Faculty Bibliography

Our study examines the acceptability and feasibility of Moshi, an audio-based mobile application, among children 3-8 years old using a parent-child dyadic approach. Our 10-day within-subject pre-post study design consisted of five nights of a normal bedtime routine and a subsequent five nights exposed to one story on the Moshi application during the intervention. Each five-night period spanned three weeknights and two weekend nights. The Short-Form Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (SF-CSHQ) was used to measure children's sleep at baseline and post-intervention. The PROMIS, Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to assess parents' sleep. Among the 25 child-parent dyads, the mean child age was 4 (SD = 1.23) and 63% were male (n = 15). Mean parent age was 35 (SD = 5.83), 84% were female (n = 21), and 48.0% were Black (n = 12). For child-only comparisons, mean post-SF-CSHQ measures were lower compared to baseline. A trend in parent sleep is reported. This study shows the potential of an audio-based mobile sleep aid to improve sleep health in a racially diverse parent and child dyad sample.

Families of color living in historically disinvested neighborhoods face a multitude of health disparities which have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and the resulting strategies to mitigate its transmission. School closure, which occurred with little warning and few, if any, resources for preparation, disrupted multiple aspects of families' lives; these disruptions are anticipated to adversely impact mental health and well-being. The current study aims to advance understanding of the experiences of families of young children of color during the pandemic by utilizing a natural experiment design to test impact on child and parent mental health and sleep in the context of COVID-19 related school closure among families in historically disinvested neighborhoods. Data from this study come from an ongoing study of 281 families of color enrolled in 41 pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs in neighborhoods across New York City (NYC). In NYC, school closure occurred on March 16, 2020, during a data collection period involving phone surveys with parents; the quasi-experimental design allows for comparison of the 198 families who had completed the survey prior to March 16, and the 83 families who completed the survey after March 16, using identical protocols and procedures. Results demonstrate poorer mental health among parents surveyed after school closure as compared to before school closure. No differences were found for parent sleep, child mental health, or child sleep. Implications of this work highlight the need for structural and systemic supports for families faced with compounding stressors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closure.

Emotion knowledge (EK) is a malleable set of skills that is central to social interactions and school success during early childhood. The current study describes an anti-racist approach to adapting an EK measure that assesses knowledge of facial expressions to be ecologically valid for young children of color attending pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) programs in a large urban school district. This approach involved (1) attending to race/ethnicity in selection of visual stimuli, (2) ensuring appropriate translation and language for administration, and (3) exploring the functioning of the measure within a racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse group of children. A total of 235 children (67.4% Latinx, 14.1% non-Latinx Black, 7.1% non-Latinx White, 7.8% Asian, 3.6% another racial/ethnicity) were assessed in English (74%) or Spanish (26%) during the fall of pre-K (mean age = 4.4). Both English and Spanish versions appear to have similar reliability, although accuracy levels were lower when administered in Spanish. No differences in mean accuracy scores were found across racial/ethnic groups or for boys versus girls. This study contributes to the growing literature necessary to advance anti-racist research in affective science.

Many children in immigrant households endure unique stressors shaped by national, state, and local immigration policies and enforcement activity in the United States. Qualitative studies find that during times of heightened immigration enforcement, children as young as 3 years of age show signs of behavioral distress related to national anti-immigrant sentiment and the possibility of losing a parent. Using multiple sources of data from 168 racially and ethnically diverse families of children in pre-Kindergarten, the present study examined variability in perceived levels of immigration enforcement threat by parental immigrant status and ethnicity. This study examined associations between immigration enforcement threat and child mental health, self-regulation, and executive functioning and whether parent immigrant status or child gender moderates these associations. We found substantial variability in perceived immigration threat, with immigrant parents and Latinx parents reporting significantly greater levels of immigration threat compared to nonimmigrant parents and non-Latinx parents. Immigration enforcement threat was associated with greater child separation anxiety and overanxious behaviors, and lower self-regulation among boys and girls and among children of immigrant and U.S.-born parents. In contrast to our hypothesis, immigration enforcement threat was associated with higher self-regulation according to independent assessor ratings. Educators and healthcare providers working with young children from immigrant and Latinx households should be aware of the disproportionate stress experienced by immigrant and Latinx families due to a xenophobic sociopolitical climate marked by heightened immigration enforcement threat and racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Children of color are more likely to have poor sleep health than White children, placing them at risk for behavioral problems in the classroom and lower academic performance. Few studies, however, have utilized standardized measures of both classroom behavior and achievement. This study examined whether children's sleep (parent and teacher report) in first grade concurrently related to independent observations of classroom behavior and longitudinally predicted achievement test scores in second grade in a sample of primarily Black (86%) children (n = 572; age = 6.8) living in historically disinvested neighborhoods. Higher teacher-reported child sleepiness was associated with lower adaptive behaviors and higher problem behaviors in the classroom, and predicted lower achievement. Parent-reported bedtime resistance and disordered breathing also predicted lower achievement.

An increasing number of young children nationally participate in preschool education, yet very little is known about the influence of peers' behavioral regulation, such as maintaining focus on a task in the face of distractions and inhibiting a dominant response (attentionimpulse control), and remembering instructions (engagement) on children's motor-cognitive readiness skills (i.e., peer effects). This study determined whether peer effects are present in this earliest sector of schooling. Research has shown that a child's own behavioral regulation is associated with his or her academic outcomes. However, not much is known about how children are affected by classmates with poor behavioural regulation. This study begins to fill the gaps in our understanding of preschool peer effects in the form of peers' behavioral regulation relative to children's motor-cognitive readiness skills. It addresses two research questions: (1) Is the average level and amount of variation of peers' behavioral regulation skills (i.e., engagement and attentionimpulse control) in a classroom associated with growth in children's motor-cognitive readiness outcomes in preschool (motor, content knowledge, and language)? (2) Do these associations differ for children with high and low initial levels of behavioral regulation? The analytic sample is drawn from a cluster (school) randomized controlled trial testing a family-centered, school-based intervention (N=1050 children in 99 classrooms drawn from 10 high-poverty schools). Results indicated that classroom-level peer engagement skills made a unique contribution to children's growth of motor skills during the preschool academic year. Furthermore, children with higher engagement skills at the beginning of the preschool year had higher motor-cognitive readiness skills (motor, content knowledge, and language) at the end of the year when they were in classrooms with peers with high engagement skills. This study extends previous work with older children and indicates that after adjusting for an assortment of demographic, preschool program-related factors, and motor-cognitive readiness at entry into preschool, peers' engagement skills may make a unique contribution to children's motor-cognitive readiness skills during the preschool academic year.

Although prior research suggests that children show rapid change in socioemotional functioning and aggression throughout early childhood, little is known about how these factors may be associated with the development of callous-unemotional (CU) features. This study investigated the parallel development of, and reciprocal relationships between, emotion understanding (EU) and aggression across early childhood, as well as how they play a role in the development of CU features. Parallel latent growth curve modeling was used to examine longitudinal reciprocal relationships between EU and aggression in a sample of 498 primarily Black (i.e., African-American or Afro-Caribbean) preschoolers (49.5% male, 89.2% Black, M_age = 4.1), followed with six waves over a 45-month period from pre-kindergarten through grade 2. CU features were included as a baseline covariate, as well as an outcome, of EU and aggression growth factors. Children with lower levels of EU at age 4 displayed higher linear increases in aggression over time. EU at age 4 had a significant indirect effect on CU features at age 8 via its association with linear increases in aggression. Findings suggest that EU is influential in the early development of aggression, which may in turn influence the development or exacerbation of CU features. Children's EU in early childhood, especially concerning others' distress, may be an important component of preventive intervention efforts for young children at risk for serious antisocial behavior.

Introduction: Child fatigue has been associated with behavioral outcomes, including aggression, hyperactivity, and conduct problems, which may affect academic performance. We explored whether fatigue was associated with external behavioral health outcomes in a predominantly Black (Afro-Caribbean and African-American) student population (90%). Ratings of parent and teacher agreement of child fatigue was evaluated. This analysis was part of a larger research program, which included a cluster randomized controlled trial in ten public elementary schools in historically disinvested neighborhoods.
Method(s): A total of 804 first-graders (7+/- 0.6 years old) participated in the study focused on child self-regulation, mental health achievement, parenting and parent involvement. Externalizing behaviors (i.e., conduct problems, aggression, and hyperactivity) were reported by teachers using the Behavior System for Children (BASC-2). A composite score of teacher-perceived child fatigue was created based on ratings of child fatigue, morning alertness, and falling asleep in class. Parent perception of child fatigue was assessed using the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Regression analysis was conducted to determine the association between teacher's reports of child fatigue and externalizing behavior problems. Cohen's kappa coefficient assessed parent and teacher agreement of child fatigue based on categorical classification of presence of child fatigue.
Result(s): Children who were perceived as fatigued (i.e., tiredness and falling asleep in class) by their teacher were more likely to have a high BASC externalizing composite score (T=60 cut off) (beta = -0.24, p<.001). Cohen's kappa of 0.004 (p<0.05) showed a slight discordance in perception of child fatigue comparing reports from teachers and parents, although results were not significant.
Conclusion(s): Teacher perception of child fatigue was significantly associated with teacher BASC T-score of child externalizing behavior outcomes. Future studies should explore longitudinal relationships between fatigue and mental health

This study tests whether a parenting intervention for families of preschoolers at risk for conduct problems can prevent later risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Ninety-nine preschoolers at familial risk for conduct problems were randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Ten years later, 45 preschoolers and 43 of their siblings completed an assessment of their romantic relationships, including measures of physical and psychological IPV. The study focuses on the 54 females, including targets (n = 27) and siblings (n = 27) who participated in a 10-year follow-up (M age = 16.5, SD = 5.2, range = 10-28). Using an intent-to-treat (ITT) design, multivariate regressions suggest that females from families randomly assigned to intervention in early childhood scored lower than those in the control condition on perceptions of dating violence as normative, beliefs about IPV prevalence, exposure to IPV in their own peer group, and expected sanction behaviors for IPV perpetration and victimization. Findings suggest that early parenting intervention may reduce association of high-risk females with aggressive peers and partners in adolescence.

Background: Partnership, engagement, and collaboration (PEC) are critical factors in dissemination and implementation (D&I) research. Despite a growing recognition that incorporating PEC strategies in D&I research is likely to increase the relevance, feasibility, impacts, and of evidence-based interventions or practices (EBIs, EBPs), conceptual frameworks and methodologies to guide the development and testing of PEC strategies in D&I research are lacking. To address this methodological gap, a review was conducted to summarize what we know, what we think we know, and what we need to know about PEC to inform D&I research. Methods: A cross-field scoping review, drawing upon a broad range of PEC related literature in health, was conducted. Publications reviewed focused on factors influencing PEC, and processes, mechanisms and strategies for promoting effective PEC. The review was conducted separately for three forms of partnerships that are commonly used in D&I research: (1) consumer-provider or patient-implementer partnership; (2) delivery system or implementation team partnership; and (3) sustainment/support or interagency/community partnership. A total of 39 studies, of which 21 were review articles, were selected for an in-depth review. Results: Across three forms of partnerships, four domains (cognitive, interpersonal/affective, behavioral, and contextual domains) were consistently identified as factors and strategies for promoting PEC. Depending on the stage (preparation or execution) and purpose of the partnership (regulating performance or managing maintenance), certain PEC strategies are more or less relevant. Recent developments of PEC frameworks, such as Partnership Stage of Change and multiple dynamic processes, provide more comprehensive conceptual explanations for PEC mechanisms, which can better guide PEC strategies selection and integration in D&I research. Conclusions: This review contributes to D&I knowledge by identifying critical domain factors, processes, or mechanisms, and key strategies for PEC, and offers a multi-level PEC framework for future research to build the evidence base. However, more research is needed to test PEC mechanisms.