Compared to unpaid leave, paid family leave may better help working parents balance the competing needs of job and family early in a child's life, among other advantages. Yet the United States remains one of only two countries in the world without a statutory national paid maternity leave policy, and one of the only high-income countries that…

Background: Considering the amount of time children spend sitting in school, concerns about the consequences of an improper sitting position have been raised.Purpose: Evaluate the outcome of an occupational therapy intervention implemented to reduce child-furniture incompatibility.Methods: Repeated-measures design utilizing a within-subject…

This qualitative report is part of a larger action research study on a topic that is often overlooked in school improvement efforts: Recess and its influence on children's social interactions and developmental trajectories. We introduced The Recess Project into seven lower-socioeconomic elementary schools in southern Ontario. Our intention for…

Advancing Healthy and Socially Just Schools and Communities is a four-course graduate certificate program collaboratively developed by an interdisciplinary team comprised of faculty from the fields of Social Work and Education at a Canadian university. The aim of this program is to facilitate systems-level change through enhancing the knowledge…

Objective: This study examines the effect of an ecological and contextually responsive approach, during initial intake call, on engagement for multistressed families seeking child mental health services in an urban setting. Methods: Using a randomized design, parents were allocated to phone Intake As Usual (IAU) or Enhanced Engagement Phone Intake…

Pre-service teacher education in mental health and mental health literacy is essential to creating the conditions necessary to support the mental health and wellness of children and youth in schools. Many teachers report never having received any education about mental health, but recognize the importance of this knowledge in meeting the needs of…

Schools are places of learning, but they are also sites of struggle when fitness, obesity, and body image issues converge for students and teachers. Responding to teachers' concerns about their students on diets, a Canadian teachers' organization produced a body image program which included a training day for schools undertaking whole-school…

Given today's climate of economic uncertainty and fiscal restraint, organizations providing child and youth mental health services are required to do so with limited resources. Within this context, service providers face added pressure to deliver evidence-based programs and demonstrate program effectiveness. The Ontario Centre of Excellence for…

It has been estimated that approximately 20% of children experience some form of mental health problem, with 14% in the clinical range. Residential mental health treatment is often reserved for those with the most severe presentation of disorder, and intensive home-based alternatives have been developed to cope with increasing demand. The purpose…

There is growing acknowledgement that optimal early childhood development is crucial not only for health, well-being, and competence but also for society at large. This second paper in a series focuses on the period from birth to age 6 and draws on research from Canada and other countries to address several questions of children's development,…

This report examines effects of the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP) for three age groups of children (younger cohort aged 3-5, middle cohort aged 6-11, and older cohort aged 12-18) at the 36-month interview. A companion report on effects of the SSP on adults is available separately. Chapter 1 describes the SSP incentive, project design, and SSP…