Fathers Empowered to Learn, Lead, and Achieve Success (FELLAS) Program, Essex County, New Jersey, 2021-2025 (ICPSR 39807)
Fathers Empowered to Learn, Lead, and Achieve Success (FELLAS) is a Responsible Fatherhood program, funded by the Office of Family Assistance, and provided by the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health in Northern New Jersey. The program served community-based fathers aged 18 and older who reside in Essex County, New Jersey. To be eligible for the program, fathers must have had at least one child aged 24 or younger. Expectant fathers were eligible. The FELLAS program consisted of three key components:
- Responsible Parenting: Uses 24/7 Dad, an evidence-based, father-focused parenting curriculum designed to enhance parenting skills.
- Healthy Marriage/Relationship Skills: Incorporates Couple Communication I, an evidence-based curriculum that includes home visits to strengthen relationships and marriage dynamics.
- Economic Stability: Provides a comprehensive set of services, including employment assessments, basic technology training, and pre-employment soft skills development.
The core program consisted of 35 hours of intensive workshops, broken down as follows:
- 24 hours of 24/7 Dad group sessions
- 6 hours of economic stability group sessions
- 5 hours of Couple Communication I group sessions
- The program was taught over 15 weeks, two-three hours per week
For the five weeks prior to the start of each cohort, the Father Program Specialists (FPSs) recruited fathers by conducting street outreach throughout Essex County, outreach in-person at childcare centers and schools, outreach and marketing to local partners requesting referrals to the program. They also encouraged fathers who had previously completed the program to assist with word-of-mouth marketing. Recruitment was also facilitated, in part, by The Partnership's extensive experience in the community. Two cohorts were conducted each year. Each FPS facilitated the FELLAS programming for the fathers he recruited and also served as the case manager for these fathers.
Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) Program, United States, 2021-2025 (ICPSR 39722)
The Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) grant programs have been funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and by the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) since 2006. The purpose of these programs is to promote the long-term well-being of children and families by strengthening the family unit and fostering healthy relationships and economic stability.
The Building Usage and Learning with Data in HMRF programs (BUILD HMRF) project supported the fourth cohort of HMRF grant recipients (2020-2025). OFA awarded 113 grants focused on marriage and relationship education and skills-building, responsible parenting, economic stability, and related activities depending on the type of grant awarded. Funded programs provided curriculum-based workshops and individual services to HM adult individuals and couples, HM youth individuals, and RF fathers and couples based on the type of grant awarded. RF fathers were either reentering or in the community.
The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), Public Use, United States, 1998-2024 (ICPSR 31622)
The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS, formerly known as the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study) follows a cohort of nearly 5,000 children born in large, U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000. The study oversampled births to unmarried couples; and, when weighted, the data are representative of births in large U.S. cities at the turn of the century. The FFCWS was originally designed to address four questions of great interest to researchers and policy makers:
- What are the conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents, especially fathers?
- What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents?
- How do children born into these families fare?
- How do policies and environmental conditions affect families and children?
The FFCWS consists of interviews with mothers, fathers, and/or primary caregivers at birth and again when children are ages 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 22. The parent interviews collected information on attitudes, relationships, parenting behavior, demographic characteristics, health (mental and physical), economic and employment status, neighborhood characteristics, and program participation. Beginning at age 9, children were interviewed directly (either during the home visit or on the telephone). The direct child interviews collected data on family relationships, home routines, schools, peers, and physical and mental health, as well as health behaviors.
A collaborative study of the FFCWS, the In-Home Longitudinal Study of Pre-School Aged Children (In-Home Study) collected data from a subset of the FFCWS Core respondents at the Year 3 and 5 follow-ups to ask how parental resources in the form of parental presence or absence, time, and money influence children under the age of 5. The In-Home Study collected information on a variety of domains of the child's environment, including: the physical environment (quality of housing, nutrition and food security, health care, adequacy of clothing and supervision) and parenting (parental discipline, parental attachment, and cognitive stimulation). In addition, the In-Home Study also collected information on several important child outcomes, including anthropometrics, child behaviors, and cognitive ability. This information was collected through interviews with the child's primary caregiver, and direct observation of the child's home environment and the child's interactions with his or her caregiver.
Similar activities were conducted during the Year 9 follow-up. At the Year 15 follow-up, a condensed set of home visit activities were conducted with a subsample of approximately 1,000 teens. Teens who participated in the In-Home Study were also invited to participate in a Sleep Study and were asked to wear an accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days to track their sleep (Sleep Actigraphy Data) and that day's behaviors and mood (Daily Sleep Actigraphy and Diary Survey Data).
An additional collaborative study collected data from the child care provider (Year 3) and teacher (Years 9 and 15) through mail-based surveys. Saliva samples were collected at Year 9 and 15 (Biomarker file and Polygenic Scores). The Study of Adolescent Neural Development (SAND) COVID Study began data collection in May 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It included online surveys with the young adult and their primary caregiver.
The FFCWS began its seventh wave of data collection in October 2020, around the focal child's 22nd birthday. Data collection and interviews continued through January 2024. The Year 22 wave included a young adult (YA) survey with the original focal child and a primary caregiver (PCG) survey. Data were also collected on the children of the original focal child (referred to as Generation 3, or G3).
In 2017, the FFCWS team announced the Fragile Families (FF) Challenge, a collaborative effort in which participants were tasked with using machine learning methods and FFCWS data (Baseline to Year 9) to build a model that would predict six key outcomes at Year 15. Materials used in the FF Challenge have been archived in this collection.
Documentation for these files is available on the FFCWS website under Data and Documentation. For details of updates made to the FFCWS data files, please see the project's Data Alerts page.
Data collection for the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01HD36916, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421, as well as a consortium of private foundations.
Below is the citation for use of the FFCWS data accessed through ICPSR. For information on additional citation requirements when using FFCWS in publications, please refer to this FAQ on the FFCWS project site.
Descriptive Evaluation of Family, Relationships, and Marriage Education Works-Adults (FRAMEWorks) Program, Appalachian Kentucky, 2020-2025 (ICPSR 39685)
The Gateway Community Services Organization (GCSO) FRAMEWorks program utilizes an enhanced ACF-funded curriculum targeting healthy marriage and relationships and economic stability (through financial literacy, job/career advancement, and employment) for individuals in rural Appalachian Kentucky. The FRAMEWorks project offers 15 or more hours of integrated services, including healthy marriage/relationship activities focusing on education and skills to improve relationships, communication, conflict resolution, and problem-solving as well as financial literacy and access to individualized coaching. Optional job/career advancement activities include job readiness workshops and linkages with job training and educational assistance, job search and placement, and job-driven employment.
Adults (aged 18 or older) enrolled in the GCSO FRAMEWorks program agreed to participate in a descriptive program evaluation for which data were collected at program intake (baseline) and 6-months after their participation in the GCSO FRAMEWorks program (follow-up). All individuals who enrolled in the evaluation provided informed consent. Responses from baseline and follow-up were compiled and compared to assess change in relationship skills, economic stability, and mental health distress over time.
Reproducibility package for "Fathers' Military Service and Children's College Attainment" (ICPSR 303003)
This replication package includes data and code to reproduce the results summarized in "Fathers' Military Service and Children's College Attainment," Fomby and van Hissenhoven-Florez, Sociological Science (2026).
HRC_FatherhoodFIRE_20202025 (ICPSR 206883)
Building Bridges and Bonds (B3), 5 U.S. states, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 38159)
The importance of strong and supportive relationships between fathers and children -- and the effects they can have on a child's development -- is well established. Some fathers face personal or societal barriers to positive involvement with their children such as low levels of education, stigma from criminal records, declining wages for low-skilled men, or family instability. Fathers who live apart from their children may be at a particular disadvantage. These obstacles interfere with fathers' capacity to provide financial and emotional support for their children, which is critical to a solid foundation for child well-being. Responsible Fatherhood programs aim to improve the well-being of low-income fathers and their children by addressing these types of barriers.
Since 2006, Responsible Fatherhood programs across the country have received federal funding administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA). These programs aim to promote positive father-child interactions, improve parents' relationship with each other, and build fathers' economic stability. Since their inception, Responsible Fatherhood programs have been evaluated to build evidence and determine their ability to achieve these goals. Past studies have found little evidence that Responsible Fatherhood programs are effective at improving the quality of father/child relationships. The limited evidence of effectiveness of prior programs motivated a search to identify new and innovative approaches.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), with funding from OFA, initiated the Building Bridges and Bonds (B3) study in collaboration with researchers, practitioners, and fathers in an effort to identify and rigorously test new and promising ways to help fathers with low incomes improve relationships with their children and work toward economic stability. The B3 study design added three new program component enhancements to the usual services offered by existing Responsible Fatherhood programs at six program sites, and estimated the impacts of each added component.
- The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Justice Involved Individuals Seeking Employment (CBI-Emp), which works with fathers with recent involvement in the criminal justice system and aims to help them find and keep better jobs by improving coping skills and encouraging positive thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.
- Just Beginning (JB) a parenting intervention that works with fathers and their young children together to improve the quality of father-child interactions.
- The DadTime engagement intervention, a smartphone app that aims to improve fathers' participation in the program by guiding and supporting them in making and following through on plans for attending Just Beginning workshops. It also prompts them to practice skills learned in the parenting intervention.
Parents and Children Together (PACT) Responsible Fatherhood (RF) Study Data Collection, Kansas, Minnesota, and Missouri, 2012-2015 (ICPSR 37673)
Parent and Children Together (PACT) Responsible Fatherhood (RF) project is an examination of the effects of federally funded responsible fatherhood programs. This project was interested in learning about service implications, the needs and experiences of participants, and the effectiveness of these services. To examine how parenting, relationships, socioeconomic status, and well-being are being affected by responsible fatherhood programs.
This dataset is focused on individuals representing a few in the population. The 4 programs that participated in the Responsible Fatherhood study were: Connections to Success in Kansas and Missouri, Fathers' Support Center in Missouri, FATHER Project at Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota, and Urban Ventures in Minnesota.
This data collection covered topics such as parental involvement, parenting skills, relationship status, child engagement, employment, criminal justice involvement, housing stability, and mental well-being. The demographic variables are race, age, monthly income, and education level.
Child Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence and Parent Aggression in Two Generations, United States, 2016-2018 (ICPSR 37185)
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.
The research purpose of this project was to advance the scientific understanding of children's exposure to family violence and children's adjustment. This research examined the prevalence of child exposure to psychological and physical Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and parent-to-child aggression (PCA), proximal associations with child externalizing and internalizing behavior, social and scholastic competence in early childhood and adolescence, and the developmental timing and intergenerational transmission of exposure to IPV and PCA related to child externalizing behavior. The study also looked at child effortful control and positive parenting as risk and protective factors theorized to mediate associations between child exposure to family violence and later child adjustment. Secondary analyses were conducted using a prospective multigenerational data set involving community families from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds that comprise the Three Generational Study.
The study collection includes 3 SPSS (.sav) files. The zip file includes CEV_3GS4_Cooccur_itemsB_12212018.sav (n= 283; 356 variables), CEV_3GS7_Cooccur_itemsB_12212018.sav (n= 184; 341 variables), CEV_OYS5_Cooccur_itemsC_12212018.sav (n= 206; 368 variables).
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Phase I, 1991-1994 [United States] (ICPSR 21940)
The overall purpose of this study was to examine the influence of variations in early childcare histories on the psychological development of infants and toddlers from a variety of family backgrounds. This general objective was addressed through a prospective, longitudinal study of the experiences of 1,364 children and their families, which took into account the complex interactions among child characteristics and those of the human and physical environments in which the children were reared.
Research GoalsThe specific research aims were as follows:
Examining the relationship between infants' childcare arrangements (defined in terms of hours, type, quality, and stability of care and the age at which the child entered care) and children's concurrent and long-term development. Specifically, the study investigated the association between children's experiences in childcare and their social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. The social-emotional assessments included measures of attachment, independence, compliance, behavior problems, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and general competence in interacting with peers. Cognitive variables include general developmental level and problem solving skills. Language assessments incorporated measures of children's expressive and receptive communicative competence.
Examining whether the social ecology of the home moderates the effects of childcare, i.e., whether children from different home environments are differentially affected by similar childcare experiences. The study examined the moderating effects of parents' values and attitudes, psychological adjustment and mental health, stress and social support, child-rearing practices, time use, interactions with the child, the marital relationship, and family demographics.
Examining whether individual differences among children moderate the effects of infant care on child development. The study examined the moderating effects of such child characteristics as age, sex, health, birth order, and temperament.
Identify demographic and family characteristics associated with families' childcare decisions. The study examined whether specific childcare arrangements are related to the parents' social class, marital status, psychological adjustment and personality, child-rearing values and attitudes, parenting practices, stress, social support, marital relationship, and the availability of childcare in the community.
Provide a natural history of infant care in the 1990s, and help establish a baseline of data pertaining to the kinds of care being used by families. Whereas other national databases, such as those provided by the United States Census Bureau, provide static estimates of the number of children in different types of childcare, this network study supplements that knowledge with longitudinal data on successive enrollments into day care at various ages, patterns of arrangements used concurrently and over time, and the stability of arrangements during the first three years of life. One of the most valuable aspects of the collaborative study is the opportunity it provides to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of patterns of infant care used by families today. Census surveys use only gross categories of care (e.g., center vs. in-home). In this study, more fine-grained information regarding the types of centers and home-care facilities was gathered.
Examine the consequences for families of maternal employment and childcare choices. Family relationships, parental mental health, family stress, and so on, are not just inputs to child development or moderators of childcare effects, they are also outcomes. High-quality childcare may alleviate family stress and enhance parental adjustment. Low-quality childcare may add to the stress parents experience. Although the main focus in the study was on the effect of childcare on the child, the study also examined the effect of childcare on the family.
Identify demographic characteristics of childcare associated with childcare quality. Of interest to policy makers is another aspect of the study, the investigation of those regulatory characteristics that predict care of higher quality. These characteristics included the level and type of caregiver training, the size of the childcare group, the auspices of the childcare program (public/private, profit/nonprofit, independent/chain, employer-sponsored/church-based), whether the facility was licensed or unlicensed, the level of payment and fees, and whether the caregiver was a relative of the family.
309 data files were compiled for this study and are organized into 3 main groups:
Analytical Data Sets (ADS) -- The raw data were examined and composites defined by small groups of individual principal investigators according to the demographic, family, childcare, and child outcome content of the data. The psychometric and distributional qualities of the variables, along with site differences, were examined. A set of variables that were psychometrically and distributionally acceptable to be used in analytic analyses was designed to test the study hypotheses. These data files comprise Parts 1-42 of the study data material.
Supplemental Data Sets -- New and revised analysis variables as well as across-time mean scores and primary composites were produced as a supplement to the original Analytical Datasets. These data files comprise Parts 43-55 of the study data material.
Raw Data Sets -- The raw data were made available and comprise Parts 56-309 of the study data material.
A three-day summer training workshop on the SECCYD was put on by NICHD at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010. The binder from that workshop, which includes the Powerpoint slides used during presentations, are freely available to the public as part of the study documentation.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Phase II, 1995-1999 [United States] (ICPSR 21941)
The overall purpose of this study was to examine the influence of variations in early childcare histories on the psychological development of infants and toddlers from a variety of family backgrounds. This general objective was addressed through a prospective, longitudinal study of the experiences of 1,364 children and their families, which took into account the complex interactions among child characteristics and those of the human and physical environments in which the children were reared.
Research GoalsThe specific research aims were as follows:
Examining the relationship between infants' childcare arrangements (defined in terms of hours, type, quality, and stability of care and the age at which the child entered care) and children's concurrent and long-term development. Specifically, the study investigated the association between children's experiences in childcare and their social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. The social-emotional assessments included measures of attachment, independence, compliance, behavior problems, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and general competence in interacting with peers. Cognitive variables include general developmental level and problem solving skills. Language assessments incorporated measures of children's expressive and receptive communicative competence.
Examining whether the social ecology of the home moderates the effects of childcare, i.e., whether children from different home environments are differentially affected by similar childcare experiences. The study examined the moderating effects of parents' values and attitudes, psychological adjustment and mental health, stress and social support, child-rearing practices, time use, interactions with the child, the marital relationship, and family demographics.
Examining whether individual differences among children moderate the effects of infant care on child development. The study examined the moderating effects of such child characteristics as age, sex, health, birth order, and temperament.
Identify demographic and family characteristics associated with families' childcare decisions. The study examined whether specific childcare arrangements are related to the parents' social class, marital status, psychological adjustment and personality, child-rearing values and attitudes, parenting practices, stress, social support, marital relationship, and the availability of childcare in the community.
Provide a natural history of infant care in the 1990s, and help establish a baseline of data pertaining to the kinds of care being used by families. Whereas other national databases, such as those provided by the United States Census Bureau, provide static estimates of the number of children in different types of childcare, this network study supplements that knowledge with longitudinal data on successive enrollments into day care at various ages, patterns of arrangements used concurrently and over time, and the stability of arrangements during the first three years of life. One of the most valuable aspects of the collaborative study is the opportunity it provides to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of patterns of infant care used by families today. Census surveys use only gross categories of care (e.g., center vs. in-home). In this study, more fine-grained information regarding the types of centers and home-care facilities was gathered.
Examine the consequences for families of maternal employment and childcare choices. Family relationships, parental mental health, family stress, and so on, are not just inputs to child development or moderators of childcare effects, they are also outcomes. High-quality childcare may alleviate family stress and enhance parental adjustment. Low-quality childcare may add to the stress parents experience. Although the main focus in the study was on the effect of childcare on the child, the study also examined the effect of childcare on the family.
Identify demographic characteristics of childcare associated with childcare quality. Of interest to policy makers is another aspect of the study, the investigation of those regulatory characteristics that predict care of higher quality. These characteristics included the level and type of caregiver training, the size of the childcare group, the auspices of the childcare program (public/private, profit/nonprofit, independent/chain, employer-sponsored/church-based), whether the facility was licensed or unlicensed, the level of payment and fees, and whether the caregiver was a relative of the family.
193 data files were compiled for this study and are organized into 3 main groups:
Analytical Data Sets (ADS) -- The raw data were examined and composites defined by small groups of individual principal investigators according to the demographic, family, childcare, and child outcome content of the data. The psychometric and distributional qualities of the variables along with site differences were examined. A set of variables that was psychometrically and distributionally acceptable to be used in analytic analyses was designed to test the study hypotheses. These data files comprise Parts 1-24 of the study data material.
Supplemental Data Sets -- New and revised analysis variables as well as across-time mean scores and primary composites were produced as a supplement to the original Analytical Data Sets. These data files comprise Parts 25-27 of the study data material.
Raw Data Sets -- The raw data were made available and comprise Parts 28-193 of the study data material.
A three-day summer training workshop on the SECCYD was put on by NICHD at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010. The binder from that workshop, which includes the Powerpoint slides used during presentations, are freely available to the public as part of the study documentation.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Phase III, 2000-2004 [United States] (ICPSR 21942)
The overall purpose of this study was to examine the influence of variations in early childcare histories on the psychological development of infants and toddlers from a variety of family backgrounds. This general objective was addressed through a prospective, longitudinal study of the experiences of 1,364 children and their families, which took into account the complex interactions among child characteristics and those of the human and physical environments in which the children were reared.
Research GoalsThe specific research aims were as follows:
Examining the relationship between infants' childcare arrangements (defined in terms of hours, type, quality, and stability of care and the age at which the child entered care) and children's concurrent and long-term development. Specifically, the study investigated the association between children's experiences in childcare and their social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. The social-emotional assessments included measures of attachment, independence, compliance, behavior problems, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and general competence in interacting with peers. Cognitive variables include general developmental level and problem solving skills. Language assessments incorporated measures of children's expressive and receptive communicative competence.
Examining whether the social ecology of the home moderates the effects of childcare, i.e., whether children from different home environments are differentially affected by similar childcare experiences. The study examined the moderating effects of parents' values and attitudes, psychological adjustment and mental health, stress and social support, child-rearing practices, time use, interactions with the child, the marital relationship, and family demographics.
Examining whether individual differences among children moderate the effects of infant care on child development. The study examined the moderating effects of such child characteristics as age, sex, health, birth order, and temperament.
Identify demographic and family characteristics associated with families' childcare decisions. The study examined whether specific childcare arrangements are related to the parents' social class, marital status, psychological adjustment and personality, child-rearing values and attitudes, parenting practices, stress, social support, marital relationship, and the availability of childcare in the community.
Provide a natural history of infant care in the 1990s, and help establish a baseline of data pertaining to the kinds of care being used by families. Whereas other national databases, such as those provided by the United States Census Bureau, provide static estimates of the number of children in different types of childcare, this network study supplements that knowledge with longitudinal data on successive enrollments into day care at various ages, patterns of arrangements used concurrently and over time, and the stability of arrangements during the first three years of life. One of the most valuable aspects of the collaborative study is the opportunity it provides to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of patterns of infant care used by families today. Census surveys use only gross categories of care (e.g., center vs. in-home). In this study, more fine-grained information regarding the types of centers and home-care facilities was gathered.
Examine the consequences for families of maternal employment and childcare choices. Family relationships, parental mental health, family stress, and so on, are not just inputs to child development or moderators of childcare effects, they are also outcomes. High-quality childcare may alleviate family stress and enhance parental adjustment. Low-quality childcare may add to the stress parents experience. Although the main focus in the study was on the effect of childcare on the child, the study also examined the effect of childcare on the family.
Identify demographic characteristics of childcare associated with childcare quality. Of interest to policy makers is another aspect of the study, the investigation of those regulatory characteristics that predict care of higher quality. These characteristics included the level and type of caregiver training, the size of the childcare group, the auspices of the childcare program (public/private, profit/nonprofit, independent/chain, employer-sponsored/church-based), whether the facility was licensed or unlicensed, the level of payment and fees, and whether the caregiver was a relative of the family.
504 data files were compiled for this study and are organized into 4 main groups:
Analytical Data Sets (ADS) -- The raw data were examined and composites defined by small groups of individual principal investigators according to the demographic, family, childcare, and child outcome content of the data. The psychometric and distributional qualities of the variables along with site differences were examined. A set of variables that was psychometrically and distributionally acceptable to be used in analytic analyses was designed to test the study hypotheses. These data files comprise Parts 1-49 of the study data material.
Supplemental Data Sets -- New and revised analysis variables as well as across-time mean scores and primary composites were produced as a supplement to the original Analytical Data Sets. These data files comprise Parts 50-55 of the study data material.
Raw Census-Related Data Sets -- Files were produced using geocoded addresses for survey respondents to match block group level data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses for investigators to create additional measures of interest from the geocoded addresses. These data files comprise Parts 56-58 of the study data material.
Raw Data Sets -- The raw data were made available and comprise Parts 59-505 of the study data material.
A three-day summer training workshop on the SECCYD was put on by NICHD at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010. The binder from that workshop, which includes the Powerpoint slides used during presentations, are freely available to the public as part of the study documentation.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Phase IV, 2005-2007 [United States] (ICPSR 22361)
The overall purpose of this study was to examine the influence of variations in early childcare histories on the psychological development of infants and toddlers from a variety of family backgrounds. This general objective was addressed through a prospective, longitudinal study of the experiences of 1,364 children and their families, which took into account the complex interactions among child characteristics and those of the human and physical environments in which the children were reared.
Research GoalsThe specific research aims were as follows:
Examining the relationship between infants' childcare arrangements (defined in terms of hours, type, quality, and stability of care and the age at which the child entered care) and children's concurrent and long-term development. Specifically, the study investigated the association between children's experiences in childcare and their social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. The social-emotional assessments included measures of attachment, independence, compliance, behavior problems, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and general competence in interacting with peers. Cognitive variables include general developmental level and problem solving skills. Language assessments incorporated measures of children's expressive and receptive communicative competence.
Examining whether the social ecology of the home moderates the effects of childcare, i.e., whether children from different home environments are differentially affected by similar childcare experiences. The study examined the moderating effects of parents' values and attitudes, psychological adjustment and mental health, stress and social support, child-rearing practices, time use, interactions with the child, the marital relationship, and family demographics.
Examining whether individual differences among children moderate the effects of infant care on child development. The study examined the moderating effects of such child characteristics as age, sex, health, birth order, and temperament.
Identify demographic and family characteristics associated with families' childcare decisions. The study examined whether specific childcare arrangements are related to the parents' social class, marital status, psychological adjustment and personality, child-rearing values and attitudes, parenting practices, stress, social support, marital relationship, and the availability of childcare in the community.
Provide a natural history of infant care in the 1990s, and help establish a baseline of data pertaining to the kinds of care being used by families. Whereas other national databases, such as those provided by the United States Census Bureau, provide static estimates of the number of children in different types of childcare, this network study supplements that knowledge with longitudinal data on successive enrollments into day care at various ages, patterns of arrangements used concurrently and over time, and the stability of arrangements during the first three years of life. One of the most valuable aspects of the collaborative study is the opportunity it provides to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of patterns of infant care used by families today. Census surveys use only gross categories of care (e.g., center vs. in-home). In this study, more fine-grained information regarding the types of centers and home-care facilities was gathered.
Examine the consequences for families of maternal employment and childcare choices. Family relationships, parental mental health, family stress, and so on, are not just inputs to child development or moderators of childcare effects, they are also outcomes. High-quality childcare may alleviate family stress and enhance parental adjustment. Low-quality childcare may add to the stress parents experience. Although the main focus in the study was on the effect of childcare on the child, the study also examined the effect of childcare on the family.
Identify demographic characteristics of childcare associated with childcare quality. Of interest to policy makers is another aspect of the study, the investigation of those regulatory characteristics that predict care of higher quality. These characteristics included the level and type of caregiver training, the size of the childcare group, the auspices of the childcare program (public/private, profit/nonprofit, independent/chain, employer-sponsored/church-based), whether the facility was licensed or unlicensed, the level of payment and fees, and whether the caregiver was a relative of the family.
158 data files were compiled for this study and are organized into 4 main groups:
Analytical Data Sets (ADS)-- The raw data were examined and composites defined by small groups of individual principal investigators according to the demographic, family, childcare, and child outcome content of the data. The psychometric and distributional qualities of the variables along with site differences were examined. A set of variables that was psychometrically and distributionally acceptable to be used in analytic analyses was designed to test the study hypotheses. These data files comprise Parts 1-19 of the study data material.
Supplemental Data Sets -- New and revised analysis variables as well as across-time mean scores and primary composites were produced as supplements to the original Analytical Data Sets. These data files are Parts 20-26 of the study data material.
Raw Census-Related Data Sets -- Files were produced using geocoded addresses for survey respondents to match block group-level data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses for investigators to create additional measures of interest from the geocoded addresses. These data files comprise Parts 27-30 of the study data material.
Raw Data Sets -- The raw data were made available and comprise Parts 31-158 of the study data material.
Included in this phase of the study are the output of several third-party software programs that were used during Phases II, III and IV to collect data for specific tasks or activities. These programs produced one output data file per subject, which were combined to produce some of the raw data files for those studies. The original program output is included as expanded documentation in this phase of the study.
Training WorkshopA three-day summer training workshop on the SECCYD was put on by NICHD at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010. The binder from that workshop, which includes the Powerpoint slides used during presentations, are freely available to the public as part of the study documentation.
Strengthening Families Program (SFP) Evaluation to Enhance Post-release Adjustment for Reentering Fathers and Improve Child Well-Being, United States, 2012-2015 (ICPSR 36630)
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.
The aim of this study was to conduct an experimental outcomes evaluation to examine the impact of adding an evidence-based family strengthening program to reentry services for fathers leaving jail or prison. The program, Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP), was tested to see whether it improved family functioning and child well-being among a vulnerable population of reentering fathers with children ages 10-14. Eighty families were randomly assigned to a control group or to the SFP group. Differences in key father, child, and caregiver outcomes were assessed. An implementation evaluation was also conducted to provide clarification and understanding of the outcome evaluation results, and an opportunity to replicate and extend practices that work best with reentering fathers.
Time, Love, and Cash in Couples With Children Study (TLC3) [United States], 2000-2005 (ICPSR 22462)
Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study (ICPSR 4701)
CBS News/60 Minutes/Vanity Fair National Poll, May #2, 2011 (ICPSR 33964)
Vietnam Life History Survey, 1991 (ICPSR 31101)
International Social Justice Project, 1991 and 1996 (ICPSR 6705)
International Social Justice Project, 1996 and 2000 [Germany] (ICPSR 22750)
Parenthood in Early Twentieth-Century America Project (PETCAP), 1900-1944 (ICPSR 6876)
Low-Fertility Cohorts Study, 1978: A Survey of White, Ever-Married Women Belonging to the 1901-1910 United States Birth Cohorts (ICPSR 4698)
Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN): Attitudes Toward Mother and Father, Wave 3, 2000-2002 (ICPSR 13676)
Detroit Area Study, 1981: A Study of the Family (ICPSR 9303)
This Detroit Area Study was primarily devoted to investigating the family from the perspective of males. The survey asked men about their relationships with family members and friends and included questions on contact, intimacy, activities done together, help given and received, serious disagreements, and expectations placed on relatives. In addition, men were queried about their own self-image and their views on gender roles, the value of marriage, and the inappropriateness of certain behaviors for wives and steady girlfriends. Married men were questioned about the distribution of power and the division of labor between themselves and their spouses, e.g., who had more say in decisions about the purchase of major household items, and who did most of the housework. The survey explored satisfaction with fatherhood and the degree of and kind of involvement of fathers with their children, including their child-rearing practices and values. As in previous Detroit Area Studies, the survey gauged attitudes toward abortion, defense spending, the Equal Rights Amendment, school prayer, and unions. Additional information gathered by the survey includes duration of residence in the tri-county area and at the current address, moves planned for the future, home and motor vehicle ownership, political party identification, vote in the 1980 presidential election, social class identification, satisfaction with jobs, use of public transportation, religion and religiosity, employment status, occupation and industry, and information on age, sex, place of birth, marital status, education, income, race, ethnicity, and household composition.