Children Living in Rural Poverty: The Continuation of the Family Life Project

描述(申请人提供)：在过去的几十年里，美国的农村社区面临着许多挑战，包括农业部门的收缩，工作岗位向海外转移，再加上工会工作和传统行业工作的丧失，如纺织和家具。尽管发生了这些深刻的变化，但许多家庭继续在农村社区建设自己的生活，许多家庭生活在贫困中。令人惊讶的是，关于农村贫困地区儿童发展的研究很少，几乎没有关于他们过渡到正规学校的文献。该计划项目的中心目标是了解就业、家庭环境、亲子关系、课堂教学质量、校外活动以及儿童自身的个体差异如何随着时间的推移相互作用，以塑造儿童在过渡到学校期间的发展。我们正在对6个农村贫困县一年内出生的所有儿童进行具有代表性的抽样调查。我们现在的出生队列中有1292名婴儿，对非裔美国人和贫困人口进行了过度抽样。这一样本在收入水平(包括大量家庭非常贫穷的儿童)、族裔(包括非非洲裔美国人家庭和非裔美国人家庭)及其农村地区(包括居住在小城镇和周围农村较孤立的家庭)方面是多样的。在该项目的第一阶段，完成了儿童头三年的8次家访，收集了母亲/儿童皮质醇以及视频记录的家庭互动和母亲、父亲/祖母访谈等数据。在这项重要研究的继续研究中，我们建议通过四次学校访问和两次家访来研究孩子们，因为他们正在从4岁到二年级过渡到学校。该个人的项目侧重于儿童向学校过渡的不同方面。项目I考察了执行功能和情绪调节的发展以及ADHD的前兆。项目二的重点是发展语言和扫盲，特别注重课堂教学和校外活动。项目三侧重于家庭中支持过渡到学校的过程，重点是母亲和父亲/祖母如何与子女互动，并促进学业和社会成功。这项研究旨在提供必要的信息，以了解农村社区对儿童入学的支持和挑战。这包括关于家庭和儿童健康、家庭惯例和做法、儿童保育质量、家庭工作时间表和挑战以及许多领域儿童能力发展的多层次信息。这些信息将提供政策制定者回应这些儿童、家庭和学校需求所需的相关信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the last several decades, America's rural communities have faced many challenges, including the contraction of the agricultural sector, jobs moving offshore, coupled with the loss of union jobs and traditional industry jobs like textiles and furniture. Despite these profound changes, numerous families continue to build their lives in rural communities, with many families living in poverty. There is surprisingly scant research on the development of children in rural poor areas and almost no literature on their transition to formal schooling. The central goal of this program project is to understand the ways in which employment, the family environment, parent-child relationships, instructional quality in the classroom, out of school activities and individual differences in the children themselves interact over time to shape the unfolding development of the children as they make the transition to school. We are studying a representative sample of all children born in 6 rural poor counties within a one year period. We now have a birth cohort of 1292 infants, oversampling for African American and poverty. This sample is diverse with respect to income level (including large numbers of children whose families are very poor), ethnicity (including both non-African American and African-American families), and their rural locations (including those who live in small towns and those more isolated in the surrounding countryside). In the first phase of this program project 8 home visits over the children's first three years of life were accomplished, collecting such data as mother/child cortisol as well as video recorded family interactions, and mother and father/grandmother interviews. In the proposed continuation of this important study, we are proposing to study the children through four school visits and two home visits as they make the transition to school from ages 4 thru 2nd Grade. The individual's projects focus on different aspects of the children's transition to school. Project I examines the development of executive functioning and emotion regulation as well as the precursors of ADHD. Project II focuses on language and literacy development with a particular focus on classroom instruction and out of school activities. Project III focuses on the processes in the home that support the transition to school, with a focus on how both mothers and fathers/grandmothers interact with their children and promote academic and social success. This research is designed to provide the information needed to understand the supports and challenges in rural communities for children as they enter school. This includes multilevel information about family and child health, family routines and practices, childcare quality, family work schedules and challenges and the development of child competencies in many areas. This information will provide the relevant information policy makers need to respond to the needs of these children, families and schools.