Head Start Quality

"Design Options for the Assessment of Head Start Quality Enhancements, Volume I." Christine Ross, Gretchen Kirby, Peter Schochet, John Hall, Susan Sprachman, Kimberly Boller, Diane Paulsell, and Sheena McConnell, September 2005. Head Start, the largest federally funded preschool program, provides comprehensive services to economically disadvantaged children and their families so that children can enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school. Performance standards include requirements for the intensity and quality of a broad range of services for children and families. This report discusses design options for potential future evaluations of Head Start quality enhancements. It describes the goals and activities associated with each of the three stages of research through the use of specific examples of potential Head Start Quality enhancements.

"Measurement Options for the Assessment of Head Start Quality Enhancements, Volume II." Shefali Pai-Samant, Joanna DeWolfe, Sarah Caverly, Kimberly Boller, Sharon McGroder, Jennifer Zettler, Jessica Mills, Christine Ross, Cheryl Clark, Mariel Quinones, and Jamie Gulin, September 2005. This volume provides a compendium of measures that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of Head Start enhancements. The focus is on child outcome measures, although measures pertaining to intermediate outcomes related both to changes in the program and changes in the home are included. The authors also review measures and variables pertaining to baseline characteristics and conditions that may moderate program impacts.

Maternal Mental Health

“Maternal Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Domestic Violence in the Year after Delivery and Subsequent Behavior Problems in Children at Age 3 Years.” Robert C. Whitaker, Sean M. Orzol, and Robert S. Kahn, Archives of General Psychiatry, May 2006. By three years of age, children are at significantly higher risk for behavior problems if their mothers experience mental health problems, substance use, or domestic violence in the year after delivery. These maternal conditions often occur together, and as the number of maternal conditions increases, so does the risk of children’s behavior problems. This article takes the first-ever look at the cumulative effects of these maternal conditions on behavior problems in young children.

Read more about the research, based on data collected by Mathematica on over 2,700 children in 18 large U.S. cities for the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.

Do Neighborhoods Affect Obesity?

“Neighborhood Safety, Collective Efficacy, and Obesity in Women with Young Children.” Hillary L. Burdette, Thomas A. Wadden, and Robert C. Whitaker, Obesity, March 2006. The characteristics of neighborhoods can influence how and where people spend their time, and unsafe neighborhoods are often thought to contribute to the obesity epidemic by decreasing outdoor activity. Despite a hypothesized link between neighborhood safety and obesity, this was the first study to evaluate this association among adults. Using data collected in 20 large U.S. cities for the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, researchers found that mothers who perceived their neighborhoods to be safer had a lower body mass index and were less likely to be obese, even after controlling for multiple measures of socioeconomic status.

Feeding Style and Fatness

“Maternal Feeding Style During Infancy and Children’s Adiposity at 5 Years of Age.” Hillary L. Burdette, Robert C. Whitaker, Waynitra C. Hall, and Stephen R. Daniels, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, May 2006. This article examines the relationship between maternal infant-feeding style and adiposity in childhood to determine whether feeding style explains any of the association between maternal obesity and childhood obesity. Researchers found little relationship between maternal feeding style during infancy—for example, awareness of infant’s hunger and satiety cues, feeding on a schedule, and using food to calm infant’s fussiness—and fatness at age 5. They also found that mothers who were more concerned about their infants overeating or eventually being overweight were more likely to have fatter children by age 5. They suggest that inquiring during infancy about these early concern opens the window to early, constructive dialogue with parents about obesity prevention.

Job Retention in the UK

“Impacts of the Job Retention and Rehabilitation Pilot.” Susan Purdon, Nina Stratford, Rebecca Taylor, Lucy Natarajan, Stephen Bell, and David Wittenburg, March 2006. The Job Retention and Rehabilitation Pilot, a two-year trial designed to test three alternative interventions in the United Kingdom, aimed to increase the return-to-work rate of those out of work sick for six weeks or more. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: a health intervention, a workplace intervention, a combined (workplace and health) intervention, or the control group. Findings show that the interventions did not have an impact on any of the three treatment groups. The most likely reasons were because the interventions did not meet their needs fully; some of the primary reasons for returning to work, such as concerns about money or job tenure, were outside the control of the service providers; and service providers faced barriers from employers and general practitioners that reduced the probability of being able to gain a successful return-to-work. Research summary. Full report.

Survey Methods Update

“Study of Medicaid Home and Community Based Services Waiver Program Survey Methodology.” Larry P. Snell, Zhanyun Zhao, Cathy Lu, Frank Potter, and Anne B. Ciemnecki, September 2005. Home and community based support services, such as skilled nursing and help with bathing, have become an important part of the services offered by Medicaid. The provision of these services is thought to prevent or delay institutionalization. This report summarizes Mathematica’s survey methods for the Medicaid Home and Community Based Services Waiver Program, along with processes used to select samples and to adjust the sampling weights to account for nonresponse. Data were collected by telephone and in-person interviews from May 2003 through June 2004 in six states—Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Washington, and Wisconsin.

AAPOR Presentations

Members of our staff of survey researchers, survey operations professionals, statisticians, and systems analysts will be presenting at the 61st annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Confronting Core Values and Cultural Conflict, in Montréal, Canada from May 18 to 21. This year's conference focuses on how survey researchers measure and analyze values, and on the link between values, opinions, and behavior. See a list of presenters.

For more information, please contact Publications, 609-275-2350.