Academic literature on the topic 'Early childhood education|Public policy|Health education'

<p> This study investigates parental health literacy and parental health seeking behavior for pediatric primary care utilization as a response to childhood obesity among 220 parents from 12 Head Start and Non Head Start preschools in New Castle County, Delaware. Four paper surveys collected data with the Newest Vital Sign, STOFHL-A, a Parent Survey, and Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS). Green and Kreuter's 2005 Precede-Proceed model is applied to an original logical model for determining a need for a preschool health literacy intervention to inform better child health outcomes. Results indicate that low-income, minority families, have fewer health books at home, which is associated with lower parental health literacy, higher child BMI, and more health care referrals for managing childhood obesity. Nutritional health literacy scores are lower among Hispanic parents who are Head Start participants. Black parents who are Head Start participants had significantly lower parent functional health literacy. Head Start programs offer more parent health education and twice the rate of referrals for the same level of health seeking behavior as Non Head Start parents. Health seeking behavior was lower overall for Black parents from the Head Start program. Further study should explore cultural notions and family characteristics associated with lower pediatric health care utilization in relation to both health literacy scores and health care referrals. </p><p>

<p>Across the globe, the viability of welfare states depends on the success of policy adaptations to a post-industrial, internationalized economy and domestic demographic changes that encompass family formation, declines in fertility, and lifespan extensions of the elderly. One of the most important issues facing contemporary welfare states is the need to adjust social policy to the demise of the male breadwinner model in favor of the increased participation of women and mothers in the workforce. Whereas childrearing was traditionally the central occupation of stay-at-home mothers, their workforce participation has necessitated out-of-home care for children under the ages of five or six, before the start of primary school. Providing financial supports and investing in early childhood care and education are several policy instruments that can be used, not only to ease the burden of care faced by working mothers and their partners, but to promote the well-being and long-term economic productivity of their children as adults. In turn, the increased economic productivity of future generations can mitigate social risks and threats to the survival of the welfare state. Using a social investment approach based on human capital development in children, a set of indices is constructed to measure public investments in early childhood by ten member countries of the OECD from 2001 through 2011. The indices permit a theoretical exploration of patterns of expenditure and characteristics of policy design relative to their conformity to acknowledged types of welfare state regimes. The indices are also used to detect empirical changes in welfare state expenditures for early childhood investments pre- and post- the fiscal crisis of 2008. The study contributes to the literature of welfare state theory by situating investments in early childhood as a stage in the evolution of family policy; by creating a set of measures that characterizes public investments from a child-centered developmental perspective, one that is less prominent than work-family balance and gender equity viewpoints; and lastly, by combining expenditures and policy design components into a single measure.

There is a high rate of academic failure among disadvantaged preschool and post preschool students in some school districts in Virginia, yet little is understood about the relationship between education models and academic performance among economically disadvantaged students (EDS). The problem explored is the absence of classroom exercises in pre and post preschools that capitalize on cognitive development to improve executive function (EF) and self-regulation (SR) skills. The purpose of this study is to understand if a change in current classroom practices impacts academic performance among low-income students. Narrative policy serves as a theoretical guide in this qualitative case study that focused on the perceptions of principals, teachers, and administrators regarding best practices for preschool and post-preschool students and, secondly, how teachers implement classroom exercises to capitalize on the development of executive function and self-regulation skills among economically disadvantaged students. All data were inductively coded and then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure and included archived school report cards, preschool enrollment, and semi structured interviews with 3 former teachers now serving as administrators who supervise classroom activities. Findings indicate that best practices for EDS were a responsive classroom approach to correct disruptive behavior while developing mental capacity and simultaneously capitalizing on exercises to improve EF and SR skills in a classroom environment. Implications of social change begin with the empowerment of students, teachers, and administrators. Policy recommendations for social change include mandating two years of high-quality preschool for EDS as well as pursuing policies supporting SR and EF skills.

<p> Adolescent alcohol use is a major public health problem that affects millions of youth in the United States annually. High prevalence rates of youth alcohol use are related to many factors; one direct influence is the effect of adverse childhood experiences and the substantial impact on brain and behavioral development. This study assessed the relationship between the effects of adverse experiences and specific protective factors on the development of alcohol use in middle school students. Utilizing a cross-sectional design with the administration of a self completed survey, the outcomes show a relationship between higher adverse childhood experience scores and an increased prevalence of 30-day alcohol use. Additionally shown is a decline in use by students who report having a higher incidence of protective factors. This study will be utilized in building community awareness, adaptations to educational processes, creating community wide strategies and innovative public health approaches for prevention by understanding the collective impact that adverse experiences have on a child's health in relation to alcohol use.</p>

Teacher training institutions in Jamaica have been introducing, developing, and revamping undergraduate degree programs. There is, however, little evaluation of these efforts. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine The Mico University College's early childhood education undergraduate degree program by exploring the lived experiences of its graduates. The research questions elicited from the participants their views about how changes were being implemented in the program, and how they impacted the institution's development and improvement, how major policy shifts related to changes in national educational policies, and how together these shifts may impact future processes at The Mico and at similar institutions in Jamaica. The study used theoretical frameworks of organization development and performance improvement. In-depth semi-structured interviews were the main source of data collection and were supported by thick description, memoing, reflexive journaling, and document review. Data analysis methods consisted of coding interview transcripts and identifying common themes. The results of the study indicated that the participants commended many of the program's underlying policies and operational practices, but they identified some challenges and areas of weakness. This study may be used as a backdrop to program development and policy initiation at The Mico and at other institutions in Jamaica and the Caribbean as it encapsulates a wide breadth of the lived experiences of the participants and examines key components such as curricula, pedagogy, and assessment. By strengthening their program offerings, The Mico and other teacher training institutions have the potential to improve performance and to contribute to sustainable national development.

Part 1. An 8.5 month prospective study was carried out to compare the risk of repeated infections in children attending different type of daycare facilities. Compared to children in family daycare, children in small daycare centres ($ le$20 children) had an increased risk of having $ ge$6 infections (odds ratio (OR) = 2.3; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.5-3.6); $ ge$5 upper respiratory tract infections (OR = 2.2; CI = 1.4-3.4); $ ge$2 occurrence of otitis media (OR = 2.6; CI = 1.0-2.6); and $ ge$2 episodes of gastroenteritis (OR = 1.5; CI = 0.9-2.4). Surprisingly this risk was not as high for children attending large daycare centres. Children who had spent at least 3 months in daycare before the beginning of the study were significantly protected compared to new attenders. These infections have important social and economical consequences since 96% of all episodes required a medical consultation. 68% were treated with antibiotics; and approximately 40% of episodes resulted in a parent taking time off work to look after their sick child. Further studies should be performs to assess the long term consequences of repeated infections.<br>Part 2. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial was implemented to evaluate the efficacy of an immunostimulator in reducing the occurrence of recurrent respiratory or ear, nose, and throat infections. The parents of 423 children agreed to participate (210 Imocur$ sp circler$ and 213 Placebo). One capsule was administered orally for 10 consecutive days a month for 3 months. Children were followed for a further 4.5 months giving a total of 7.5 months for the study. For the total study period the risk of presenting at least 4 episodes of respiratory or ear, nose, and throat infections was lower in the treated group than in the placebo group (26.7% versus 33.8%), but the difference was not statistically significant (relative risk (RR) = 0.79; confidence interval (CI) = 0.59-1.06). A similar result was observed for the risk of having $ ge$2 episodes of gastroenteritis (RR = 0.77; 95% CI = 0.47-1.25). In contrast, at the end of the three-month treatment period we observed a 48% reduction in risk of presenting $ ge$3 episodes of respiratory or ear nose and throat infections (RR = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.45-0.87) in the treated group. However, this clinically important and statistically significant decrease in risk of recurrent infections did not extend beyond this period. The tolerance of the drug during the trial was excellent. Since these results were obtained from an exploratory analysis, they should be confirmed in further studies.

This project addressess the importance of early childhood intervention for California's infants and toddlers and how the managed care trends are affecting families' ability to obtain help for their children.

Professionals have found autism to be an enigmatic condition. While necessary biomedical research continues, a gap exists in the inclusion of parental opinions, knowledge, and experiences in educational planning for their autistic children. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify the factors that the parents felt contributed to the academic success of their autistic child in the public school classroom environment and ways in which their ideas might contribute to overall educational planning and classroom design in structure, curriculum development, and intervention strategies which might lead to reduced stress. Parental input was explored through semistructured personal interviews with 8 parents and the administration of a 32-question survey questionnaire to 109 parents of autistic children. A content analysis was done on the qualitative data, and an analysis of quantitative data reported the frequency and percentages of the participant responses. Findings from the data revealed multiple areas in need of improved educational services that include the classroom organization, educator training and knowledge about the autistic condition, educator support, effective communication, and behavioral management of the symptoms of autism. The social change impact from the study's findings have the potential to inform educational planning, foster collaboration, increase educator participation in autism training methods, secure necessary funding for evidence based autism educational programs, promote further research, and provide awareness of existing empirically based approaches designed to meet the needs of a vulnerable population.