Despite the unusual circumstances of the past year and a half, the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools has remained focused on impacting lives through research that advances learning and development.
With diverse partners in research, practice and policy, CYFS has continued work to address the social, behavioral and educational needs of communities in Nebraska and beyond — both amid and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
HyeonJin Yoon, research assistant professor, Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics, is assessing the validity of a new evaluation method for targeted educational interventions for students placed at risk.
Regression discontinuity design (RDD) is an evaluation that assesses the impact of a need-based, targeted intervention. It relies on a cutoff point on an assignment measure that typically evaluates participants’ need, or threshold, above or below which an intervention is assigned. By comparing post-test scores around the cutoff, researchers can identify the intervention’s impact on a given outcome.
It may seem obvious, but the emotional bond babies develop with their parents is crucial — not only for their survival, but also to ensure positive outcomes throughout life.
Less-obvious, however, is how this bond — known as attachment — develops.
With the world becoming more complex each day, the importance of civic knowledge and community engagement is on the rise — especially among younger generations.
Nebraska researchers are leading a project designed to provide civics, entrepreneurship and leadership education to underserved youth through an innovative learning program based on interactive online games and simulations.
Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of infant-onset physical disability, affecting 17 million worldwide.
Physical therapy is often used to help infants and toddlers in this population strengthen their ability to sit and move, but recent findings emphasize the importance of also offering opportunities to advance children’s cognitive development in addition to motor skills.
With the pandemic-fueled anxiety of the past year and a half, workplace stress has become more common among much of the workforce.
Even under less-tumultuous conditions, job stress is a big contributor employee turnover. In early childhood settings, turnover can negatively impact educator relationships with children and families, and compromise children’s learning and development.
Early childhood obesity is a major U.S. public health problem, afflicting children from low-income and minority families in rural areas disproportionately with an increased risk for long-term health disparities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Strong social-emotional skills have been found to impact children’s development and later success.
Research also shows children exposed to adverse experiences — maternal depression, poverty, parental substance use, physical abuse and neglect — are at risk for having lower social-emotional functioning compared to their peers.
