New Publications
Child Development and Nutrition
 "Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children: Looking Beyond Fitness and Fatness to Attention, Affiliation, and Affect." Hillary L. Burdette and Robert C. Whitaker. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, January 2005. The current emphasis on increasing physical activity in young children has arisen in response to the childhood obesity epidemic. The authors suggest that efforts to increase physical activity in young children might be more successful if we emphasize other outcomes, besides obesity, and use different language. Specifically, they suggest using the word “play” rather than “physical activity” or “exercise,” and emphasizing the benefits of play for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Play is about more than improving fitness and reducing fatness. |
|
Survey Methods Update
 "The Net Effect: A Comparison of Internet and Mail Survey Respondents." Esther M. Friedman, Nancy A. Clusen, and Michael Hartzel, 2004. Multiple-mode surveys can improve response and reduce survey error and costs. Although web surveys are an increasingly popular mode of survey administration, the full effect of web data collection on a primarily mail survey is not yet fully understood. This paper details response rates for a large-scale health care survey fielded by mail with a web response option. It also compares characteristics of those who responded online to characteristics of those who responded by mail to determine whether web respondents differ from mail respondents and whether particular subsets of the population are more likely to respond over the internet.
|
|
Welfare-to-Work National Evaluation
 "The National Evaluation of the Welfare-to-Work Grants Program." Thomas M. Fraker, Dan M. Levy, Irma Perez-Johnson, Alan M. Hershey, Demetra S. Nightingale, Robert B. Olsen, and Rita A. Stapulonis, September 2004. This final report presents descriptive findings from Mathematica's study of enrollees during the two years after they entered a welfare-to-work program. Most were TANF recipients with significant barriers to employment; although most were employed at some time during the study, many faced employment problems at the end of that period, and the jobs they held often left them in poverty. Whether a more comprehensive approach would produce better results is unclear, but the report presents design and implementation factors for programs to consider.
|
Connecting Rural America
"Implementing Welfare-to-Work Programs in Rural Places: Lessons from the Rural Welfare-to-Work Strategies Demonstration Evaluation." Andrew Burwick, Vinita Jethwani, and Alicia Meckstroth, April 2004. This study, designed to examine whether innovative approaches can improve employment and other outcomes for rural low-income people, is examining specialized programs in Illinois, Nebraska, and Tennessee. Based on a largely qualitative assessment of program implementation, the authors note that in rural places where fewer service providers exist, programs may be most valuable for clients when they focus both on improving employment prospects and providing assistance on personal and logistical issues. Outreach must be aggressive to reach potential clients in rural areas, but once enrolled, they can benefit from program staff who help them overcome challenges related to poor personal reputations by vouching for them with potential employers and others. |
|
Upcoming Presentation
Senior fellow Mark Dynarski will be speaking at a conference hosted by the National Economic and Social Forum and the University College in Dublin, Ireland, on February 10. The conference, "Evaluation and Evidence-Based Policymaking: Getting the Evidence Into Policymaking and Implementation," brings together researchers and policymakers seeking quality evidence for decisionmaking.
|
