PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mothers' education significant to children's academic success

2014-11-10
(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR--A mother knows best--and the amount of education she attains can predict her children's success in reading and math. In fact, that success is greater if she had her child later in life, according to a new University of Michigan study.

Sandra Tang, a U-M psychology research fellow and the study's lead author, said children of mothers 19 and older usually enter kindergarten with higher levels of achievement. These kids continue to excel in math and reading at higher levels through eighth grade when compared to children of mothers 18 and younger.

"These results provide compelling evidence that having a child during adolescence has enduring negative consequences for the achievement of the next generation," Tang said.

The negative consequences of teen mothers not only affect the child born when the mother was an adolescent, but they affect the mother's subsequent children as well.

Pamela Davis-Kean, associate professor of psychology and a research associate professor at the Institute for Social Research and Center for Human Growth and Development, said the findings present good news and bad news.

The good news is that the children of teen mothers who continue their education after having children do better academically than children of teen moms who did not continue, she said.

"However, these children--and other children born to the mother when she wasn't an adolescent--never catch up in achievement across time to children whose mothers had them after completing their education," Davis-Kean said. "This group continues to carry a risk for lower achievement."

The study's data was taken from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, a nationally representative sample of children who were first assessed upon entering kindergarten in 1998 and were interviewed through spring 2007.

In 14,279 cases, the children's math and reading scores were collected in third, fifth and eighth grades.

Researchers used this data to compare achievement trajectories (kindergarten through eighth grade) of children born either to teen moms (18 or younger) or to adult mothers (19 and older) at the birth of their first child. The analyses took into account mothers' educational expectations for their children, the home environment and other characteristics, such as household income, that may influence children's achievement.

Trends indicate that mothers who give birth during adolescence have much lower rates of high school completion and college enrollment in comparison to their counterparts who delay pregnancy.

Given that growth in achievement generally stays the same across time for math and reading for all children in the sample, these patterns highlight the importance of investing in early interventions that target adolescent mothers and provide them with the skills needed to promote their children's learning, Tang said.

INFORMATION:

The study's other authors include Meichu Chen, a researcher at ISR's Research Center for Group Dynamics, and Holly Sexton, a researcher at the University of Texas.

The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Research on Adolescence: http://bit.ly/1zeWgLl

Sandra Tang: http://bit.ly/1yqcZKC Pamela Davis-Kean: http://bit.ly/1uTedAo



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Can HIV be transmitted via manicure instruments?

Can HIV be transmitted via manicure instruments?
2014-11-10
New Rochelle, NY, November 10, 2014--The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists numerous potential alternative sources of HIV transmission in addition to the known classical modes for acquiring the AIDS virus. Although manicure instruments is not on this list of alternative sources, a case of HIV transmission that may be linked to sharing of manicure instruments is presented in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article appears in special issue on HIV Prevention Science and is available ...

A sea change for marine conservation

A sea change for marine conservation
2014-11-10
Harnessing 'people power' to manage fisheries in the developing world has significantly benefited local communities and coral reefs, according to new research. "Studies about the environment, and particularly fisheries, abound with bad news, but here, we see a glimmer of hope," says lead author Professor Joshua Cinner, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Historically, fisheries management in East Africa has followed a 'top down' approach, but in 2006, the Kenyan government introduced a pilot program that gave communities ...

Moderate drinking is healthy only for some people

Moderate drinking is healthy only for some people
2014-11-10
The study included 618 Swedes with coronary heart disease and a control group of 3,000 healthy subjects. The subjects were assigned to various categories based on the amount of alcohol they consumed (ethanol intake). Meanwhile, they were tested in order to identify a particular genotype (CETP TaqIB) that previous studies had found to play a role in the health benefits of alcohol consumption. Protective effect The results, which have been published in Alcohol, confirm the findings of the earlier studies. Moderate consumption of alcohol helps protect people with the genotype ...

Low levels of the DHEA prohormone predict coronary heart disease

Low levels of the DHEA prohormone predict coronary heart disease
2014-11-10
Men with low levels of DHEA in the blood run an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease events. The Sahlgrenska Academy study has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The term prohormone refers to the precursor of a hormone. DHEA is a prohormone that is produced by the adrenal glands and can be converted to active sex hormones. While the tendency of DHEA levels to fall with age was discovered long ago, the biological role of the prohormone is largely unknown. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have ...

Study: Volunteer advocacy program benefits the incapacitated with no family or friends

Study: Volunteer advocacy program benefits the incapacitated with no family or friends
2014-11-10
INDIANAPOLIS -- A Regenstrief Institute and Eskenazi Health study reports on an innovative program that trains and supervises volunteers who act as advocates for adults and seniors who are unable to make their own decisions due to conditions like Alzheimer's disease or coma, but have no family or friends to help them. The study found that the program could serve as a national model to replace or complement the frequently overwhelmed guardianship services provided by state agencies from coast to coast. Incapacitated patients who lack surrogates present a complex problem ...

ORNL materials researchers get first look at atom-thin boundaries

ORNL materials researchers get first look at atom-thin boundaries
2014-11-10
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 10, 2014--Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have made the first direct observations of a one-dimensional boundary separating two different, atom-thin materials, enabling studies of long-theorized phenomena at these interfaces. Theorists have predicted the existence of intriguing properties at one-dimensional (1-D) boundaries between two crystalline components, but experimental verification has eluded researchers because atomically precise 1-D interfaces are difficult to construct. "While many theoretical ...

Obesity plays major role in triggering autoimmune diseases

2014-11-10
Autoimmune diseases like Crohn's Disease and multiple sclerosis, in which the immune system attacks its own body rather than predatory invaders, affect 5-20% of the global community. A study published recently in Autoimmunity Reviews by Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld, the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair for Research of Autoimmune Diseases at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Head of Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, points to the major role obesity plays in triggering and prolonging these autoimmune diseases. According ...

Biochemistry detective work: Algae at night

2014-11-10
Stanford, CA--Photosynthesis is probably the most well-known aspect of plant biochemistry. It enables plants, algae, and select bacteria to transform the energy from sunlight during the daytime into chemical energy in the form of sugars and starches (as well as oils and proteins), and it involves taking in carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen derived from water molecules. Photosynthetic organisms undergo other types of biochemical reactions at night, when they generate energy by breaking down those sugars and starches that were stored during the day. Cells ...

New global maps detail human-caused ocean acidification

New global maps detail human-caused ocean acidification
2014-11-10
A team of scientists has published the most comprehensive picture yet of how acidity levels vary across the world's oceans, providing a benchmark for years to come as enormous amounts of human-caused carbon emissions continue to wind up at sea. "We have established a global standard for future changes to be measured," said Taro Takahashi, a geochemist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who published the maps with his colleagues in the August issue of the journal Marine Chemistry. The maps provide a monthly look at how ocean acidity rises and falls by season ...

VTT demonstrates new technique for generating electricity

2014-11-10
Research scientists at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have demonstrated a new technique for generating electrical energy. The new method can be used in harvesting energy from mechanical vibrations of the environment and converting it into electricity. Energy harvesters are needed, for example, in wireless self-powered sensors and medical implants, where they could ultimately replace batteries. In the future, energy harvesters can open up new opportunities in many application areas such as wearable electronics. Research scientists at VTT have successfully generated ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] Mothers' education significant to children's academic success