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Workshop Summary
Pages 9-24

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From page 9...
... Workshop participants, including staff of the statistical agencies that design and implement surveys, researchers who analyze statistical data, and policy experts who make use of these data to address pressing issues affecting children and families, discussed the following issues: • What are the most pressing information needs of those who formulate, implement, and analyze policies for children and families? • What are the strengths and shortcomings of existing and proposed federal statistical data sources for addressing these information needs?
From page 10...
... CHILD DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF FAMILY AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Brett Brown, Greg Duncan, and Kristin Moore addressed the issue of improving national data to facilitate policy making for children and youth. Datasets must have reliable and, if possible, longitudinal assessments of child outcomes and measures should be age- and development-specific, the authors note.
From page 11...
... Discussant Gary Sandefur commented that investment in a new longitudinal survey of children would be useful in estimating causal models of child development, but it would not fully identify the most pressing information needs of those who formulate, implement, and analyze policies for children and families. For those using data in policy development, especially those who cannot wait for a new survey, Sandefur called for a focus on such predictor variables as income, family functioning, community resources, and instability.
From page 12...
... • The suggestion that the Census Bureau should consider creating family-level records in addition to household and person records for their PUMS microdata files is feasible, but the case needs to be made to justify the additional expenditures required. Turning to SIPP, Hernandez noted that specific improvements suggested in the paper -- data on child outcomes and on the family processes that translate resources into child outcomes and a broader array of resources, for example -- are high on the list of important areas to be considered for inclusion.
From page 13...
... Developmental outcomes in this transitional period are typically categorized into three groups: the cognitive domain, including language and achievement; the socioemotional domain, including self-concept, social interaction, and behavioral problems; and the health domain, including physical development and abilities and good health habits. The national objectives in the Goals 2000 law add approaches to learning and language usage to the set of categories.
From page 14...
... To fill the remaining gaps, Hofferth recommended supplementing ongoing collections, such as the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child-Mother Supplement. A coordinated data collection effort providing some overlap between surveys would also improve the situation, since it would allow for more cross-study comparisons and validation than previously possible.
From page 15...
... Data users should be involved early in the development of such a survey, he advised. Workshop participants agreed that the absence of data following children from preschool into school constitutes a serious gap in the federal statistical system, particularly given the growth in reliance on child care and the debate over school readiness.
From page 16...
... EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND TRANSITION INTO WORK Aaron Pallas examined institutionally based data that are designed to illuminate the role of schooling and the process of transition into the labor force. Many of the important analytic policy questions regarding the transition to work view the youth labor market in the context of its connections to other social institutions, such as schools, families, and communities.
From page 17...
... The collection of more longitudinal data rather than cross-sectional data would also be useful. In addition, more information should be collected on high-risk or vulnerable populations, such as institutional or minority groups, that are often undersampled or completely ignored in major federal data collection efforts.
From page 18...
... A pairing of the Census Bureau with NCES could help in carrying out this work, she said, though she noted that team approaches are costly and hard to execute. Workshop participants touched on the importance of considering sampling frames and approaches that extend beyond the household unit and of obtaining data from multiple informants (e.g., employee and employer, students, teachers, and school administrators)
From page 19...
... Discussant Nicholas Zill pointed to the rapid pace of health care reorganization and the important role assigned to health care data as a source of quality monitoring as critical contexts for considering future data needs in this area. In light of budgetary constraints, Zill called for a clear-eyed look at what is vital in current systems and what is expendable and could, as a result, provide opportunities for reallocating funding for more useful data collection.
From page 20...
... Additional data are needed about patient-provider relationships, health plans, and local communities and populations in order to draw an accurate picture of how health care reorganization affects children and families, according to discussant Robert Valdez. Valdez commented that many of the surveys that can be used to address health care issues are inadequate to the task of monitoring health care reform; they should be complemented with qualitative and local data that can be used to interpret local health care trends, processes, and effects on children and families.
From page 21...
... Cantor noted, however, that surveys also have disadvantages involving the validity of measures of violence as reported by either victims or offenders and including the confidentiality/sensitivity of information provided, errors in survey design, and coverage problems. The Child Abuse Prevention, Adoption, and Family Services Act of 1988 created an interagency Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect, as noted by discussant Michael Rand.
From page 22...
... Furthermore, definitional inconsistencies are not the only problem of measuring child abuse; because of the private nature of most violent acts, many subjects -- especially children -- are very sensitive to providing any information about the incident. Rand agreed with Loftin and Mercy that federal agencies with interests in child and family violence and abuse should coordinate efforts to design an improved mechanism to produce statistics on child and family violence.
From page 23...
... WORKSHOP SUMMARY 23 • Institutional review boards can provide barriers to collecting data on violent behavior. • Although violence has been identified as a major public health problem, it is not clear if data collection efforts in the context of health care reform will include this type of outcome.


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