Although many immigrant children to the United States arrive with their parents, a notable proportion are first separated and later reunited with their parents. How do the experiences of separation and reunification shape the well-being of immigrant children? Data were from a national survey of legal adult immigrants and their families, the New…

Two-generation human capital programs seek to promote the education of parents and children simultaneously. This study examines relations between family participation in Career"Advance," which recruits parents of Head Start children into a workforce training program, and children's Head Start attendance. The sample included 293 children…

We examined the associations between preschool attendance and academic school readiness at kindergarten entry among 5-year-old children of immigrant mothers in the United States using data from a US nationally representative sample (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, N = 1650). Comparing children who were in preschool (Head Start,…

The federal child-care subsidy program represents one of the government's largest investments in early care and education, but little is known about whether it increases low-income children's access to higher quality child care. This study used newly available nationally representative data on 4-year-old children (N = 750) to investigate whether…

Using data ("n" = 3,790 with 2,119 in the 3-year-old cohort and 1,671 in the 4-year-old cohort) from 353 Head Start centers in the Head Start Impact Study, the only large-scale randomized experiment in Head Start history, this article examined the impact of Head Start on children's cognitive and parent-reported social-behavioral outcomes…

The federal Early Head Start (EHS) program began in 1995, and a randomized trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 17 EHS programs. In all, 3,001 low-income families (35% African American, 24% Hispanic, and 37% White) with a pregnant women or an infant under the age of 12 months were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group (with…

We used longitudinal data from a birth cohort study, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, to investigate the links between Head Start and school readiness in a large and diverse sample of urban children at age 5 (N = 2,803; 18 cities). We found that Head Start attendance was associated with enhanced cognitive ability and social…

In this study, the authors used data from a large longitudinal birth cohort study of primarily low-income children in urban areas, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), to investigate the effects of Head Start participation on children's school readiness. The fact that their sample was mainly made up of disadvantaged families…

As schools struggle to meet federal achievement standards, after-school programs are increasingly viewed as a potential source of academic support for youth at risk of school failure. The hope among youth advocates and policymakers is that after-school programs can partially compensate for the inequities that plague the nation's schools and play a…

Research Findings: Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this article relates neighborhood characteristics to the type of child care used in families with toddlers and preschoolers (N = 1,121; representative of children in Chicago in 1996-1998). Neighborhood structural disadvantage was assessed via U.S. Census…

Early development is likely influenced by quality of early parenting and improvements or declines in quality over time. Little is known about how changes in different dimensions of parenting influence child outcomes, nor the relative sizes of associations when considering several aspects simultaneously. These questions are addressed in the Early…

The early identification and remediation of emotional or behavior disorders are high priorities for early-childhood researchers and are based on the assumption that problems such as school failure can be averted with early screening, prevention, and intervention. Presently, prevalence, severity, and topography of mental health needs among…