Black Families and Children: Wellness and Early Care and Education (Poster 16)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Little is known about links between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s development specifically among Black families. This paper considers (1) the burden of maternal depressive symptoms among Black mothers; (2) links between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s development among Black families and (3) whether ECE may play a compensatory role in links.

Measures of Children’s school readiness and well-being, maternal depressive symptoms, ECE characteristics, and covariates were drawn from a subsample of 1,100[1] Black families from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a nationally representative study of children born in the United States in the year 2001 (Flanagan & West, 2004).

. Analyses include no constant regression analyses across characteristics (e.g., SES, immigrant status); propensity score weighting techniques to consider associations between symptoms and children’s functioning (Imbens, 2000); and moderation analyses to assess the attenuating role of ECE.

Initial analyses suggest differences in levels of depressive symptoms among Black mothers across different characteristics (e.g., Black immigrant mothers reported lower levels of depressive symptoms than their native-born peers). Analyses will consider links with child outcomes and the attenuating role of ECE.

This paper will contribute to the need for research on variability within the Black population as opposed to comparative approaches with racial majority groups. Additionally, results may lead to future ideas for experimental manipulation of impacts through ECE and health services, and may lead to future policy and practice recommendations regarding ECE, coordination across educators and health practitioners, and the well-being of Black families and children.

Author

• Jacqueline Sims, Boston University
  Presenting Author