediation by experiences of emotional distress during a stop. Findings indicate that youth who have witnessed police stops report significantly higher levels of depression (t = 5.93, p < 0.01) and anxiety (t = 6.57, p < 0.01) and lower levels of happiness (t = - 4.02, p < 0.01) following the stop than those who have not. Among youth witnessing stops (N = 1488), more intrusive witnessed encounters correspond to diminished mental well-being across indicators, in part due to elevated emotional distress during witnessed stops. Findings hold regardless of gender, yet vary somewhat by race and ethnicity, with youth of color reporting less anxiety than their White counterparts after witnessing an intrusive stop, but reporting greater reductions in happiness. Collectively, our findings suggest that witnessing police stops may contribute to inequities in youth mental well-being. A public health approach that combines prevention and treatment strategies may mitigate the harms of police exposure and reduce disparities in youth well-being.

Father involvement, couple relationship quality, and maternal Postpartum Depression: the role of ethnicity among low-income families.

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) has been recognized as a serious and wide-spread mental health disorder that has long-term negative impacts on children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. This study extends prior research by examining the associations among predictors of PPD, including two different facets of father involvement and couple relationship quality, with a focus on testing these pathways across ethnic groups. This study analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) including mothers' baseline interviews and one-year follow-up data sets (n = 2,794). Several models were tested using bootstrapping in structural equation modeling to explore the mediating paths and ethnic differences. This study found that father involvement in sharing childcare responsibility had direct effects on reducing mothers' parenting stress and promoted maternal psychological adjustment, which was consistent across the three ethnic groups. The mediation pathways through couple relationship quality between father involvement (both father involvement in direct infant care and shared responsibilities) and PPD were detected significant for Black and white mothers. This study provided empirical evidence that father involvement in infant care is critical for mothers' perceived relationship quality. Maternal postpartum mental health may benefit from interventions and policies that encourage positive father engagement in infant care.

Explicating Child-Driven Patterns of Parent-Child Responsivity in Fragile Families: A Longitudinal Approach.

It has been well-established that development occurs in the context of a transactional framework, with bidirectional parent-child interactions influencing both proximal and distal outcomes. In particular, child vocabulary development is sensitive to parenting qualities including warmth, sensitivity, and control as well as parental stimulation including language input and access to learning enrichment activities. Similarly, these parenting qualities are influenced by and influence children's development of pro-social behaviors. Given the foundational role of both language and pro-social skills for academic achievement and the establishment of healthy relationships across the lifespan, a comprehensive understanding of the magnitude, stability, and reciprocity of such interactions across childhood has the potential to better inform early intervention and prevention practices and highlight risk and resilience factors. This study investigated the concurrent and successive transactional relationships between child pro-social behavior, child emergent language, and parenting qualities within a large, longitudinal sample. This study utilized Waves 3, 4, and 5 of the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Study (FFCWBS), corresponding to focal child age 3, 5, and 9 years, respectively. A series of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with full-information likelihood (FIML) estimation (n = 3,422) including child prosocial behavior, receptive vocabulary, and supportive parenting behaviors was tested and compared. Our findings indicate significant, positive associations over time between child pro-social behavior and receptive vocabulary, and parenting quality across all three stages of early child development. The steady decline in magnitude of these associations over time highlights the importance of synergistic parent-child interactions in toddlerhood as an early opportunity to propel these developmental outcomes and supportive parenting behaviors. Patterns of change in child pro-social behavior skills and parenting qualities remained positive and relatively stable, while observed growth in child receptive vocabulary skills increased in magnitude over time. Additional investigation of indirect effects specified the role of receptive vocabulary, as well as the bolstering role of prosocial behavior, in eliciting responsive parenting qualities over time.

Race and Ethnicity Differences in Police Contact and Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward the Police Among Youth

While investigations examining the effects of direct and vicarious police stops on youth attitudes toward the police have been limited, even less research has explored how these processes vary by race/ethnicity. Thus, this study uses the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine how race/ethnicity shapes: (1) the relationship between direct and vicarious police stops and youth attitudes toward police and (2) how the contextual nature of these stops (intrusiveness) influence youth perceptions of police. The results suggest that direct and/or vicarious police contact can generate negative attitudes toward police among black, Hispanic, and in some cases, white youth, though these effects vary across type of police stop and type of attitude. When a direct stop involved more officer intrusiveness, black youth reported less respect and more negative perceptions of procedural justice. As such, policymakers and criminologists should consider how race/ethnicity influences youth attitudinal responses to police encounters.

Network Financial Transfers and Psychological Distress Among Unmarried Mothers

Almost 50% of single-mother households live below 200% of the poverty line. In addition to material needs, mothers living in poverty have higher levels of psychological distress. Although some forms of network support (e.g., perceived support, welcomed support) promote well-being, how do financial transfers relate to unmarried mothers’ levels of distress? Drawing from support mobilization, social inequity, and reciprocity theories, this study used The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) ( n = 3,117 mothers and 10,676 observations) and longitudinal mixed-effects models to examine financial transfer behavior stability and its relationship to maternal psychological distress. Results indicate that, net of extensive controls, mothers commonly participated in giving or receiving money despite their disadvantaged, volatile circumstances, and engagement, regardless of direction, related to more symptoms of distress. This connection is problematic given the weakening public cash safety net and U.S. economic uncertainty.

What kind of “poverty” predicts CPS contact: Income, material hardship, and differences among racialized groups

Background and PurposeChild protective services (CPS) contact is consistently linked with poverty in the US, and empirical evidence is mounting to indicate that disparate exposure to income poverty explains a substantial portion of racial inequities in CPS involvement. Evidence about the different distributions of income poverty and material hardship also suggests that income poverty may not sufficiently capture economic wellbeing among families. This paper assessed whether differences in exposure to income poverty and/or material hardship explain racial inequities in CPS contact and further examined whether income poverty and material hardship predict CPS contact differently within racialized groups. MethodsWe used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), an urban cohort representative of births in large US cities in 1998–2000. The FFCWS data are ideal for this study in capturing each of the key constructs: racialized group membership, income, material hardship, and CPS contact. We measured income poverty and material hardship when children were age 1 and measured any CPS contact by age five. Our final sample included 3,517 families, including 1,848 Black, 614 white, and 1,055 Latinx families. We employed logistic regression to assess the associations between income poverty and material hardship, independently and jointly, and CPS contact. We conducted analyses in our full analytic sample and among subsamples of the Black, white, and Latinx families. ResultsWe found that differences in income-to-poverty ratio account for differences in CPS contact between Black and white families. Differences in CPS contact between Black and Latinx families were not explained by economic wellbeing measures alone but were ameliorated when differences in income poverty, material hardship, and a full set of family characteristics were considered. Additionally, we found that material hardship was a consistent predictor of CPS contact in the full sample and within each of the Black, white, and Latinx subsamples, even accounting for differences in income and other family characteristics. ConclusionsThe clear role of income poverty in explaining inequities in CPS contact between Black and white families and the consistent importance of material hardship in predicting CPS contact across all families underscore the critical importance of reducing income poverty and hardship and of distinguishing material need from maltreatment in the context of CPS. Our findings offer clear implications for policy intervention to reduce income poverty and material hardship. Such interventions might include extending the temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit and expanded food and housing assistance benefits, toward the ends of supporting child and family wellbeing and reducing economic and racial inequities in CPS contact.

Adolescent dating and relationship quality: The role of exposure to intimate partner violence in early childhood

Children who grow up with exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) experience disproportionately greater cognitive, psychological, and emotional impairments when compared to their peers. Increasingly, research has provided evidence of the long-lasting effects of IPV exposure throughout the life course. This study uses data from four waves (baseline and Years 1, 3, and 15) of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine how IPV exposure affects adolescents’ dating behavior and relationship quality at Year 15. Results indicate that those adolescents with exposure to physical violence at Years 1 and 3 were more likely to be in dating relationships at Year 15 than those without (effect size = 0.40), and for adolescents who were in a dating relationship at Year 15, IPV exposure, particularly exposure to physical violence, significantly reduced relationship quality (effect size = −0.24). These findings call for early screening of IPV exposure among mothers, children, and adolescents, as well as interventions to support victimized mothers and promote healthy adolescent relationships.

Contributions of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to Child Development.

We describe the promise of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) for developmental researchers. FFCWS is a birth cohort study of 4,898 children born in 1998-2000 in large US cities. This prospective national study collected data on children and parents at birth and during infancy (age 1), toddlerhood (age 3), early childhood (age 5), middle childhood (age 9), adolescence (age 15), and, in progress, young adulthood (age 22). Though FFCWS was created to understand the lives of unmarried parent families, its comprehensive data on parents, children, and contexts can be used to explore many other developmental questions. We identify six opportunities for developmentalists: (a) analyzing developmental trajectories, identifying the importance of the timing of exposures for later development, (c) documenting bidirectional influences on development, (d) understanding development in context, (e) identifying biological moderators and mechanisms, and ( f ) using an urban-born cohort that is large, diverse, and prospective.

An Exploration of Socio-demographic, Economic, and Environmental Factors in Black/White Disparities in Low Birth Weight Outcomes: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background : Numerous studies have been conducted to seek a better understanding of disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes. The present study aimed to explore racial differences in influential socio-demographic, economic, and environmental factors in women who have had a low birth weight (LBW) infant (outcome variable). Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Results: The obtained results pointed to statistical racial differences between Non-Hispanic (NH) Black and NH White women in the socio-demographic variable of marital status (P<0.001). Regarding the assessed economic stability variables, employment status (P=0.032), poverty level (P<0.001), earnings (P=0.038), and federal government assistance paying for rent (P=0.007) were statistically significant across the two racial groups. The environmental factors that were statistically significant across racial groups were living in public housing projects (P=0.018), car ownership (P<0.001), and neighborhood safety (P=0.010). The results of the multivariate models revealed that NH Black race and government assistance to pay rent were associated with an increased likelihood of LBW, while being married, having health care coverage, and living in public housing were associated with a decreased likelihood. Conclusion: As evidenced by the obtained results, there were statistically significant racial differences in sociodemographic, economic, and environmental/physical characteristics associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Impact of paternal education on epigenetic ageing in adolescence and mid-adulthood: a multi-cohort study in the USA and Mexico.

Both parental and neighbourhood socio-economic status (SES) are linked to poorer health independently of personal SES measures, but the biological mechanisms are unclear. Our objective was to examine these influences via epigenetic age acceleration (EAA)-the discrepancy between chronological and epigenetic ages. We examined three USA-based [Coronary Artery Risk Disease in Adults (CARDIA) study, Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) and Programming Research in Obesity, Growth, Environment and Social Stressors (PROGRESS)] and one Mexico-based (Project Viva) cohort. DNA methylation was measured using Illumina arrays, personal/parental SES by questionnaire and neighbourhood disadvantage from geocoded address. In CARDIA, we examined the most strongly associated personal, parental and neighbourhood SES measures with EAA (Hannum's method) at study years 15 and 20 separately and combined using a generalized estimating equation (GEE) and compared with other EAA measures (Horvath's EAA, PhenoAge and GrimAge calculators, and DunedinPoAm). EAA was associated with paternal education in CARDIA [GEEs: βsome college = -1.01 years (-1.91, -0.11) and β<high school = 1.05 (0.09, 2.01) vs college graduates] and FFCWS [GEEs: β<high school = 0.62 (0.00, 1.24)]. We found stronger associations for some paternal education categories among White adults (for GEE, βsome college = -1.39 (-2.41, -0.38)], men (βsome college = -1.76 (-3.16, -0.35)] and women [β<high school = 1.77 (0.42, 3.11)]. These findings suggest that EAA captures epigenetic impacts of paternal education independently of personal SES later in life. Longitudinal studies should explore these associations at different life stages and link them to health outcomes. EAA could be a useful biomarker of SES-associated health and provide important insight into the pathogenesis and prevention of chronic disease.

Fathers’ Time off Work after the Birth of a Child and Relationship Dissolution among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged U.S. Families

ABSTRACT Relationship dissolution is common among socioeconomically disadvantaged parents. This study utilizes longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to assess whether fathers’ time off work after the birth of a child reduces the likelihood of parents dissolving their relationship. We also consider whether the association between fathers’ time off work and relationship dissolution is mediated by fathers’ support of mothers and moderated by union type. Results indicate that the risk of relationship dissolution is lower when fathers take time off work after the birth of a child. Results also suggest that longer periods of time off work (i.e., two or more weeks) are associated with a lower risk of relationship dissolution among married couples, although overall evidence for variations by union type are mixed. Additionally, there is evidence that the association between fathers’ time off work and relationship dissolution is at least partially explained by higher levels of relationship support among fathers who took time off work after the birth of a child. Overall, findings suggest that providing fathers with opportunities to take time off for the birth of a child may help to promote relationship stability among socioeconomically disadvantaged couples in the United States.

Spanking Linked to Aggression in Young Children

Spanking Linked to Aggression in Young Children

Increases in Maternal Education and Child Behavioral and Academic Outcomes

Consistently, research has shown that higher levels of maternal education are linked to positive child outcomes; however, few studies have examined whether increases in maternal education after the child is born are a protective or a risk factor for child outcomes. Given a large minority of mothers complete education after having children, understanding the impact of maternal increases in education may be important. We aimed to examine the association between increases in maternal education during the first five years of the child’s life and later child outcomes and explore the mediating role of the home learning environment and positive parenting. Further, we examined the moderating role of baseline education in the association between increases in maternal education and parenting behaviors. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study comprising 4898 families, were used. Using structural equation modeling, findings indicated that increases in maternal education were significantly associated with greater child academic skill at age nine (b = 0.04) but not with child externalizing behavior. Increases in maternal education were not linked to home learning environment or positive parenting at age five; however, higher levels of positive parenting and a better-quality home learning environment were associated with more optimal child outcomes. Baseline maternal education did not moderate the association between increases in maternal education and home learning environment and positive parenting. Models accounted for associations with several demographic covariates, including maternal intellectual ability, child effects on parenting behaviors, and continuity of child outcomes. Findings provide limited support for policies that offer support for mothers to complete educational programs that may subsequently foster child academic skills.

An Exploration of Socio-demographic, Economic, and Environmental Factors in Black/White Disparities in Low Birth Weight Outcomes: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Numerous studies have been conducted to seek a better understanding of disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes. The present study aimed to explore racial differences in influential socio-demographic, economic, and environmental factors in women who have had a low birth weight (LBW) infant (outcome variable). Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Results: The obtained results pointed to statistical racial differences between Non-Hispanic (NH) Black and NH White women in the socio-demographic variable of marital status (P<0.001). Regarding the assessed economic stability variables, employment status (P=0.032), poverty level (P<0.001), earnings (P=0.038), and federal government assistance paying for rent (P=0.007) were statistically significant across the two racial groups. The environmental factors that were statistically significant across racial groups were living in public housing projects (P=0.018), car ownership (P<0.001), and neighborhood safety (P=0.010). The results of the multivariate models revealed that NH Black race and government assistance to pay rent were associated with an increased likelihood of LBW, while being married, having health care coverage, and living in public housing were associated with a decreased likelihood. Conclusion: As evidenced by the obtained results, there were statistically significant racial differences in sociodemographic, economic, and environmental/physical characteristics associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Exclusionary School Discipline during Childhood and Adolescent Police Encounters

ABSTRACT A growing body of literature demonstrates exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspension, expulsion) elevates the risk of arrest and incarceration. Even so, the bulk of research to date overlooks the influence of exclusionary discipline during childhood on police contact experiences that may not result in a formal arrest. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), we find that, regardless of early delinquent involvement, early exclusionary discipline increases the risk of being stopped by police. Further analyses demonstrate that among youth reporting police stops (N = 918), early exclusionary discipline increases the risk of 1) a younger age at first stop, 2) multiple stops, and 3) experiencing officer intrusiveness during the stop. Finally, stopped youth with a history of exclusionary discipline reported more traumatic responses to police stops, and experiences of officer intrusiveness explain a significant portion of this association. Implications for school and criminal justice policies are discussed.

Sleep Problems among Mothers of Youth Stopped by the Police.

Police stops are the most common form of criminal justice exposure in the USA, and are particularly common among urban youth, with 23% of them reporting a stop by the age of 15. While recent work has begun to illuminate the health impacts of police stops for these youth, little is known about the health consequences of youth police contact for the mothers of youth stopped by the police. The current study employs data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a sample of urban, at-risk youth and their families. Multivariate logistic regression models are conducted to examine the link between youth police stops and sleep difficulties among mothers. Additional analyses examine whether the features and consequences of police stops are associated with sleep difficulties among mothers. The findings indicate that mothers with youth who have experienced police stops are more than twice as likely to report both depression- and anxiety-related sleep difficulties compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, stops with certain features-including those characterized by intrusiveness, high trauma, and high stigma-emerged as consistently significant predictors of maternal sleep difficulties. The findings suggest that mothers who are vicariously exposed to police contact via their children are a vulnerable group. Given the non-random distribution of police contact across the population of youth, with police contact concentrated among children of color, the findings suggest that police contact may exacerbate racial inequalities in sleep, which may itself contribute to racial disparities in broader mental and physical health outcomes.

Prospective longitudinal associations between harsh parenting and corticolimbic function during adolescence.

Childhood adversity is thought to undermine youth socioemotional development via altered neural function within regions that support emotion processing. These effects are hypothesized to be developmentally specific, with adversity in early childhood sculpting subcortical structures (e.g., amygdala) and adversity during adolescence impacting later-developing structures (e.g., prefrontal cortex; PFC). However, little work has tested these theories directly in humans. Using prospectively collected longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) (N = 4,144) and neuroimaging data from a subsample of families recruited in adolescence (N = 162), the current study investigated the trajectory of harsh parenting across childhood (i.e., ages 3 to 9) and how initial levels versus changes in harsh parenting across childhood were associated with corticolimbic activation and connectivity during socioemotional processing. Harsh parenting in early childhood (indexed by the intercept term from a linear growth curve model) was associated with less amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to angry facial expressions. In contrast, change in harsh parenting across childhood (indexed by the slope term) was associated with less PFC, but not amygdala, activation to angry faces. Increases in, but not initial levels of, harsh parenting were also associated with stronger positive amygdala-PFC connectivity during angry face processing.

Youth academic achievement, social context, and body mass index.

This study assesses the relationship between academic achievement and body mass index for age (BMI) trajectories across childhood and adolescence, and investigates how this relationship is moderated by social context. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that academic achievement is not associated with improved BMI among youth from disadvantaged social contexts. We test for differences by race/ethnicity, and examine the role of county-level economic mobility in shaping these patterns. We use data from the longitudinal Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), an ongoing birth cohort study representative of children born in large US cities in 2000, and measure BMI, academic achievement, and social context at Years 5, 9, and 15. Estimating multilevel random effects linear regression models of BMI from childhood to adolescence, we find that youth who were exposed to social advantage displayed a negative association between academic achievement and BMI. In contrast, youth exposed to social disadvantage displayed no association between academic achievement and BMI. This difference was observed regardless of race/ethnicity. County-level economic mobility modified the observed relationship, such that youth living in places with low levels of mobility displayed higher BMI associated with high academic performance. The results suggest that the health costs of academic achievement among disadvantaged youth are concentrated in areas with low institutional support for upward mobility. The findings demonstrate that the unequal benefits of educational attainment begin early in life, while living in places that promote upward mobility can help individuals realize the health benefits of their own educational attainment.

Differential associations of parental harshness and parental disengagement with overall cortisol output at 15 years: Implications for adolescent mental health.

Psychosocial stress in childhood and adolescence is linked to stress system dysregulation, although few studies have examined the relative impacts of parental harshness and parental disengagement. This study prospectively tested whether parental harshness and disengagement show differential associations with overall cortisol output in adolescence. Associations between overall cortisol output and adolescent mental health problems were tested concurrently. Adolescents from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) provided hair samples for cortisol assay at 15 years (N = 171). Caregivers reported on parental harshness and disengagement experiences at 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years, and adolescents reported at 15 years. Both parent and adolescent reported depressive and anxiety symptoms and antisocial behaviors at 15. Greater parental harshness from 1-15 years, and harshness reported at 15 years in particular, was associated with higher overall cortisol output at 15. Greater parental disengagement from 1-15 years, and disengagement at 1 year specifically, was associated with lower cortisol output. There were no significant associations between cortisol output and depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, or antisocial behaviors. These results suggest that the unique variances of parental harshness and disengagement may have opposing associations with cortisol output at 15 years, with unclear implications for adolescent mental health.