The current study examines the association between the mother-caregiver relationship and the psychological well-being of 533 mothers who transitioned their children to a non-familial licensed childcare center. Maternal well-being, mother-caregiver relationship quality, and maternal parenting stress were assessed. Hierarchical linear regressions…

The present study investigated whether distinct developmental patterns of externalizing behaviors (EBs: hyperactivity-impulsivity, noncompliance, physical aggression) based on parent reports were repeatedly and differentially associated with separate dimensions of internalizing problems such as general anxiety, separation anxiety, and depressive…

This study aimed to discover the effect of physical education on the emotional and mental development of pre-schoolers. The study involved 355 pre-schoolers (162 males and 158 females) aged 4 (N = 215) and 5 (N = 150) years (mean age = 4.36, SD = 0.76) who attend public preschool institutions in Moscow, Russia. All respondents were divided into…

There is scant empirical work on associations between current and past cannabis use in parents of young children. As recreational cannabis use is now legal in nearly half of states in the U.S., cannabis use is becoming more ubiquitous. In the current study, parents of toddler and pre-school age children were randomly assigned to participate in an…

Secondary analysis of the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2018 data set (Baby FACES 2018) explored links between family risk events and referral-making and referral uptake among families receiving Early Head Start (EHS) services. Referrals to both behavioral health and entitlement programs were considered. Results showed that…

Intellectual impairments in preschoolers have been widely studied. A regularity that emerges is that children's intellectual impairments have an important impact on later adjustments in life. However, few studies have looked at the intellectual profiles of young psychiatric outpatients. This study aimed to describe the intelligence profile of…

Background: The emergence of language in the early years is a major developmental accomplishment that underpins learning, enables social interaction and, later, is an indicator of well-being. Learning language is an effortless process for most, but can be challenging for others. There is a need to act early. First, because there are several…

Considerable studies have shown the protective effects of breastfeeding on internalizing problem behaviours in early childhood, yet little is known about the groundwork for this relationship. This study attempted to test the hypothesis that improvement of mothers' positive parenting behaviours by breastfeeding can explain the relationship. We used…

Research Findings: The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale--Revised (ECERS-R) is widely used to evaluate the quality of early childhood education and its association with child development. However, the psychometric properties of the ECERS-R are not well established. Consequently, in this study we tested 3 different factor solutions of the…

Exclusionary discipline practices differentially harm young children of color. As early childhood education systems seek to close these gaps to ensure all young children have access to high quality early learning experiences, the field requires more evidence-based approaches that can be scaled and replicated. Infant and early childhood mental…

State-level policies in Ohio during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States involved physical school closures and work-from-home requirements when possible. Presumably, these policies and resulting impacts on homes with children would alter parent time investments in their children with respect to home-learning activities.…

The estimated number of forcibly displaced persons around the globe is at a record high--nearly 70.8 million (UNHCR 2019)--75 percent of whom are women and children. This includes 34 million adolescent girls and young women, who are among the groups with the highest risk for health concerns. Indeed, many of the countries with the worst maternal…

This dissertation consists of three independent chapters in applied microeconomics. In the first chapter, I study the causal effect impact of early life circumstances on adult psychological well-being using the property reform in China as a positive and policy driven change in economic resources in early life. Exploiting the staggered adoption of…

In hypothetical playmate preference tasks, obese figures are rarely picked up as friends. This study aims to observe what happens in real life and examine the relationship between body-size and social status in children. Four-hundred and fourteen children aged 5, 7 and 9 years were given a sociometric test. The Body Mass Index (BMI) of each child…

Research evidence suggests children experiencing adversity are at risk of language disparities in early childhood. This puts these children at risk of poor language outcomes, perpetuating disadvantage in later development and academic life. This study aimed to investigate associations between Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) attendance,…