Examining the Effects of a Two-Generation Education Intervention on Children's Developmental Outcomes and Family Processes Using Diverse Methodological Approaches

项目摘要/摘要 在美国，来自高收入家庭和低收入家庭的孩子之间的学业成绩差距是 在儿童开始接受正规学校教育时就已经很明显了，而且差距随着时间的推移继续存在1-4。许多 旨在解决成绩差距的方案侧重于以学校为基础的干预7，但儿童花费 他们醒着的大部分时间都在家里。目前的规划和研究中缺少的是一个整体 把重点放在家庭上，特别是父母的教育--这是影响儿童 发展5、8-12、24.一种名为两代教育规划的新模式明确地提供了高质量的 同时对低收入父母和同一家庭的孩子进行同等强度的干预。 在多理论框架的指导下，拟议的为期两年的研究金的目标是调查(A) 试验性两代教育方案对儿童学习和行为结果的影响 以及(B)是否有任何影响是由家庭过程调节的。潜在的家庭过程包括父母努力 除了利用以下资源和需求之外，还应促进子女的教育进步 为人父母。数据来自NU2Gen研究，这是对一项新的两代教育计划的评估 针对低收入家庭，称为CareerAdvance。NU2Gen的研究不仅提供了前所未有的 测试父母教育对孩子和家庭的因果影响的机会；它还提供了多样化的 以及对可能的潜在机制的创新测量，这些机制可能解释积极或消极的原因 结果。目的1测试增加的父母教育对家庭和孩子的直接和间接影响 对家长调查和子女学校管理数据进行因果和通径分析的结果 478例。目标2将研究两代人计划是否加强了父母对 利用数据科学和机器学习在家庭(例如，语言环境)中取得教育成功 在16小时内转换父母(n=40)话语(约1,000字/小时)的录音的方法 以供文本分析之用。目标3将进一步调查家庭资源和需求的变化(例如， 工作-学校-家庭平衡)由于父母教育的增加，通过对39个焦点群体的定性分析 父母(n=141)。总而言之，这些研究提供了对低收入家庭复杂生活的洞察 以及旨在同时改善父母和子女教育的政策的有效性。 这些目标将通过在政策研究所的严格培训计划来实现 西北大学，一个跨学科的社会科学和公共政策研究中心，强调 项目评估和社会政策(赞助商大通-兰斯代尔)、数据科学和文本挖掘技术(联合 赞助商Miratrix)和定性分析方法(共同赞助商Burton)。完成拟议的研究 培训将是PI职业计划的第一步，以进行与政策相关的跨学科研究 社会经济环境对使用各种先进方法的儿童、父母和家庭的影响。

Project Summary/Abstract In the United States, the academic achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is already apparent when children begin formal schooling, and gaps continue to persist over time1-4. Many programs designed to address the achievement gap focus on school-based interventions7, but children spend most of their waking hours at home. What is missing from the current programming and research is a holistic focus on the family, particularly on parents' education – a significant source of influence on children's development5,8-12,24. A new model, called two-generation education programming, explicitly offers high-quality and equally intense interventions simultaneously to low-income parents and children from the same family6. Guided by a multi-theoretical framework, the goal of the two-year proposed fellowship is to investigate (a) the effects of an experimental two-generation education program on children's academic and behavioral outcomes and (b) if any impacts are mediated by family processes. Potential family processes include parents' efforts to promote the educational advancement of their children in addition to navigating the resources and demands of parenthood. Data come from the NU2Gen Study, an evaluation of a novel two-generation education program for low-income families called CareerAdvance. The NU2Gen Study not only offers an unprecedented opportunity to test the causal impacts of parents' education on children and families; it also provides diverse and innovative measurement of possible underlying mechanisms that might explain positive or negative outcomes. Aim 1 tests the direct and indirect effects of increased parental education on family and child outcomes by conducting causal and pathway analyses on parent survey and child school administrative data (N=478). Aim 2 will examine whether the two-generation program strengthens parents' promotion of educational success in the home (e.g., verbal environment) by utilizing data science and machine learning methodology to convert parents' audio recordings (n=40) of utterances (~1,000 words per hour) over 16 hours to transcripts for text analysis. Aim 3 will further investigate changes in families' resources and demands (e.g., work-school-family balance) due to increased parental education through qualitative analysis of 39 focus group with parents (n=141). Collectively, these studies provide insight into the complex lives of low-income families as well as the effectiveness of policies designed to improve parents and children's education simultaneously. These aims will be accomplished with a rigorous training plan at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, an interdisciplinarysocial science and public policy research center,emphasizing program evaluation and social policy (sponsor Chase-Lansdale), data science and text mining techniques (co- sponsor Miratrix), and qualitative analytic approaches (co-sponsor Burton). Completing the proposed research and training will be the first step in the PI's career plan to conduct policy-relevant, interdisciplinary research on the impact of socioeconomic contexts on children, parents, and families using a variety of advanced methods.