Social Capital and Children's Development: An Experimental Study

社会资本与儿童发展：实验研究

• 批准号: 8127702
• 负责人: Adam Gamoran
• 金额: $ 73.86万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-07 至 2013-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8127702
• 关键词: Absenteeism; Accounting; Address; Affect; African American; Behavioral; Child; Child Development; Cognitive; Competence; Control Groups; Country; Data; Development; Dimensions; Disadvantaged; Ecology; Economics; Experimental Designs; Family; Goals; Individual; Inequality; Intervention; Interview; Latino; Low income; Mathematics; Measures; Modeling; Outcome; Parents; Performance; Population; Price; Problem behavior; Process; Psychology; Public Health; Randomized; Reading; Records; Research; Research Design; Role; Schools; Science; Social Controls; Social Development; Social Network; Social Problems; Social support; Sociology; Statistical Models; Students; Surveys; System; Target Populations; Testing; Trust; Variant; after-school program; boys; design; evidence base; expectation; experience; first grade; follow-up; girls; insight; intervention effect; intervention program; member; multilevel analysis; programs; randomized trial; research study; social; social capital; social skills; teacher; therapy design; third grade

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research will test the causal effects of social capital on levels and inequalities of children's social and cognitive development during the early elementary years. Social capital here refers to trust and shared expectations embedded in social networks of parents, teachers, and children. For young children, social capital operates primarily through their relationships with their parents, enhancing development through mechanisms of social support and social control. Children from low-income Latino families are a special focus of the study. The research design is experimental: social capital will be manipulated through a well-tested intervention Families and Schools Together (FAST) that will enhance the social capital among parents, teachers, and children through an intensive after-school program and a 2-year follow-up program. The study will include 52 schools in Milwaukee and San Antonio (about 208 teachers and 3,120 first graders and their families), with half the schools randomly selected for the intervention and half serving as controls. The experimental design will permit a strong test of the causal role of social capital. The project will also involve an implementation study intended to illuminate the processes by which social capital is generated and affects child development. The proposed research is interdisciplinary, drawing on sociology, psychology, and economics,and it reflects an ecological perspective that crosses boundaries between families and schools. The study thus responds to the call for research on the Science and Ecology of Early Development. Key aspects of child development will be assessed, including (a) social skills and problem behavior from standardized behavioral ratings by parents; (b) the latter plus academic competence as rated by teachers; and (c) grade retention, attendance rates, and third-grade reading and mathematics scores from school records. Social capital will be measured with repeated surveys of teachers and parents that address the extent of social networks, parent involvement, trust, and shared expectations among parents, between parents and schools, and between parents and children. Data will be analyzed with multilevel statistical models that take account of variation at the individual and school levels of analysis.RELEVANCE. Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, and among the most disadvantaged. Latino families often perceive a sense of distance from the school system, which can create barriers to their children's academic and social development, important dimensions of public health. This study will yield practical as well as scientific insights into the value of increased social capital for development of children among a variety of demographic groups, and particularly those from low-income Latino families.

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究将检验社会资本对小学早期儿童社会和认知发展水平和不平等的因果影响。这里的社会资本是指嵌入父母，老师和孩子的社交网络中的信任和分享期望。对于幼儿，社会资本主要是通过与父母的关系来运作的，从而通过社会支持和社会控制的机制来增强发展。来自低收入拉丁裔家庭的儿童是这项研究的特别重点。研究设计是实验性的：社会资本将通过经过良好测试的干预家庭和学校（快速）来操纵，这将通过一项密集的课后计划和2年的随访计划来增强父母，教师和儿童之间的社会资本。这项研究将包括密尔沃基和圣安东尼奥的52所学校（约208名教师和3,120名一年级学生及其家人），其中一半的学校随机选择进行干预，一半用作对照。实验设计将允许对社会资本的因果作用进行深入测试。该项目还将涉及一项旨在阐明产生社会资本并影响儿童发展的过程的实施研究。拟议的研究是跨学科的，借鉴了社会学，心理学和经济学，它反映了一种生态学观点，该观点跨越了家庭与学校之间的界限。因此，该研究回应了对早期发展科学和生态学研究的呼吁。将评估儿童成长的关键方面，包括（a）父母标准化行为评级的社交技能和问题行为； （b）后者加上教师评级的学术能力； （c）从学校记录中的年级保留率，出勤率以及三年级阅读和数学得分。社会资本将通过对教师和父母的一再调查来衡量，这些调查应对社交网络，父母的参与，信任和父母，父母和学校之间以及父母和孩子之间的共同期望的范围。数据将通过多级统计模型分析，这些模型考虑了分析的个体和学校级别的差异。拉丁美洲人是美国人口中增长最快的部分，也是最弱势的人群。拉丁裔家庭经常感知到与学校系统的距离感，这可以为孩子的学术和社会发展，重要的公共卫生方面造成障碍。这项研究将产生实际和科学见解，以了解社会资本增加对各种人口群体中儿童发展的价值，尤其是来自低收入拉丁裔家庭的人群。