Expressive Language Delay (ELD) Treatment Program: An Early Intervention for Children with Early Expressive Language Delay

Investigators: Grover J. Whitehurst, PhD & Janet E. Fischel PhD

Specific expressive language delay (ELD) is an early childhood condition characterized by a substantial delay in the child's development of expressive language relative to their receptive language skills and non-verbal intelligence. Young children with ELD are only able to produce a few single words, at an age at which most children are able to produce hundreds of words and a variety of syntactic combinations. The Expressive Language Delay (ELD) Treatment Program is a home- and clinic-based intervention that trains parents of young children diagnosed with ELD, with skills to improve their child's expressive language abilities. The ELD Treatment Program consists of seven 30-minute training sessions, in which parents receive training on seven language therapy skills. Parents are asked to practice each of these skills at-home with their child during the two-week intervals between training sessions. Parent training sessions were conducted on a one-on-one basis at an outpatient pediatric clinic and took place every other week during a three and a half month period. The evaluation of the ELD Treatment Program demonstrated short-term success in helping to improve the expressive vocabulary skills of children diagnosed with ELD. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

FOCUS: Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections and Unwanted Pregnancies among Young Women

Investigators: Cherrie Boyer, Mary-Ann Shafer, Lance Pollack, Kelli Betsinger, Y. Jason Yang, Julius Schachter, Richard Shaffer, Stephanie Brodine, Heidi Kraft

The FOCUS program, a four-session cognitive-behavioral group intervention addressing prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies, was originally delivered to young women US Marine Corps recruits. Following a baseline survey, 2,157 women were randomized into either the experimental group (n=1,062) or the control group (n=1,095). Both groups received interventions of four two-hour sessions. Follow-up surveys were conducted with both groups at approximately four months post-baseline and approximately 14 months post-baseline. The evaluation results revealed that a higher proportion of the control group had a post-intervention STI or unintended pregnancy than the intervention group (Odds Ratio = 1.41, 95% Confidence Interval = 1.01-1.98). Among study participants who had no pre-intervention history of STIs or pregnancy, but who engaged in risky sexual behaviors just before recruit training, the control group was significantly more likely to acquire a post-intervention STI than the intervention group (OR = 2.05, CI = 1.74-4.08). Among study participants who reported not being sexually experienced at baseline, control group participants were significantly more likely to have had multiple sexual partners post-intervention than intervention group participants (OR = 1.87, CI = 1.01-3.47). FOCUS is supported by the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH)'s Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program as an EBI that is medically accurate, age appropriate, and has been proven through rigorous evaluation to prevent teen pregnancy and/or associated sexual risk behaviors. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Family Growth Center: A Community-Based Social Support Program for Teen Mothers and Their Families

Investigators: Richard Solomon & Linda Solomon

The Family Growth Center (FGC) is a comprehensive, community-based family support program designed to reduce repeat pregnancy and school drop-out rates among adolescent mothers. The program aims to provide teen mothers in high-risk neighborhoods with a comprehensive set of educational and support services, offered within family and neighborhood contexts. Young women are recruited for the program by perinatal counselors/coaches when they arrive at participating hospital clinics for prenatal visits. Thereafter, they are offered a range of intervention components, coordinated by FGC Case Managers. Program components include home visits, crisis intervention, bimonthly parenting classes, supervised daycare, transportation services, recreational opportunities, and advocacy and referral services. The evaluated FGC Pilot Program took place in several of Pittsburgh's high-risk urban neighborhoods. Of the 88 first-time mothers recruited for the study, 49 were assigned to the intervention group and 39 to the control group. An attrition group was formed to follow the 25 women (15 intervention, 10 control) who dropped out of the program. Protocol assessment measures were diverse and included interview and questionnaire data and psychosocial and behavioral outcomes of mothers and their children. Researchers found that the proportion of the intervention group mothers who dropped out of school (3/34) was significantly less than the proportion of the control group (12/29), a pattern which held at both Time 1 (two years after recruitment) and Time 2 (three years after recruitment) analysis points. Significant differences were also found in the frequency of repeat pregnancies between the two groups. At Time 1, three repeat pregnancies occurred in the intervention group (less than 10%) versus 11 repeat pregnancies (38%) in the control group (p=0.006). The Time 2 pattern was the same, with a total of 7 repeat pregnancies among the intervention group and 21 within the control group (p=0.020). Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Fee Policies for U.S. Clinics With and Without Title X Funding, 1983-1984

Investigators: Aida Torres

This study includes data on clinic policies regarding patient fees, using as its standard what a clinic would charge a new pill patient for her first visit, plus the cost of a 3 month supply of pills. The respondents are grouped based on whether or not they receive Title X funding, with additional data providing information on how patients' incomes are verified, how fee levels are arrived at, and the number of sites covered by these policies. The survey was conducted from December 1983 to January 1984 using a questionnaire mailed to agencies originally surveyed in 1982 (separately documented as DAAPPP Data Set No. 71-72). A total of 317 out of 543 agencies responded with useful information, and responses were weighted to reflect the distribution of organized providers by type of agency.Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

Fertility and Contraception Among Low-Income Child Abusing and Neglecting Mothers in Baltimore, MD, 1984-1985

Investigators: Susan J. Zuvarin

The purpose of this study was to generate information about the fertility patterns and contracepting behaviors of mothers who personally neglect their children and mothers who either physically abuse or allow someone else to physically abuse their children. Specific objectives were: To describe and compare the fertility patterns--family size, family spacing, age at first birth, number of sires per family, and number of unplanned children--of maltreating and comparable non-maltreating mothers. To describe and compare the contracepting behaviors of maltreating and comparable nonmaltreating mothers. To identify demographic, personal, and social factors associated with family inadequacy by urban, public assistance mothers and to determine if these factors differ by type of maltreatment. To recommend family planning delivery strategies that will assist maltreating mothers and other ineffective contraceptors to more adequately control their fertility.

Field Test of Values and Choices, Search Institute's Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Demonstration Project, 1985-86

Investigators: Michael J. Donahue, Peter L. Benson, and Richard J. Gordon

General AFL goals include emphasis on the importance of family involvement in the delivery of services; promotion of adolescent premarital sexual abstinence; adoption as a positive alternative to early parenting; and comprehensive health, education, and social services designed to help the mother to have a healthy baby and to improve subsequent life prospects for both infant and mother. The AFL Demonstration Program was enacted to provide local communities and institutions with workable models of prevention programs that discourage premarital adolescent sexual relations, and care programs that reduce the negative consequences of adolescent pregnancy. To develop these models, AFL authorized grants for three types of demonstrations: (1) projects which provide "care services" only (e.g., services for the provision of comprehensive services to pregnant adolescents, adolescent parents, and their families); (2) projects which provide "prevention services" only (e.g., services to promote abstinence from adolescent premarital sexual relations); and (3) projects which provide a combination of care and prevention services. The demonstration projects were multi-year projects (3-5 years), renewable annually. As of March 1988, 97 demonstration projects had been funded. Human Sexuality: Values and Choices is a 15-session, values-based, parent-involved, video-assisted school curriculum for seventh and eighth graders. The course is designed and sponsored by Search Institute, a not-for-profit research institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Field test sites were located in public schools in Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Minnesota; and the San Francisco Bay area of California. The curriculum began implementation in 1983 with AFL funding; the field test began in the fall of 1985 and concluded in the spring of 1986. The curriculum's goals were to decrease the intention to engage in intercourse "while I am a teenager," to instill values supporting sexual restraint in adolescence, and to increase the amount of parent-child communication concerning sexuality and its expression. Parents are invited to attend a three-session course introducing them to the curriculum and materials. Seven values were used in the curriculum as a basis for teaching about human relationships in general and sexuality in particular: (1) equality, (2) honesty, (3) respect, (4) responsibility, (5) promise-keeping, (6) self-control, and (7) social justice. A pretest/posttest/delayed posttest design with a control group was employed to assess the effectiveness of the course. A 100-item questionnaire was administered immediately before (September 1985), immediately after (November 1985), and three to four months after completion of the course (March 1986). The questionnaire was administered both to students who took the course and to students in the same school and grade who did not take it. (Control students received the course after the treatment group completed the delayed posttest.) The field test was designed to test the following hypotheses: Course participation would increase support for sexual restraint in adolescence Course participation would decrease belief that boys have stronger or more uncontrollable sex drives than girls Course participation would decrease support for the use of coercion in sexual relations Course participation would increase knowledge of human reproduction Course participation would increase frequency ocfonversations with parents concerning sexuality Course participation would increase belief that intercourse can result in getting a sexually transmitted disease Course participation would increase belief that intercourse can result in pregnancy Course participation would decrease intention to engage in sexual intercourse while a teenager Course participation would have no effect on the students' global attitude toward sexuality. The last hypothesis was included in order to examine whether a course emphasizing abstinence might result in more negative or repressed attitudes toward sexuality. Hypotheses (1) through (5) and hypothesis (9) were tested using scales constructed from two to eight items each, with internal consistencies between .54 and .86. (See Appendix B for information on how these scales are constructed.) Hypotheses (6) and (7) were tested with single items. Hypothesis (8), or behavioral intention to engage in intercourse, was tested using the indices specified by the theory of reasoned action F(tihseh bein model).

First U.S. Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES), 1971-1975

Investigators: National Center for Health Statistics

The first Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES I) was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics to measure the nutritional status and health of the U.S. population aged 1-74 years. For children aged 1-5 years, information on the age of the biological mother at the time of birth of the subject child is available. Thus, it is possible to differentiate children born to teenage mothers from those born to older mothers. The Archive file contains information on all 1-5 year-olds. In addition, data from children aged 6-11 are included in the file to allow comparisons with the second HANES (HANES II; forthcoming in DAAPPP), which will contain data on age of mother for all 1- 11 year-olds, and not just for 1-5 year-olds. The DAAPPP HANES I file includes data merged from the three HANES I public use files that are most relevant to studies of the health consequences for children of teen parents. The file contains all of the following information: demographic background characteristics; height and weight data; data on a series of body and skinfold measurements; results of x- rays of hand and wrist; medical examination results; medical history; and school lunch, milk, and breakfast programs data.Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

Five-digit Zip Codes, 1970, 1980, 1990

Investigators: National Opinion Research Center

ZIP Codes are administrative units established by the United States Postal Service (USPS) for the most efficient distribution of mail, and therefore generally do not respect political or census statistical area boundaries. ZIP Codes usually do not have clearly identifiable boundaries. They often serve a continually changing area; are changed periodically to meet postal requirements, and do not cover all the land area of the United States. ZIP Codes are a possible substitute for "neighborhood" if tract, BNA, and enumeration district are not available. This data set includes socio-economic and demographic data for all ZIP codes in the US. The first data file consists of data from the 1970 Census, and has 11,957 cases and 164 variables. The second covers data from the 1980 Census, and includes 218 variables for 35,610 cases. Thid third data file covers data from the 1990 Census and includes 231 variables for 29,335 cases

Florida-Puerto Rico Study of Adolescent Pregnancy and Neonatal Behavior, 1978

Investigators: Barry M. Lester

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between neonatal behavior and prenatal and perinatal risk factors in infants of adolescent and older mothers in Puerto Rico and Mainland United States. The sample included 303 newborn infants; 156 were examined in Puerto Rico, and 147 in Florida. A follow-up study was conducted with 99 participants in the Puerto Rican infant sample. These follow-up data consisted largely of various measures of infant performance. Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

Focus on Youth (FOY) with ImPACT

Investigators: Bonita Stanton, MD, PhD, Jennifer Galbraith, PhD, Cherri Gardner, MA, Pam Drake, PhD, James Walker, Scott Martin, Teree Jerome, Suzanne Schrag, Sarah Stevens, Charlene Foster, & the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention

Focus on Youth with Informed Parents and Children Together (ImPACT) is an HIV, STD and pregnancy prevention intervention for African-American youth ages 12–15. The intervention was updated from Focus on Kids, a community-university linked research and intervention program. The goal of Focus on Youth with ImPACT is to reduce the risk of HIV infection among youth. The researchers, led by principle investigator Bonita Stanton, M.D., worked with community members from recreation centers, housing developments, schools and government agencies in settings throughout the U.S. to reach this goal. The evaluation of the combined Focus on Kids and ImPACT interventions met the necessary criteria for the interventions identified as interventions with best evidence of efficacy by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis (PRS) Project. Focus on Kids alone was identified as an intervention with promising evidence. This Focus on Youth with ImPACT edition provides updated information and more tools to facilitate implementation and increase the relevance of the program for African-American youth between ages 12 and 15 who are at risk for HIV infection. ImPACT is a 90-minute HIV prevention program for parents of African-American adolescents used in combination with Focus on Youth. ImPACT is delivered to parents/guardians and youth, one family at a time, by a health educator. It consists of basic HIV information, a culturally appropriate video documentary that stresses parental monitoring and communication, a discussion with the health educator, two guided roleplays, a parent/guardian resource guide, and a condom demonstration. It was guided by parental monitoring theory and theory of parenting (passive, authoritarian and authoritative).