Sandra Hofferth

• Measuring Children's Activity in its Social Context
  Current (2004-09-01 - 2007-07-31)
  EKS-NICHD
  Abstract

  Childhood obesity has become a major public health concern. One of the key gaps in understanding childhood obesity is the lack of an accurate assessment of the intensity of children's physical activities in their social context. Although extensive work along these lines has been conducted for adults, little has been conducted for children. In large-scale surveys, social and behavioral scientists collect information on children's participation in socially meaningful categories. But these measures do not capture the intensity of physical activity involved. Exercise physiologists and obesity researchers have developed self-report measures of the type, duration, and intensity of children's physical activity; however, they do not collect information on the social context. The specific aim of this proposed project is to convene a network of scientists conducting research from multiple perspectives, that of social and behavioral science, exercise physiology, and public health and nutrition, to study children's activities. This network would focus upon children of ages not typically studied, those 3-5, as well as those 6-12, and would consider children of diverse ethnic backgrounds. The objectives address the four areas of research design, measurement, data collection techniques, and analytic methods. Our specific aims are: 1) To evaluate the current state of measurement and data collection on physical activity and associated societally meaningful categories of activity, 2) To evaluate how to link the social and behavioral scientific approaches to physical activity and the physiological approaches to determining activity levels and energy expenditures, and 3) To conduct pilot testing to explore how to incorporate such techniques and to determine the cost and effectiveness of recommended methods/equipment for large-scale studies.

• Maintaining Employment: The Impact of Child Care Subsidies
  Current (2006-09-30 - 2007-09-29)
  DHHS /ACF
  Abstract

  Child care subsidies have been shown to affect low-income parents’ propensity to work. However, few researchers have examined the impact of child care subsidies on parents’ ability to maintain employment. The current study uses two datasets to evaluate the impact of child care subsidies on three factors that may affect parents’ ability to maintain a job: child care problems, child care-related work disruptions, and parental dissatisfaction with child care. The first sample for this study comes from forty women in a mid-Atlantic county who were interviewed while on the wait list for a child care subsidy and again eight months later, while receiving a subsidy. The second sample comes from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being study. This study of mother-interview data from follow-up waves one and two will be used to validate the proposed model with a large nationally representative sample of single mothers in urban areas. The conceptual model for this study will be tested through path analysis. Both static and change models using two time periods will be used to test the hypotheses that 1) receiving a child care subsidy lessens parents’ experiences of child care problems, child care-related work disruptions and parents’ desire to switch child care arrangements, and 2) mediating variables (namely, perceived affordability, financial burden of care, and type of care) impact the relationships between child care subsidies and the dependent variables.

• Small Conference on Intergenerational Research Methods
  Pending (2008-05-01 - 2009-04-30)
  Society for Research in Child Development
  

• Family Processes, Intergenerational Learning, and Involved Fathering (part1)
  Current (2005-03-01 - 2010-02-28)
  EKS-NICHD
  Abstract

  The proposed project investigates the contributions of mothering, family interaction, and paternal residence (viewed as three key family processes), and the contributions of the subjective meaning of fatherhood, on men's responsible fathering. These contributions are analyzed both within family generations, and intergenerationally. The project will use data from the Young Adult samples of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the Early Head Start Father component, Fragile Families, the 2002 Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement, and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Our Specific Aims are: 1) To analyze the influence of family interaction, mothering, and father residence on fathering within family generations, with demographic factors controlled. 2) To analyze the influence of generation 1 (G1) fathering, G1 family interaction, G1 mothering, and G1 father residence on generation 2 (G2) fathering, with demographic factors controlled (i.e., influence across family generations, or intergenerational learning). 3) To analyze trajectories of fathering across time within family generations, and how they are influenced family interaction, mothering, and father residence, with demographic factors controlled. 4) To analyze the subjective meaning and patterns of fathering within and across family generations and over time.