Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:48:18.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction and Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2009

By
Neal Halfon ,
Kathryn Taaffe McLearn  and
Mark A. Schuster
Edited by
Neal Halfon ,
Kathryn Taaffe McLearn  and
Mark A. Schuster
Neal Halfon
Affiliation:
Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Professor of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Director of the Institute for Children, Families, and Communities
Kathryn Taaffe McLearn
Affiliation:
Senior Fellow and Research Scientist The National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Mark A. Schuster
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Health Services, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Senior Natural Scientist RAND; Director UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion
Neal Halfon
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Kathryn Taaffe McLearn
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Mark A. Schuster
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

RECENT PERSPECTIVES ON EARLY CHILDHOOD

The well-being of young children has become a popular topic as expansions of knowledge in the neuro- and behavioral sciences have documented the importance of the first three years in children's long-term learning, behavior, and health. Recent scholarly books and national research conferences have examined these issues from a variety of perspectives. In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences convened a three-year, multidisciplinary commission to examine and report on the science of early childhood. In 1999, RAND issued Investing in Our Children, which documented the benefits and savings associated with targeted early intervention programs. In 1996, 1997, and 2000, Time and Newsweek devoted entire special issues to the development of the young child. In 1997, the White House hosted conferences on childcare and on early child development and learning. Federal agencies have signaled their interest by expanding data collection on the early life predictors of educational success and supporting expansions of the Head Start program for children from birth to age 3. Numerous states have initiated aggressive early childhood agendas, focusing on childcare, health care, universal preschool, home visiting, and family support (Cauthen et al. 2000). All these efforts are evidence of a recognition of the importance of early child experience and a growing commitment to public policy that fosters the healthy development of our youngest children.

Type
Chapter
Information
Child Rearing in America
Challenges Facing Parents with Young Children
 , pp. 1 - 18
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barker, D. (1998). Mothers, babies, and health in later life. Edinburgh, Scotland: Churchill Livingstone
Becker, G., & Lewis, H. G. (1973). On the interactions between the quantity and quality of children. Journal of Political Economy, 81(2), S279–288CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, W. T., Frank, E., Jensen, P. S., Kessler, R. C., Nelson, C. A., & Steinberg, L. (1998). Social context in developmental psychopathology: Recommendations for future research from the MacArthur Network on psychopathology and development. Development and Psychopathology, 10, 143–164CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks-Gunn, J., & Duncan, G. J. (1997). The effects of poverty on children. The Future of Children, 7(2), 55–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, F. A., & Ramey, C. T. (1995). Cognitive and school outcomes for high-risk African American students at middle adolescence: positive effects of early intervention. American Education Research Journal, 32(4), 743–772CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Carnegie Corporation of New York. (1994). Starting Points: Meeting the needs of our youngest children. New York: Carnegie Corporation
Cauthen, N., Knitzer, J., & Ripple, C. (2000). Map and Track: State Initiatives for young Children and Families. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty
Dawson, G., Hessel, D., & Frey, K. (1994). Social influences on early developing biological and behavioral systems related to risk for affective disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 759–779CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, G. J., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1997). Consequences of Growing up Poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation
Elder, G. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Farkas, S., & Johnson, J. (1997). Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think about the Next Generation. New York: The Public Agenda, 17
Fox, N. A., Rubin, K. H., Calkins, S. D., Marshall, T. R., Coplan, R. J., Porges, S. W., Long, J. M., & Stewart, S. (1995). Frontal activation asymmetry and social competence at four years of age. Child Development, 66, 1770–1784CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gopnik, M. (1999). Familial language impairment: More English evidence. Folia Phoniatrica Logopedica 51(1–2), 5–19CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halfon, N., Inkelas, M., & Hochstein, M. (2000). The health development organization: An organizational approach to achieving child health development. The Milbank Quarterly, 78(3), 447–497CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haggerty, R. J., Roghmann, K. J., & Pless, I. B. (1975). Child health and the community. New York: John Wiley & Sons
Haveman, R., & Wolfe, B. (1995). The determinants of children's attainments: A review of methods and findings. Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 1829–1878Google Scholar
Heckman, J. J. (1999). Policies to foster human capital. NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 7288. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic ResearchCrossRef
Hoekleman, R. A., & Pless, I. B. (1988). Decline in mortality among young Americans during the 20th century: Prospects for reaching national mortality reduction goals for 1990. Pediatrics, 82(4), 582–595Google Scholar
Karoly, L., Greenwood, P. W., Everingham, S. S., Hoube, J., Kilburn M. R., Rydell, C. P., Sanders, M., & Chiesa, J. (1997). Investing in our children. Santa Monica: RAND Corp
Keating, D. P., & Hertzman, C. (1999). Developmental health and the wealth of nations: Social, biological and educational dynamics. New York: The Guilford Press
Kuh, D., & Ben-Shlomo, Y. (1997). A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press
Leibowitz, A. (1974). Home investment in children. Journal of Political Economy, 82(2), S111–131CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, R. M. (1998). Theories of human development: Contemporary perspectives. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology. New York: John Wiley
Lucas, A. (1998). Programming by early nutrition: An experimental approach. Journal of Nutrition, 128, 401S–406SCrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Commission on Children. (1991). Beyond rhetoric: A new American agenda for children and families. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office
NRC National Survey of Health and Development. Paediatric Perinatal Epidemiology, 111(1), 2–20
Olds, D. L., Eckenrode, J., Henderson, C. R., Kitzman, H., Powers, J., Cole, R., Sidora, K., Morris, P., Pettitt, L. M., & Luckey, D. (1997). Long-term effects of home visitation of maternal life course and child abuse and neglect. Fifteen-year follow-up of a randomized trial. JAMA, 278(8), 637–643CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penn, A. A., & Shatz, C. J. (1999). Brain waves and brain wiring: The role of endogenous and sensory-driven neural activity in development. Pediatric Research, 45(4), 447–458CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramey, C. T., Bryant, D. M., Wasik, B. G., Sparling, J. J., Fendt, K. H., & LaVange, L. M. (1992). Infant health and development program for low birth weight, premature infants: Program elements, family participation, and child intelligence. Pediatrics, 3, 454–465Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1996). Developmental psychopathology: Concepts and prospects. In M. Lenzenweger & J. Havgaard (eds.), Frontiers of developmental psychopathology. New York: Oxford University Press
Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science 277, 918–924CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schore, A. N. (1994). Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Assoc
Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. (2000). From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
Smith, J. (1999). Healthy bodies and thick wallets. The dual relation between health and economic status. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(2), 145–166CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A. (1997). Psychopathology as an outcome of development. Development and Psychopathology, 9(2), 251–268CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
StataCorp. Stata Statistical Software: Release 5.0. College Station, TX: Stata Corporation. 1997
Wadsworth, M. E., & Kuh, D. (1997). Childhood influences on adult health: A review of recent work from the British 1946 national birth cohort study, the NRC National Survey of Health and Development. Paediatric Perinatal Epidemiology, 111(1), 2–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction and Overview
    • By Neal Halfon, Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Professor of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Director of the Institute for Children, Families, and Communities, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, Senior Fellow and Research Scientist The National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Mark A. Schuster, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Health Services, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Senior Natural Scientist RAND; Director UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion
  • Edited by Neal Halfon, University of California, Los Angeles, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, Columbia University, New York, Mark A. Schuster, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Child Rearing in America
  • Online publication: 15 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499753.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction and Overview
    • By Neal Halfon, Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Professor of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Director of the Institute for Children, Families, and Communities, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, Senior Fellow and Research Scientist The National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Mark A. Schuster, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Health Services, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Senior Natural Scientist RAND; Director UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion
  • Edited by Neal Halfon, University of California, Los Angeles, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, Columbia University, New York, Mark A. Schuster, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Child Rearing in America
  • Online publication: 15 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499753.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction and Overview
    • By Neal Halfon, Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Professor of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Director of the Institute for Children, Families, and Communities, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, Senior Fellow and Research Scientist The National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Mark A. Schuster, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Health Services, School of Public Health University of California, Los Angeles; Senior Natural Scientist RAND; Director UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion
  • Edited by Neal Halfon, University of California, Los Angeles, Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, Columbia University, New York, Mark A. Schuster, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Child Rearing in America
  • Online publication: 15 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499753.001
Available formats
×