Race School Transitions, and Child and Adolescent Well-Being

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究的目的是探索在生命过程早期发生的学校转变如何影响学生的社会情绪健康(即心理功能和社会关系)和健康行为，以及这些领域的中断如何影响以后的教育表现。我的研究将使用顺序混合方法设计，最初的定量成分通知随后的定性调查。这项定量研究将利用三个针对早期生活过程不同阶段的国家纵向数据集：幼儿纵向研究--幼儿园过渡到全日制学校的队列，NICHD关于过渡到中学的早期儿童保育和青年发展的研究，以及全国青少年健康过渡到高中的纵向研究。使用这些数据集，我将解决三个具体目标：1)确定每个学校过渡期间学生社会情绪幸福感和健康行为的种族/民族差异；2)确定在哪些学校背景下，社会情绪幸福感和健康因素的干扰-以及这些干扰中的种族/民族差异-最显著和最不明显；以及3)评估学校过渡期间社会情绪健康和健康行为的干扰如何影响日后教育表现的种族/民族差异。我将使用一些定量分析技术(重复测量、倾向评分、线性回归、结构方程模型)来检验过渡经历、种族/民族和学校背景的调节影响，以及过渡经历与远距离教育结果的关系。定量结果将为制定定性面试程序提供依据，该程序将用于40名学生的不同样本。这项定性研究试图确定学校转学对不同种族/族裔群体的社会情感和健康功能造成破坏的具体心理社会机制，特别侧重于学校转学对每个种族/民族群体的不同影响。这项研究将扩大我们对学校过渡如何影响学生的理解，超越了有据可查的学术挑战。与公共健康相关：预计学校的过渡将扰乱学生的社会情绪健康和他们的健康行为，这些扰乱将在某些种族/民族中最为明显。这类研究将突出学生教育事业中的关键干预点，并确定具体的政策干预工具，以此作为解决美国收入、财富、生育率和死亡率之间相应差异的种族/民族教育程度差异的一种方式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this research is to explore how school transitions that occur early in the life course affect students' socio-emotional well-being (i.e., psychological functioning and social relationships) and health behaviors, and how disruptions in these domains affect later educational performance. My research will use a sequential mixed-methods design, with an initial quantitative component informing subsequent qualitative inquiry. The quantitative research will draw on three national, longitudinal data sets targeting different stages of the early life course: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort for the transition to full- time schooling, the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development for the transition to middle school, and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health for the transition to high school. Using these datasets, I will address three specific aims: 1) determine racial/ethnic differences in students' socio- emotional well-being and health behaviors across each school transition, 2) identify the school contexts in which disruptions in socio-emotional well-being and health factors-and racial/ethnic differences in these disruptions- are most and least pronounced, and 3) assess how disruptions in socio-emotional well-being and health behaviors during school transitions affect racial/ethnic differences in later educational performance. I will use a number of quantitative analysis techniques (repeated measures, propensity scoring, linear regression, structural equation modeling) to examine transition experiences, the moderating influence of race/ethnicity and school context, and the relationship of transition experiences to distal educational outcomes. Quantitative results will inform the development of a qualitative interview protocol to be used with a diverse sample of 40 students. This qualitative research seeks to identify the specific psychosocial mechanisms by which school transitions can be disruptive to socio-emotional and health functioning for different race/ethnic groups, focusing particularly on differential effects of school transitions for each racial/ethnic group. This research will expand our understanding of how school transitions affect students beyond the well-documented academic challenges. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The expectation is that school transitions will disrupt students' socio-emotional well-being and their health behaviors, and these disruptions will be most pronounced among certain race/ethnic groups. Such research will highlight critical intervention points in students' educational careers and identify specific tools for policy intervention as a way of addressing well-documented racial/ethnic differences in educational attainment that underlie corresponding disparities in income, wealth, fertility, and mortality in the U.S.