Health Disparities and Gaps in School Readiness

Autor/in	Currie, Janet
Titel	Health Disparities and Gaps in School Readiness
Quelle	In: Future of Children, 15 (2005) 1, S.117-138 (22 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1054-8289
Schlagwörter	African American Children; Behavior Problems; School Readiness; Early Childhood Education; Economically Disadvantaged; Nutrition; Disadvantaged Youth; Health Conditions; Public Health; Access to Health Care; Racial Differences; Ethnicity; Attention Deficit Disorders; Hyperactivity; Diseases; Poisoning; Mothers; Health Needs; Student Behavior; Cognitive Development; Academic Achievement; Educational Policy; Foreign Countries; Early Intervention; Family Programs; Canada; United Kingdom; United States + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? African Americans; Child; Children; Afroamerikaner; Kind; Kinder; Readiness for school; School ability; Schulreife; Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Ernährung; Benachteiligter Jugendlicher; Gesundheitswesen; Rassenunterschied; Ethnizität; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; ADHS; Aufmerksamkeits-Defizit-Hyperaktivitäts-Störung; Aufmerksamkeitsstörung; Hyperaktivität; Disease; Krankheit; Mother; Mutter; Student behaviour; Schülerverhalten; Kognitive Entwicklung; Schulleistung; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Ausland; Family program; Familienprogramm; Kanada; Großbritannien; USA
Abstract	The author documents pervasive racial disparities in the health of American children and analyzes how and how much those disparities contribute to racial gaps in school readiness. She explores a broad sample of health problems common to U.S. children, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma, and lead poisoning, as well as maternal health problems and health-related behaviors that affect children's behavioral and cognitive readiness for school. If a health problem is to affect the readiness gap, it must affect many children, it must be linked to academic performance or behavior problems, and it must show a racial disparity either in its prevalence or in its effects. The author focuses not only on the black-white gap in health status but also on the poor-nonpoor gap because black children tend to be poorer than white children. The health conditions Currie considers seriously impair cognitive skills and behavior in individual children. But most explain little of the overall racial gap in school readiness. Still, the cumulative effect of health differentials summed over all conditions is significant. Currie's rough calculation is that racial differences in health conditions and in maternal health and behaviors together may account for as much as a quarter of the racial gap in school readiness. Currie scrutinizes several policy steps to lessen racial and socioeconomic disparities in children's health and to begin to close the readiness gap. Increasing poor children's eligibility for Medicaid and state child health insurance is unlikely to be effective because most poor children are already eligible for public insurance. The problem is that many are not enrolled. Even increasing enrollment may not work: socioeconomic disparities in health persist in Canada and the United Kingdom despite universal public health insurance. The author finds more promise in strengthening early childhood programs with a built-in health component, like Head Start; family-based services and home visiting programs; and WIC, the federal nutrition program for women, infants, and small children. In all three, trained staff can help parents get ongoing care for their children. (Contains 4 footnotes and 46 endnotes.) (Author).
Anmerkungen	Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution. 267 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544. Tel: 609-258-6979; e-mail: FOC@princeton.edu; Web site: http://www.brookings.org/index/publications.htm
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10