Brief
This brief from the Head Start Health Manager Descriptive Study explores family engagement through these research questions: In what ways do Head Start/Early Head Start programs support family engagement in health-related aspects of program services? What are the barriers to family engagement in health-related aspects of program services from the health manager perspective? To what extent do barriers to family engagement differ by program or health manager characteristics and the populations served? What are the implications regarding family engagement for Head Start/Early Head Start health…
Brief
This brief is based on data from 444 rural mothers across 13 states who had low incomes and young children. The data is from the USDA Hatch funded Multi-State Project, “Interactions of Individual, Family, Community, and Policy Contexts on the Mental and Physical Health of Diverse Rural Low Income Families”, known as NC1171 Rural Families Speak about Health. (Author abstract)
Other
This excerpt from the Federal Register presents federal regulatory guidelines for working with federally recognized Indian tribes. It reviews the purpose of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and offers overarching principles for working with federally recognized Indian tribes and guidelines for consultation and communication with tribes, culture and mutual respect, nation-building and effective delivery of human services to Indian communities, coordination and outreach, administrative data management, and sustainability.
Brief
Young men may not be sure which contraceptive method their female partner uses, or may incorrectly assume a female partner is using contraception when she is not. We looked at young men's and women's reports of recent contraceptive use, within heterosexual couples, and found inconsistencies in their reports. (Author abstract)
Brief
As states work to strengthen supports for young children's mental health, often with the goal of reducing the incidence of costly conditions at later ages, they face the question of how to finance new or expanded services. This brief examines states' use of Medicaid as a key source of funding for early childhood mental health (ECMH) services. It presents the results of a 50-state survey that gathered information from state administrators about Medicaid coverage and related policies concerning the following services for children from birth to age 6: child screening for social-emotional…
Other
The six articles in this issue of Focus examine the topic of incarceration, and how it affects prisoners and their families, both during and after imprisonment. This article summarizes a seminar given by Christopher Uggen at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on crime, punishment, and American inequality, where he argued that basing criminal justice policy on the view that all people can be classified either as “bad actors” or “good citizens” is untenable and may lead to over-punishment. (Author abstract modified)
Other
The United States incarcerates more people than any othercountry in the world, and over half of the 2.3 million inmatesare parents of children under age 18. One in 28 children inthe United States has a parent behind bars, and even morewill have an incarcerated parent at some time during theirchildhood. Children with incarcerated parents are morelikely to exhibit trauma symptoms than other children, andthey are at an increased risk of developing problematicoutcomes including behavior problems, substance abuse,academic difficulties, criminal activity, and physical andmental health conditions.…
Other
Nearly one in every 100 adults in the United States is in prison or jail, and an additional one in 50 is under probation or on parole. Extensive research has documented the long and short-term, direct and indirect consequences of this mass incarceration for the imprisoned individual or former inmate, and a quickly growing literature examines potential extended effects of incarceration on families and communities. The number of school-age children in the United States with incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parents was recently estimated at over 32 million, or about one in every 28…
Other
Addressing the scope and depth of harm that high incarceration rates impose on society requires a concerted strategic approach that addresses the full spectrum of causes and consequences of the incarceration crisis. Public health provides a useful frame in shaping this strategic approach, particularly in its conceptualization of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention entails actions to prevent a condition or disease from occurring (for example, a low sodium diet to prevent high blood pressure). Secondary prevention includes interventions that occur after the onset of…
Brief
The federal government created the child support program in the 1970s to secure financial and medical support for children whose parents live separately. Today, the program collects $32 billion per year in child support payments and serves more than 16 million children and families. Still, about 35 percent of child support obligations go unpaid each month. Parents who do not pay often lack the ability to do so, due to unemployment, disability, incarceration, or other (sometimes multiple) barriers. These parents leave a significant amount of child support unpaid, and collecting that support…
