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Latinx parent engagement and school readiness

Barajas-Gonzalez, Rita Gabriela; Ursache, Alexandra; Kamboukos, Dimitra; Huang, Keng Yen; Linares Torres, Heliana; Cheng, Sabrina; Olson, Devon; Brotman, Laurie Miller; Dawson-McClure, Spring
Efforts to bolster the school readiness of Latinx children from low-income homes in the United States have focused on fostering parent engagement in children"™s education. Measurement of parent engagement in early childhood however, has been critiqued for having too narrow a focus on school-based involvement and missing other aspects of Latinx parent engagement. Using a recently developed culturally sensitive assessment of Latinx parent engagement, we test for associations between dimensions of Latinx parent engagement in learning and indicators of school readiness in a diverse sample of Latinx families (n = 114). We find significant associations between multiple dimensions of Latinx parent engagement and indicators of child school readiness. In addition to promoting parent-teacher connections, efforts to support Latinx school readiness equitably are encouraged to attend to various culturally relevant aspects of Latinx parent engagement in early childhood. In particular, investing in programing that supports parents"™ well-being and capacity for home-based engagement in learning may be a promising way to support the school readiness of Latinx children living in historically disinvested neighborhoods.
SCOPUS:85185656697
ISSN: 1476-718x
CID: 5700352

BMI Growth Profiles Among Black Children from Immigrant and US-Born Families

Ursache, Alexandra; Rollins, Brandi Y; Chung, Alicia; Dawson-McClure, Spring; Brotman, Laurie Miller
A large body of research has documented racial/ethnic disparities in childhood obesity in the United States (US) but less work has sought to understand differences within racial groups. Longitudinal studies are needed to describe BMI trajectories across development, particularly for Black children from immigrant families who have been underrepresented in childhood obesity research. The current study utilizes BMI data collected longitudinally from ages 5 to 8 years and growth mixture modeling to (1) identify and visualize growth patterns among Black children from primarily Caribbean immigrant families, and (2) to compare these patterns to growth trajectories among Black children from US-born families. First, we identified four classes or trajectories of growth for Black children from immigrant families. The largest trajectory (70% of the sample) maintained non-overweight throughout the study period. A second trajectory developed overweight by age 8 (25%). Two small trajectory groups demonstrated high rates of moderate and severe obesity-i.e., specifically, a trajectory of accelerated weight gain ending in moderate/severe obesity (3%), and a trajectory of early severe obesity with BMI decreasing slightly with age (2%). We identified a very similar four class/trajectory model among Black children from US-born families, and compared the model to the one for children from immigrant families using multi-group growth mixture modeling. We found that the patterns of growth did not differ significantly between the populations, with two notable exceptions. Among Black children from immigrant families, ∼ 5% were classified into the two heavier BMI trajectories, compared to ∼ 11% of children from US-born families. Additionally, among children with an accelerated weight gain trajectory, children from immigrant families had lower BMIs on average at each time point than children from US-born families. These findings describe the multiple trajectories of weight gain among Black children from immigrant families and demonstrate that although these trajectories are largely similar to those of Black children from US-born families, the differences provide some evidence for lower obesity risk among Black children from immigrant families compared to Black children from US-born families. As this study is the first to describe BMI trajectories for Black children from immigrant families across early and middle childhood, future work is needed to replicate these results and to explore differences in heavier weight trajectories between children from immigrant and US-born families.
PMCID:11288770
PMID: 38619674
ISSN: 1557-1920
CID: 5681582

Enhancing immigrant families' mental health through the promotion of structural and community-based support

Kerker, Bonnie D; Barajas-Gonzalez, R Gabriela; Rojas, Natalia M; Norton, Jennifer M; Brotman, Laurie M
Immigrant communities in the United States are diverse and have many assets. Yet, they often experience stressors that can undermine the mental health of residents. To fully promote mental health and well-being among immigrant communities, it is important to emphasize population-level policies and practices that may serve to mitigate stress and prevent mental health disorders. In this paper, we describe the stressors and stress experienced by immigrant families, using Sunset Park, Brooklyn as an example. We discuss ways to build structures and policies in support of equitable environments that promote mental health at the population level and enable families and their children to thrive.
PMCID:11094290
PMID: 38751580
ISSN: 2296-2565
CID: 5656232

ParentCorps: A Collaborative Evidence-Building Strategy

Chapter by: Brotman, Laurie Miller; Gunaratna, Shanika; Lashua-Shriftman, Erin; Dawson-McClure, Spring
in: Next Generation Evidence: Strategies for More Equitable Social Impact by Fitzsimmons, Kelly; Bauer, Tamar[Eds.]
Brookings Institution Press
pp. 180-186
ISBN: 9780815740544
CID: 5751522

Advancing scalability and impacts of a teacher training program for promoting child mental health in Ugandan primary schools: protocol for a hybrid-type II effectiveness-implementation cluster randomized trial

Huang, Keng-Yen; Nakigudde, Janet; Kisakye, Elizabeth Nsamba; Sentongo, Hafsa; Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy A; Tozan, Yesim; Park, Hyung; Brotman, Laurie Miller
BACKGROUND:Children in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) are facing tremendous mental health challenges. Numerous evidence-based interventions (EBIs) have been adapted to LMICs and shown effectiveness in addressing the needs, but most EBIs have not been adopted widely using scalable and sustainable implementation models that leverage and strengthen existing structures. There is a need to apply implementation science methodology to study strategies to effectively scale-up EBIs and sustain the practices in LMICs. Through a cross-sector collaboration, we are carrying out a second-generation investigation of implementation and effectiveness of a school-based mental health EBI, ParentCorps Professional Development (PD), to scale-up and sustain the EBI in Uganda to promote early childhood students' mental health. Our previous studies in Uganda supported that culturally adapted PD resulted in short-term benefits for classrooms, children, and families. However, our previous implementation of PD was relied on mental health professionals (MHPs) to provide PD to teachers. Because of the shortage of MHPs in Uganda, a new scalable implementation model is needed to provide PD at scale. OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:This study tests a new scalable and sustainable PD implementation model and simultaneously studies the effectiveness. This paper describes use of collaboration, task-shifting, and Train-the-Trainer strategies for scaling-up PD, and protocol for studying the effectiveness-implementation of ParentCorps-PD for teachers in urban and rural Ugandan schools. We will examine whether the new scale-up implementation approach will yield anticipated impacts and investigate the underlying effectiveness-implementation mechanisms that contribute to success. In addition, considering the effects of PD on teachers and students will influence by teacher wellness. This study also examines the added value (i.e. impact and costs) of a brief wellness intervention for teachers and students. METHODS:Using a hybrid-type II effectiveness-implementation cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT), we will randomize 36 schools (18 urban and 18 rural) with 540 teachers and nearly 2000 families to one of three conditions: PD + Teacher-Wellness (PDT), PD alone (PD), and Control. Primary effectiveness outcomes are teachers' use of mental health promoting strategies, teacher stress management, and child mental health. The implementation fidelity/quality for the scale-up model will be monitored. Mixed methods will be employed to examine underlying mechanisms of implementation and impact as well as cost-effectiveness. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS:This research will generate important knowledge regarding the value of an EBI in urban and rural communities in a LMIC, and efforts toward supporting teachers to prevent and manage early signs of children's mental health issues as a potentially cost-effective strategy to promote child population mental health in low resource settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION/BACKGROUND:This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number: NCT04383327; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04383327 ) on May13, 2020.
PMCID:9206883
PMID: 35718782
ISSN: 1752-4458
CID: 5281762

A quasi-experimental study of parent and child well-being in families of color in the context of COVID-19 related school closure

Ursache, Alexandra; Barajas-Gonzalez, R Gabriela; Adhikari, Samrachana; Kamboukos, Dimitra; Brotman, Laurie M; Dawson-McClure, Spring
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.
PMCID:8914215
PMID: 35284616
ISSN: 2352-8273
CID: 5190912

Measuring Children's Emotion Knowledge: Steps Toward an Anti-Racist Approach to Early Childhood Assessments [Case Report]

Kamboukos, Dimitra; Ursache, Alexandra; Cheng, Sabrina; Rodriguez, Vanessa; Gelb, Gena; Barajas-Gonzalez, R Gabriela; Dawson-McClure, Spring; Brotman, Laurie M
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.
PMCID:9382994
PMID: 36046093
ISSN: 2662-205x
CID: 5337712

Parental perceived immigration threat and children's mental health, self-regulation and executive functioning in pre-Kindergarten

Barajas-Gonzalez, R Gabriela; Ursache, Alexandra; Kamboukos, Dimitra; Huang, Keng-Yen; Dawson-McClure, Spring; Urcuyo, Anya; Huang, Tiffany June Jay; Brotman, Laurie Miller
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).
PMID: 34968118
ISSN: 1939-0025
CID: 5097842

Silent Expectations: An exploration of women pre-Kindergarten teachers' mental health and wellness during Covid-19 and beyond

Rodriguez, Vanessa; Rojas, Natalia M; Rabadi-Raol, Ayesha; Souto-Manning, Mariana V; Brotman, Laurie M
PMCID:8692129
PMID: 34955598
ISSN: 0885-2006
CID: 5107992

Understanding ParentCorps' essential elements for building adult capacity to support young children's health and development

Chapter by: Dawson-McClure, Spring; Rhule, Dana; Hamer, Kai-ama; Calzada, Esther; Kolawole, Bukky; Mondesir, Michelle; Rosenblatt, Katherine; Brotman, Laurie
in: Family-school partnerships during the early school years: Advancing science to influence practice by Bierman, Karen L [Ed]; Sheridan, Susan M [Ed]
Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG; Switzerland, 2022
pp. 53-72
ISBN: 978-3-030-74616-2
CID: 5381102