PPN Newsletter August 2009
Listed below are recent updates to the Promising Practices Network on Children, Families and Communities website (http://www.promisingpractices.net).
WHAT'S NEW
HighScope Perry Preschool Program shows long-term benefits for participants, 37 years after intervention
The HighScope Perry Preschool Program, initiated in 1962 for disadvantaged children with below-average IQ scores, has demonstrated benefits to its participants in early childhood through early adulthood. In a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers examined the impact of the Perry Preschool Program on participants' outcomes at forty years of age. Program participants were more likely to have higher earnings, less likely to be arrested, more likely to have health insurance, and more likely to utilize preventive health services. Interestingly, these improvements in behavioral risk factors did not translate into improvements in the number of medical conditions reported at age forty.
Read the abstract of the American Journal of Public Health article 
Read more about the HighScope Perry Preschool Program
Newly released statistical reports provide data on the well-being of children in the United States
New reports are now available for two landmark efforts to collect and report data on the well-being of children in the United States. The KIDS COUNT Data Book, produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, provides a profile of how children are doing in each state. The book reports on indicators of educational achievement, economic well-being, and health, among others. The book also ranks states on a composite indicator of child wellness, aggregating measures such as infant mortality rate, graduation rates, and children in poverty. According to this aggregate measure, New Hampshire ranks first and Mississippi ranks at the bottom. A new report issued by ChildStats.gov, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2009, describes the population of children in the United States according to 40 indicators of well-being, with a special focus in this issue on children with special health care needs. The study found that 14 percent of children in the United States have a special health care need, defined as a health problem expected to last at least 12 months and which requires prescription medication, special therapies, or which limits his or her ability to do things most children can do.
See the KIDS COUNT overall state rankings at kidscount.org Read the America's Children report at childstats.gov
A new study finds that preschool-aged depression predicts chronic or recurrent depression
A study of 300 preschoolers ages three to six years old found that preschoolers with depression were more likely to have chronic or recurrent depression in childhood, rather than an isolated episode of depression. Results of the study, published recently in the Archives of General Psychiatry, showed that preschoolers who were depressed at the time the study initially started were more likely to be depressed after 12 and 24 months. The study also found, after accounting for demographic variables, that preschool-aged depression and family history of affective disorders were the strongest predictors of depression continuing through childhood. This study demonstrates the importance of identifying depression in children as young as three years of age.
Read the abstract of the Archives of General Psychiatry article
RESEARCH IN BRIEF
Listed below are research summaries that have been added to the PPN site this month.
See all in this area » Healthy and Safe Children
12 Year Nationwide Drop in Tobacco Sales to Minors Continues Under State/Federal Partnership Program
— Aug. 2009
News release at SAMHSA website
Long-Term Effects of Drug Prevention on Risky Sexual Behavior Among Young Adults
— Aug. 2009
Multiple Trajectories of Peer and Parental Influence and Their Association with the Development of Adolescent Heavy Drinking
— Aug. 2009
Prenatal Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and Child IQ at Age 5 Years
— Aug. 2009
Preschool Depression
— Aug. 2009
Recommendations for Blood Lead Screening of Medicaid-Eligible Children Aged 1-5 Years
— Aug. 2009
A School-Based Program to Prevent Adolescent Dating Violence
— Aug. 2009
Sixth Grade Students Who Use Alcohol: Do We Need Primary Prevention Programs for "Tweens"?
— Aug. 2009
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009
— July 2009
Binge Drinking Among Youths and Young Adults in the United States: 1979-2006
— July 2009
Obesity Prevalence Among Low-Income, Preschool-Aged Children in the United States, 1998-2008
— July 2009
Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Youth Who Ever Lived in Foster Care
— July 2009
Fact sheet at National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy website
Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons Aged 10-24 Years in the United States, 2002-2007
— July 2009
Study Shows Childhood Obesity-Related Hospitalizations Almost Doubled
— July 2009
Prevention of Depression in At-Risk Adolescents
— June 2009
Early Childhood Health Promotion and Its Life Course Health Consequences
— May 2009
2009 KIDS COUNT Data: Overall State Rankings
— 2009
See all in this area » Children Ready for School
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009
— July 2009
See all in this area » Children Succeeding in School
Prenatal Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and Child IQ at Age 5 Years
— Aug. 2009
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009
— July 2009
State Test Score Trends Through 2007-08, Part 2: Is There a Plateau Effect in Test Scores?
— July 2009
2009 KIDS COUNT Data: Overall State Rankings
— 2009
See all in this area » Strong Families
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009
— July 2009
Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Youth Who Ever Lived in Foster Care
— July 2009
2009 KIDS COUNT Data: Overall State Rankings
— 2009
ABOUT OUR SUPPORTERS
The Promising Practices Network appreciates the generosity of our supporting organizations:
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The California Wellness Foundation
The Colorado Trust
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Family and Community Trust
Foundation Consortium for California's Children & Youth
Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media, at Saint Vincent College
Georgia Family Connection Partnership
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families (GCYF)
Kansas Action for Children
KidsOhio.org
New York State Office of Children & Family Services
RAND Corporation
The Spencer Foundation
GENERAL INFORMATION
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