Description & Citation--Study No. 21640

These data were collected for the initial phase of the evaluation of the Children's Futures initiative, a comprehensive set of interventions aimed at improving child health and development outcomes from prenatal to age three in Trenton, New Jersey. To that end, the initiative worked to (1) improve access to prenatal care and strengthen effective parenting, (2) improve the quality of child care, and (3) strengthen and sustain positive involvement of fathers in their children's lives. As part of the evaluation, a baseline community survey and surveys of childcare providers were conducted and births records were obtained from the New Jersey State Department of Health.

Extracted from New Jersey vital events public-use data files, Datasets 1-3 contain information on births during 2001-2004 to women in Trenton and, for comparison, two New Jersey cities not covered by the intervention, Camden and Newark. The birth records data include sex, birth order, birth weight, gestational age, one-minute and five-minute APGAR scores, month of pregnancy when prenatal care began, number of prenatal visits, weight gained during pregnancy, medical risk factors for the pregnancy, obstetric procedures performed, delivery complications, congenital anomalies and abnormalities, mother's marital status and number of live births now living, and the parents' age, race, Hispanic origin, state/country of birth, and education.

Dataset 4 contains data from the baseline community survey, which in 2002 interviewed the primary caregivers of children aged 0-5 in Trenton households. The survey collected information about child and parental health, parenting practices, fathers' involvement in their children's lives, health insurance and health care utilization, attendance at parenting groups or classes, and utilization of child care. Additional information collected by the baseline survey includes United States nativity, year of immigration, race, Hispanic origin, education, employment status, alcohol use, illicit drug use, earnings, and household income.

Datasets 5-7 contain data from the childcare provider surveys conducted in 2003, 2004, and 2005, which collected information about the teachers and childcare providers in the Trenton childcare centers that were participating in Children's Futures. Respondents were questioned about their work experience, age, race, place of residence (ZIP code), education, credentials, position held and hours worked, languages spoken, salary/hourly rate for the job at the center, childcare training and practices, opinions about center staffing levels, and beliefs about how to help infants and toddlers learn and grow. In addition, the respondents were asked how prepared they were to work with infants or toddlers with certain conditions such as emotional disturbances, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), fetal alcohol syndrome, asthma, severe allergies, and developmental delays.

Trenton, New Jersey Birth Records, 2001-2004: births to women who resided in Trenton during 2001-2004.

Camden, New Jersey Birth Records, 2001-2004: births to women who resided in Camden during 2001-2004.

Newark, New Jersey Birth Records, 2001-2004: births to women who resided in Newark during 2001-2004.

Trenton, New Jersey Baseline Community Survey, 2002: primary caregivers of children aged 0-5 in Trenton households in 2002.

Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Survey, 2003: teachers and childcare providers at the child care centers participating in Children's Futures in the Spring of 2003.

Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Survey, 2004: teachers and childcare providers at the child care centers participating in Children's Futures in the Spring of 2004.

Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Survey, 2005: teachers and childcare providers at the child care centers participating in Children's Futures in the Spring of 2005.

The birth records data (Datasets 1-3) cover all births to women in Trenton, Camden, and Newark during 2001-2004.

The Trenton, New Jersey Baseline Community Survey was administered to a random sample of households with telephones during October-December 2002. Eligible parents and/or guardians in Trenton were sampled from two distinct lists--one that was screened for households with at least one child aged five or less, and a larger list of Trenton households that was not screened for eligibility. One-hundred fifty-nine completed English language interviews were obtained from the 751 households that were dialed from the screened list. Once the screened list was exhausted, households in the unscreened list were contacted. In total, 7,677 telephone numbers were dialed from the unscreened list, resulting in 340 completed English language interviews. Additionally, 580 cases from the screened and unscreened lists were identified as requiring a Spanish interviewer. Of these, 127 resulted in a completed Spanish interview. Finally, staff from the Children's Futures initiative posted flyers at city community and health care centers, which described the study and provided a toll-free number to participate in the survey. A total of 28 interviews were completed with respondents who called into the toll-free line.

The Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Surveys attempted to interview all teachers and childcare providers at the centers involved with Children's Futures. The response rates were 53 percent in 2003, 74 percent in 2004, and 65 percent in 2005.

• DS1: Trenton, New Jersey Birth Records, 2001-2004
• DS2: Camden, New Jersey Birth Records, 2001-2004
• DS3: Newark, New Jersey Birth Records, 2001-2004
• DS4: Trenton, New Jersey Baseline Community Survey, 2002
• DS5: Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Survey, 2003
• DS6: Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Survey, 2004
• DS7: Trenton, New Jersey Childcare Provider Survey, 2005