West Coast Poverty Center Seminar - Rashmita Mistry - Socioeconomic Disparities, Child Health, and Academics
November 16, 2009
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Parrington Hall - Forum (room 309)
The West Coast Poverty Center Seminar Series presents Rashmita Mistry, assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Education and Information Studies.
Disparities Across the Elementary School Years: Evidence on child health and academic achievement from the ECLS-Kindergarten cohort
Poor child health may be one reason that children from lower SES families have lower levels of academic achievement. This study examines (1) the pathways by which SES influences child health - via health care access, opportunities for physical activity, and nutritious foods – and how child health in turn matters for children’s academic achievement; and, (2) whether these relationships differ for children from lower-SES as compared to higher-SES families. Data come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of children from kindergarten to fifth grade. A composite SES variable tapped into family income, parental education, and occupational prestige. Health care access, opportunities for physical activity, and nutritious foods are components of the family health environment. Child health measures include an index of global health status, asthma, stunting, and overweight/obese. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, we tested a comprehensive model of the links between SES, the family health environment, child health, and academic achievement during the transition to school and changes across the elementary school years. Selection bias was addressed using individual fixed effects models regressing 5th grade constructs on kindergarten constructs to account for unobserved variable bias. The implications of the study findings for policy and intervention efforts to improve the health and academic achievement of children will be discussed.
Rashmita S. Mistry is Associate Professor at the University of California - Los Angeles, in the Department of Education. Her program of research examines the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage and immigration on children and family well-being during early and middle childhood; children’s understanding and experiences of social inequalities and, their social class identity development. Mistry received her doctorate in Child Development and Family Relationships from the University of Texas at Austin and completed postdoctoral work at the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For more information about this event, please contact Jennie Romich / Denise Novotny via email or by phone at 221-3781 or 616-2858.
Additional information may be available online.
This event is open to: students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, general public.