Sep 4, Child Trends: Girls and boys face different developmental challenges throughout childhood and adolescence. Although a number of evidence-based programs have been found to be effective at reducing risk factors for children and adolescents, many programs have differential impacts for girls and boys. Understanding what works for girls and what works for boys is critical to improving youth outcomes. Child Trends’ latest research briefs, What Works for Female Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions, and its companion brief focused on boys, What Works for Male Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions, examine programs and strategies that work, as well as those that don’t, for each gender. These literature reviews consider random assignment studies of interventions targeting males or females, as well as studies of both that include outcome data by gender. Compared to boys, girls tend to report more mental health problems and they are susceptible to reproductive health risks, such as unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Compared with girls, boys tend to be more likely to drop out of school, engage in delinquency, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and act out. They are also less likely than females to go to college.
Link to pdf Research Brief: What Works for Female Children and Adolescents
Link to pdf Research Brief: What Works for Male Children and Adolescents
Tag Archives: research
Developmental Neuroscience, Children’s Relationships with Primary Caregivers, and Child Protection Policy Reform
Hastings Law Journal: Part I of this Article address the state’s relationship with children and families, and the law’s recognition of the centrality of children’s primary caregivers typically their parents to children’s well-being.
Part II critiques certain aspects of our legal system’s predominant response to child maltreatment.
Part III reviews recent research on the effects of child maltreatment, with special attention to developmental neurobiological findings.
Part IV addresses some implications of these findings for child protection policy and sets forth recommendations that are consistent with the empirical research and responsive to the critiques set forth in Part II.
The heavy toll exacted by child maltreatment extends far beyond the individuals who are the direct victims of maltreatment. It is borne by the entire society, “reverberating across relationships, generations, and communities.” If policymakers make the right investments, the combined wisdom gleaned from the efforts of multiple scientific disciplines can pave the pathways to the development of effective preventive and intervention strategies that decrease the risks faced by children and promote children’s resilience in coping with those risks that remain. Link to pdf Law Journal Article
NIH Free Resource Anthology
The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health created a free resource designed to house all current, quality behavioral and social science research. Created with the help of New England Research Institutes, e-Source demonstrates how social science research applies to public health initiatives, trains future scientists, and enhances the biomedical research field.
e-Source consists of five major sections:
Setting the Scene introduces major concepts of behavioral and social science research.
Describing How discusses methodologies to explain how something could occur.
Explaining Why describes using qualitative methods to try to answer the question of why something is happening.
What Works discusses evaluation.
Emerging Issues highlights challenges in behavioral and social science research.
e-Source is available on the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research website:
Quality Improvement Center for Early Childhood (QIC-EC) Learning Network Update
The goal of the QIC-EC Learning Network is to engage a broad and diverse group of professionals in dialogue and information exchange on key issues related to the prevention of child maltreatment. Participants have helped in shaping the Learning Network topics and by providing data via survey during the QIC-EC’s early years. Through the Learning Network, the QIC-EC disseminates cutting-edge information on policy, research, and practice, which influences and informs the work of the Learning Network members and their colleagues. Link to Update
Making the Most of Youth Mentoring: A Guide for Funders
July 1, 2012, issuelab.org: Summarizes key research in the mentoring field, to help funders invest their mentoring resources where they can have the most impact. The resulting brief, Making the Most of Youth Mentoring, outlines:
Tips for determining which organizations have the capacity to implement strong mentoring programs;
Tips for recognizing high-quality mentoring programs; and
Tips for making the most of six common mentoring approaches:
Community-based mentoring,
School-based mentoring,
Group or team mentoring,
Cross-age peer mentoring,
E-mentoring, and
Paid mentoring.
The guide includes basic information about each model’s cost and evidence base, as well as “best practices,” and red flags that should be avoided. Link to Guide
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: NSCAW II Wave 2 Report
2012: US Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. The second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II) is a longitudinal study intended to answer a range of fundamental questions about the functioning, service needs, and service use of children who come in contact with the child welfare system. Wave 2 is a follow-up of children and families approximately 18 months after the close of the NSCAW I index investigation. Data collection for the second wave of the study began in October 2009 and was completed in January 2011.
Link to pdf Report