Children and Families
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Children and FamiliesInvesting in Our Future: Free Youth Sports Access as a Vehicle for Increasing Positive Identity Development and Reducing Negative Youth-Police Interactions
Participating in organized sports has been shown to promote positive social development, contribute to positive youth development, and increase social emotional learning amongst adolescents. The skills acquired through sports participation have potential life course implications and may give adolescents the skills they need to successfully navigate challenges not only during this developmental period, but also later in life.
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Children and FamiliesHow Federally Assisted Housing Supports Adults and Families with Disabilities: A Study of Reasonable Accommodations and Services
Housing policy is disability policy, particularly for low-income households served by federal housing programs. People with disabilities are overrepresented in federally assisted rental housing, with 407 out of every 1,000 assisted households reporting a disability.
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Children and FamiliesImplementing and Evaluating Structural Interventions in Medicaid to Promote Racial Equity in Pregnancy and Child Health
The burdens of racist policies have produced vastly worse pregnancy and birth outcomes for Black and Native populations relative to White populations in the United States. Because state Medicaid programs are the largest single payer for pregnancy care in the country, changes to Medicaid policies are an important way to implement structural interventions to promote racial equity.
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Children and FamiliesHonoring Indigenous Families: Evaluating the Impact of Nebraska's Indian Child Welfare Act
The removal and placement of Indian children away from their families and communities is a central component of historical trauma. Indian child welfare practice must contend with both the restoration of balance at the level of the individual the family and the community while negotiating with a system which has been an instrument of community disruption in the past. The 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was designed to address the race equity issues in the child welfare system that historically and disproportionately harm Indigenous youth and families.
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Children and FamiliesReducing Black Infant Mortality in Alabama
Infant mortality, defined as the death of a baby after birth up to one year of age, is a national indicator of population-level health. The United States has an average infant mortality rate (IMR) of 6 deaths per 1,000 live births, a rate that is more than 70% higher than other comparable, high-resource nations.
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Children and FamiliesEvaluating "Ban and Replace" Policies for Reduction of Racial Disparities in School Discipline
This research will generate key evidence needed to understand the effects of exclusionary discipline on equitable access to education and potential alternative strategies that address or prevent the behavioral and emotional difficulties that have given rise to exclusion.
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Children and FamiliesIncome Support and Children's Health Trajectories
Approximately 16 percent of children in the U.S. live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, potentially creating negative long-term effects that are experienced over the life-course. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides cash assistance to low-income children with disabilities, expanding family budgets and potentially allowing low-income parents to better protect the health of vulnerable children. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of this policy.
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Children and FamiliesClocking In: Combatting Unstable Schedules for Low-Wage Workers in Oregon
Greater scheduling predictability may reduce parental stress and increase child care stability, job stability, and income. Researchers will use qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the implementation of the Oregon law and analyze the impacts on family and child health outcomes.
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Children and FamiliesIncreasing Pre-Conception and Postpartum Medicaid Coverage
Birth outcomes, including infant mortality and low birth weight, are shockingly poor in the U.S. Researchers will assess whether the ACA increased intended pregnancies, reduced prepregnancy smoking, and affected contraception and birth outcomes among women covered by Medicaid--and whether these changes reduced disparities across racial and ethnic groups.
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Children and FamiliesEffects of the Minimum Wage on Long-Term Child Health and Development
Despite efforts to rigorously analyze various effects of changes to minimum wages, the research community has largely neglected the link to child development. Changes in the minimum wage may have consequences that go far beyond employment and earnings, but there is almost nothing known about these potential effects.
Using data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and other publicly available datasets, the research team will investigate:
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Children and FamiliesDoes Medicaid Expansion Improve Maternal and Infant Health?
Recent media reports have highlighted startling trends in U.S. maternal health with stark differences across racial and ethnic groups. Maternal deaths associated with pregnancy and childbirth are high when compared to other developed countries and have increased substantially over the last two decades.
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Children and FamiliesBuilding Upstream Interventions to Keep Families Together in Hennepin County, MN
Like many communities in the U.S., the Twin Cities metropolitan area has become increasingly vocal around social justice—exposing and documenting local poverty, inequity, and discrimination. Amid this wave, Hennepin County is actively seeking out population health policy opportunities to engage high-risk families and children, with the goal of developing and implementing upstream, cross-sector interventions to preserve unified, healthy families and avoid out of home placements (i.e., foster care).
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