Chantelle Dowsett - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Chantelle Dowsett

This study conducted secondary analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2... more This study conducted secondary analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) to examine the degree to which student, family, and school constructs predicted self-determination outcomes. Multi-group structural equation modeling was used to examine predictive relationships between 5 student, 4 family, and 7 school constructs developed from NLTS2 data and self-determination outcomes (autonomy, psychological empowerment, and self-realization) across disability groups. The pattern of predictive relationship between the constructs and self-determination outcomes across disability groups was complex. Only one construct-self-concept-showed a positive predictive relationship with all three self-determination constructs across most disability groups. Implications of the complex pattern of findings for research and practice are discussed.

Psychological science, 2014

Despite widespread interest in children's adjustment problems, existing research does not pro... more Despite widespread interest in children's adjustment problems, existing research does not provide conclusive evidence regarding the direction of the associations of achievement with classroom attention problems and disruptive behavior over the course of elementary school. Using a nationally representative sample of 16,260 kindergarteners, this study examined the temporal sequence of achievement, classroom attention problems, and disruptive behavior, focusing on how changes in skills and problems unfold across key periods between kindergarten and fifth grade. Results indicate that improvements in attention during the earliest years of schooling predict achievement gains through third grade. However, changes in disruptive behavior do not predict subsequent changes in achievement. Evidence linking changes in achievement to changes in classroom attention problems and disruptive behavior was less consistent. These findings point to the need to develop and examine early interventions ...

Developmental Psychology, 2010

We apply instrumental variables (IV) techniques to a pooled data set of employment-focused experi... more We apply instrumental variables (IV) techniques to a pooled data set of employment-focused experiments to examine the relation between type of preschool childcare and subsequent externalizing problem behavior for a large sample of low-income children. To assess the potential usefulness of this approach for addressing biases that can confound causal inferences in child care research, we compare instrumental variables results with those obtained using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. We find that our OLS estimates concur with prior studies showing small positive associations between center-based care and later externalizing behavior. By contrast, our IV estimates indicate that preschool-aged children with center care experience are rated by mothers and teachers as having fewer externalizing problems on entering elementary school than their peers who were not in child care as preschoolers. Findings are discussed in relation to the literature on associations between different types of community-based child care and children&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s social behavior, particularly within low-income populations. Moreover, we use this study to highlight the relative strengths and weaknesses of each analytic method for addressing causal questions in developmental research.

Developmental Psychology, 2014

Replications and robustness checks are key elements of the scientific method and a staple in many... more Replications and robustness checks are key elements of the scientific method and a staple in many disciplines. However, leading journals in developmental psychology rarely include explicit replications of prior research conducted by different investigators, and few require authors to establish in their articles or online appendices that their key results are robust across estimation methods, data sets, and demographic subgroups. This article makes the case for prioritizing both explicit replications and, especially, within-study robustness checks in developmental psychology. It provides evidence on variation in effect sizes in developmental studies and documents strikingly different replication and robustness checking practices in a sample of journals in developmental psychology and a sister behavioral science -applied economics. Our goal is not to show that any one behavioral science has a monopoly on best practices, but rather to show how journals from a related discipline address vital concerns of replication and generalizability shared by all social and behavioral sciences. We provide recommendations for promoting graduate training in replication and robustness checking methods and for editorial policies that encourage these practices. Although some of our recommendations may shift the form and substance of developmental research articles, we argue that they would generate considerable scientific benefits for the field.

A Complete Reference Guide, 2014

Using six longitudinal data sets, we estimate the influence of two key elements of school readine... more Using six longitudinal data sets, we estimate the influence of two key elements of school readiness -- kindergarten-entry academic skills and self-regulation -- on later achievement. In an effort to identify how preschool interventions focused on augmenting reading and math skills and self-regulation might influence children's subsequent learning, our preferred regression models control for cognitive skills and self-regulation measured prior to kindergarten entry. Our findings suggest that the strongest predictors of later learning are children's academic skills such as knowing numbers, and ordinality (the average effect size of beginning math skills was .34) and knowing letters, words and beginning and ending word sounds (the average effect size of beginning reading skills across our studies was .16). We find much less evidence that emotional self-regulation and social skills make noteworthy, independent contributions to school success. An important exception was that a c...

Social Service Review, 2008

This study examines how welfare and employment policies affect subpopulations of low-income famil... more This study examines how welfare and employment policies affect subpopulations of low-income families that have different levels of initial disadvantage. Education, prior earnings, and welfare receipt are used to measure disadvantage. The analysis of data from experiments suggests that employment-based programs have no effects on economic well-being among the leastdisadvantaged low-income, single-parent families, but they have positive effects on employment and income for the most-disadvantaged and moderately disadvantaged families. These programs increase school achievement and enrollment in center-based child care of children only in moderately disadvantaged families. The most-disadvantaged families are found to increase use of child care that is not center based. Parents in these families experience depressive symptoms and aggravation. The findings raise questions about how to support families at the lowest end of the economic spectrum.

Journal of Cognition and Development, 2012

Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2008

We use observations from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to co... more We use observations from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) to compare structural and process characteristics of child care centers, family child care homes (nonrelative care in a home setting) and care by relatives for 2, 3-and 4 ½-year-old children. Type of care differences in structural and caregiver characteristics were consistent across ages: centers had higher child-to-adult ratios and bigger groups; centers had caregivers with better education, more training in early childhood, and less traditional beliefs about child rearing. Children in centers experienced more cognitive stimulation, less frequent language interactions with adults, less frequent negative interactions with adults, and less television viewing than did those in other types of care. In centers and family child care homes compared to relative settings, children engaged in more positive and negative interactions with peers and spent more time in transition and unoccupied. Curvilinear associations were found between structural features of care and family income, particularly for caregiver education and training. In contrast, process measures of caregiving rose monotonically with family income. Children from high-income families experienced more sensitive care, more cognitive stimulation, and fewer negative interactions with adults than did those from low-income families. We interpret the findings by linking the structural features and caregiver training to the cognitive and social processes observed in different types of care. Future research designed to understand the influences of child care on children's behavior might benefit from using this more nuanced description of child care experiences.

Developmental Psychology, 2007

Using six longitudinal data sets, we estimate links between three key elements of school readines... more Using six longitudinal data sets, we estimate links between three key elements of school readiness-school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills-and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, most of our regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures.

Developmental Psychology, 2008

In this article we replicate and extend findings from Duncan et al. (2007). The 1st study used Ca... more In this article we replicate and extend findings from Duncan et al. (2007). The 1st study used Canada-wide data on 1,521 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) to examine the influence of kindergarten literacy and math skills, mother-reported attention, and mother-reported socioemotional behaviors on 3rd-grade math and reading outcomes. Similar to Duncan et al., (a) math skills were the strongest predictor of later achievement, (b) literacy and attention skills predicted later achievement, and (c) socioemotional behaviors did not significantly predict later school achievement. As part of extending the findings, we incorporated a multiple imputation approach to handle missing predictor variable data. Results paralleled those from the original study in that kindergarten math skills and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised scores continued to predict later achievement. However, we also found that kindergarten socioemotional behaviors, specifically hyperactivity/impulsivity, prosocial behavior, and anxiety/depression, were significant predictors of 3rd-grade math and reading. In the 2nd study, we used data from the NLSCY and the Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Preschool Study (MLEPS), which was included in Duncan et al., to extend previous findings by examining the influence of kindergarten achievement, attention, and socioemotional behaviors on 3rd-grade socioemotional outcomes. Both NLSCY and MLEPS findings indicated that kindergarten math significantly predicted socioemotional behaviors. There were also a number of significant relationships between early and later socioemotional behaviors. Findings support the importance of socioemotional behaviors both as predictors of later school success and as indicators of school success.

New York: MDRC, 2008

... Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, ... more ... Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Annie E. Casey ... Preschool Project and the Ab-ecedarian Study, have had long-term impacts on adult work and earnings.10 Heckman and other ...

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2011

New Hope, an employment-based poverty-reduction intervention for adults evaluated in a random-ass... more New Hope, an employment-based poverty-reduction intervention for adults evaluated in a random-assignment experimental design, had positive impacts on children's achievement and social behavior two and five years after random assignment. The question addressed in this paper was the following: Did the positive effects of New Hope on younger children diminish or even reverse when children reached the challenges of adolescence (eight years after random assignment)? Small positive impacts on school progress, school motivation, positive social behavior, child well-being, and parent control endured, but impacts on school achievement and problem behavior were no longer evident. The most likely reasons for lasting impacts were that New Hope families were slightly less likely to be poor, and children had spent more time in center-based child care and structured activities. New Hope represents a model policy that could produce modest improvements in the lives of low-income adults and children.