HeadStart Project
Natural experiments of the effects of Head Start show that Head Start causes better health, educational, and economic outcomes over the long term as a consequence of participation, though the effect sizes are smaller than those from the model programs.
The effect of Head Start extends to noncognitive skills and persists into how participants parent their children: overall and particularly among African American participants, we find that Head Start also causes social, emotional, and behavioral development that becomes evident in adulthood measures of self-control, self-esteem, and positive parenting practices.
The children of those who were exposed to Head Start saw reduced teen pregnancy and criminal engagement and increased educational attainment.
Kauai Longitudinal Study
There were a percentage of children in their sample that faced very adverse conditions as they grew: perinatal stress, chronic poverty, parents who had not graduated from high school, and family environments that were engulfed in the chronic discord of parental alcoholism or mental illness. Many of these children developed serious problems of their own by age 10. However, to the researchers’ surprise, about one-third of the children in adverse situations did very well in their lives. Werner and Smith called them the “vulnerable, but invincible.”
How did these people thrive in spite of their early circumstances? Although surrounded by potentially debilitating “risk factors,” the part of the cohort that showed the most resiliency were those who had access to buffering elements known as “protective factors.” Werner and Smith’s decades-long study showed that, although an innate capacity for resiliency helps, it is never too late to develop protective factors to bounce back from adversity.
The most common protective factors and how they can be nurtured and grown even in adulthood.
- Reasoning Ability: Being able to problem-solve helped children increase confidence and plan for the future.
- Emotional support outside of the family: Resilient people have at least one friend and a network of supportive people available when they encounter a crisis.
- Inner direction (internal locus of control): The belief that one can impact her own destiny and that events result primarily from her own behavior and actions. Children with a high internal locus of control were achievement-oriented and assertive.
- Autonomy: Being able to accomplish tasks alone.
- Sociability: Skills to elicit positive attention from others and to respond to others in socially acceptable ways.
- High expectations/positive view of the future: Despite the negative issues in their lives, resilient children still could see a positive future for themselves. It also helped when significant adults such as teachers, club leaders, or a Big Brother/Big Sister held high expectations for the child.
- Seizing opportunities: The people in the Kauai sample who started to do better once they were out of their teen years did so mainly due to taking advantages of opportunities that were opening up to them such as higher education, good jobs, and stable life partnerships.
Abecedarian Project
Control group & K2 group & Preschool group & K2 group + Preschool group
The most vulnerable children , the most impowerment/benefited.
The children benefited the most had mothers IQ’s below 70.
Children who went to preschool and kindergarten benefited more than those who just went to kindergarten.
After 10 years, group which attended only kindergarten ( not preschool) were not practically benefited. However, K2+ preschool group and preschool only group were better. (Which means that 2 years of intervention is not effective enough, first 5 years of life is important for long term effectiveness.)
Not just kids, but mothers benefited too. Teenage mothers continued schooling.
Preschool intervention reduced the incidence of delayed cognitive development during the preschool years.
Timing is more important than duration. After 0-5 years, even if you offer an intense intervention, it is not as effective.
Follow up results: Overall, the findings provide strong evidence for educational benefits, mixed evidence for economic benefits, and little evidence for treatment-related social adjustment outcomes.
Perry Preschool Project – HighScope
The children of treated participants have fewer school suspensions, higher levels of education and employment, and lower levels of participation in crime, compared with the children of untreated participants.
Impacts are especially pronounced for the children of male participants. These treatment effects are associated with improved childhood home environments.
The intergenerational effects arise despite the fact that families of treated subjects live in similar or worse neighborhoods than the control families.
We also find substantial positive effects of the Perry program on the siblings of participants who did not directly participate in the program, especially for male siblings.
The Rochester Study
The number of risk factors was the predeterminal of outcome within each socioeconomic level, not the socioeconomic level itself.
The same outcomes were the result of different combination of risk factors.
The Philadelphia Study
Not only the family but also peer group, neighborhood and community
The max effect of cummulative risk was on Psychological Adjustment and Academic Performance with smaller relations to the Self Competence and Activity Involvement.
The Strongest effect was for Academic Performance.
The weakest effect was for Activity Involvement.
Promotive Factors, NOT protective factors
Effects of poverty vs effects of single parent: When we controlled the number of risk factors in each family, difference in effects on child competence disappeared.
Makaleskop 