IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v118y2020ics0190740920305405.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pathways to prevention: Early Head Start outcomes in the first three years lead to long-term reductions in child maltreatment

Author

Listed:
  • Green, Beth L.
  • Ayoub, Catherine
  • Bartlett, Jessica Dym
  • Furrer, Carrie
  • Chazan-Cohen, Rachel
  • Buttitta, Katherine
  • Von Ende, Adam
  • Koepp, Andrew
  • Regalbuto, Eric

Abstract

While there is growing evidence that early childhood prevention programs can have positive outcomes for children and families, research has tended to focus on short-term outcomes, with fewer studies of long-term benefits. In addition, evaluations of such programs rarely go beyond the question, “does the program work?” despite numerous calls over the past decade for more research that can help understand how these programs have their effects. Using longitudinal, experimental data from the Early Head Start (EHS) Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP) linked to child welfare agency records for 2794 children, we examined the effectiveness of EHS birth-to-three services in preventing child maltreatment during children’s first 15 years of life. Following this, we assessed whether changes in specific child and family outcomes at ages 2 and 3 acted as mediators for later maltreatment prevention. Results showed that EHS has a long-term impact on the likelihood of child welfare system involvement that is driven by earlier impacts on parenting behaviors, family well-being, and child developmental status. By children’s second birthday, families randomly assigned to participate in EHS had lower family conflict and parenting distress, and more positive parent-child interactions; these impacts, in turn, led to later reductions in the likelihood of children being involved with the child welfare system through age fifteen years. Furthermore, at age three, children in EHS were more attentive and engaged in play with their parents and had higher scores on cognitive development assessments compared to controls; these outcomes were similarly associated with long-term reductions in the likelihood of child maltreatment. These findings suggest that early two-generational programs, like EHS, that are able to successfully decrease family conflict and stress and support positive, emotionally responsive parenting and child development, may reduce the likelihood of abuse and neglect later in life.

Suggested Citation

  • Green, Beth L. & Ayoub, Catherine & Bartlett, Jessica Dym & Furrer, Carrie & Chazan-Cohen, Rachel & Buttitta, Katherine & Von Ende, Adam & Koepp, Andrew & Regalbuto, Eric, 2020. "Pathways to prevention: Early Head Start outcomes in the first three years lead to long-term reductions in child maltreatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:118:y:2020:i:c:s0190740920305405
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740920305405
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105403?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:mpr:mprres:3255 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Green, Beth L. & Ayoub, Catherine & Bartlett, Jessica Dym & Furrer, Carrie & Von Ende, Adam & Chazan-Cohen, Rachel & Klevens, Joanne & Nygren, Peggy, 2015. "It's not as simple as it sounds: Problems and solutions in accessing and using administrative child welfare data for evaluating the impact of early childhood interventions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 40-49.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:7934 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. James Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto & Peter Savelyev, 2013. "Understanding the Mechanisms through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2052-2086, October.
    5. MacKenzie, Michael J. & Kotch, Jonathan B. & Lee, Li-Ching, 2011. "Toward a cumulative ecological risk model for the etiology of child maltreatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1638-1647, September.
    6. Slack, Kristen Shook & Berger, Lawrence M. & DuMont, Kimberly & Yang, Mi-Youn & Kim, Bomi & Ehrhard-Dietzel, Susan & Holl, Jane L., 2011. "Risk and protective factors for child neglect during early childhood: A cross-study comparison," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1354-1363, August.
    7. repec:mpr:mprres:7717 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Green, Beth L. & Ayoub, Catherine & Bartlett, Jessica Dym & Von Ende, Adam & Furrer, Carrie & Chazan-Cohen, Rachel & Vallotton, Claire & Klevens, Joanne, 2014. "The effect of Early Head Start on child welfare system involvement: A first look at longitudinal child maltreatment outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 127-135.
    9. repec:mpr:mprres:3256 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:mpr:mprres:7716 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Richard A. Faldowski & Rachel Chazan-Cohen & John M. Love & Cheri Vogel, 2013. "Design and Methods in the Early Head Start Study," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 723ca5139fc64a09b8bcdda5e, Mathematica Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maguire-Jack, Kathryn & Hardi, Felicia & Stormer, Bri & Lee, Joyce Y. & Feely, Megan & Rostad, Whitney & Ford, Derek C. & Merrick, Melissa T. & Murphy, Catherine A. & Bart. Klika, J., 2022. "Early childhood education and care policies in the U.S. And their impact on family violence," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gubbels, Jeanne & Assink, Mark & Ravesteijn, Bastian & Weeland, Joyce & Chhangur, Rabia R. & Bouwmeester-Landweer, Merian & van den Heijkant, Silvia & van der Put, Claudia E., 2023. "Long-term collateral effects of parent programs on child maltreatment proxies: Can administrative data provide useful insights?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Witte, Susanne, 2020. "Case file analyses in child protection research: Review of methodological challenges and development of a framework," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    3. Schreier, Alayna & McCoy, Kelsey & Flood, Mary Fran & Wilcox, Brian L. & Hansen, David J., 2018. "Understanding perceptions of child maltreatment risk: A qualitative study of Early Head Start home visitors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 416-425.
    4. Mortensen, Jennifer A. & Barnett, Melissa A., 2016. "The role of child care in supporting the emotion regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 73-81.
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6s39gt704s95upu27ma7s3p6q8 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Joseph P. Newhouse, 2021. "An Ounce of Prevention," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 101-118, Spring.
    7. Zvonimir Bašić & Parampreet C. Bindra & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Angelo Romano & Matthias Sutter & Claudia Zoller, 2021. "The Roots of Cooperation," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 097, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    8. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
    9. Hendrik Jürges & Luca Stella & Sameh Hallaq & Alexandra Schwarz, 2022. "Cohort at risk: long-term consequences of conflict for child school achievement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 1-43, January.
    10. Fabian Kosse & Thomas Deckers & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Armin Falk, 2020. "The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(2), pages 434-467.
    11. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Fabian Mierisch & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2023. "Discrimination on the Child Care Market: A Nationwide Field Experiment," Working Papers 225, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    12. Orazio Attanasio & Helen Baker-Henningham & Raquel Bernal & Costas Meghir & Diana Pineda & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2022. "Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 1395-1432.
    13. Kai Hong & Peter A. Savelyev & Kegon T. K. Tan, 2020. "Understanding the Mechanisms Linking College Education with Longevity," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(3), pages 371-400.
    14. Gabriella Conti & James J. Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto, 2016. "The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 28-65, October.
    15. Alzúa, María Laura & Katzkowicz, Noemí, 2021. "Pay for performance for prenatal care and newborn health: Evidence from a developing country," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    16. Adam M. Lavecchia & Philip Oreopoulos & Robert S. Brown, 2020. "Long-Run Effects from Comprehensive Student Support: Evidence from Pathways to Education," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 209-224, June.
    17. Ando, Michihito & Mori, Hiroaki & Yamaguchi, Shintaro, 2022. "Universal early childhood education and adolescent risky behavior," SocArXiv rnkgs, Center for Open Science.
    18. Esteban M. Aucejo & Jonathan James, 2019. "Catching up to girls: Understanding the gender imbalance in educational attainment within race," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 502-525, June.
    19. Hisaki Kono & Yasuyuki Sawada & Abu S. Shonchoy, 2016. "DVD-based Distance-learning Program for University Entrance Exams: Experimental Evidence from Rural Bangladesh," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1027, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    20. Vipul Bhatt & Masao Ogaki & Yuichi Yaguchi, 2017. "Introducing Virtue Ethics into Normative Economics for Models with Endogenous Preferences," RCER Working Papers 600, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    21. Sonia Bhalotra & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson & Nina Schwarz, 2022. "Infant Health, Cognitive Performance, and Earnings: Evidence from Inception of the Welfare State in Sweden," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1138-1156, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:118:y:2020:i:c:s0190740920305405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.