Lead in U.S. drinking water: SciLine has a fact sheet, with sources, that outlines the background of lead in tap water, the health effects and the state of rules and regulations.
Zero to Three: A Washington-based advocacy group, Zero to Three focuses on policies affecting infants and very young children. The nonprofit’s work on early childhood development includes examinations of brain development, sleep, trauma, social/emotional learning, and nutrition. It also looks at educational issues such as screen time, literacy and child care. Additionally, experts at the group focus on parent-related issues, including support for veteran and military families. Press contact: Madeline Daniels, mdaniels@zerotothree.org, 202-857-2994 or @danielsmadeline
Georgetown University’s Center For Children and Families: Part of Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, CCF is a privately funded health policy and research center focused on the health coverage of American children and families. The center’s research and analyses target Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the 2010 Affordable Care Act. It also focuses on other health insurance coverage issues, including private plans, as well as rural health. Media contact: Cathy Hope, 202-687-1058 or catherine.hope@georgetown.edu
Journalist’s Resource: Impacts of the Children’s Health Insurance Program: This run-down of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) breaks down the government health insurance program and the impact that is has on some 9 million children in the United States. From Journalist’s Resource, a Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and Carnegie-Knight Initiative project, the fact sheet lays out the program’s history, which children can benefit and the program’s funding issues. For reporters looking at the social determinants of health, it also outlines how CHIP impacts children in school, poverty risk and access to care as well as preventative care and other health issues. AHCJ also has a tip sheet on how reporters can keep track of the children’s program.
How to test for lead in your home water supply
A useful collection of resources for consumers, created by CNN Health as part of a package on the problem of unsafe water supplies in Flint, Mich., and beyond.
Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child
This research and development center at Harvard University focuses on a range of issues that affect childhood development from toxic stress and neglect to resilience and brain architecture. There are issue briefs on a range of current issues. The center ties its work and findings to possible policy and medical practice recommendations, listing its projects by topic area, and provides a tip sheet on communicating about science. Media contact: press_developingchild@harvard.edu or (617) 496-0429.
Child Welfare Information Gateway
This service of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau offers regular updates of information related to children, families and their well-being. The bureau, part of HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, includes information on a range of issues from adoption and foster care to child abuse. Reporters can subscribe to get regular updates on new data, research and other news by email here.
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Baltimore-based nonprofit organization focuses on improving the well-being of children and their families. The data-driven group is perhaps most well-known for its annual Kids Count report, which examines the trends in U.S. youth in five areas: overall child well-being, economic well-being, education, health, family and community. The private, independent foundation is funded by an endowment by UPS founder Jim Casey and provides grants to various non-profit organizations for initiatives aimed at improving educational, economic, social and health outcomes. Press contact: Sue Lin Chong, media@aecf.org, @SueLinChong, 410-223-2836
Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice
Rivara and Le Menestrel, editors; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2016)
This comprehensive review examines the current state of bullying among children and adolescents. The multidisciplinary committee gathered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine “was charged with critically examining the state of the science on the biological and psychosocial consequences of bullying and on the risk factors and protective factors that, respectively, increase or decrease bullying behavior and its consequences.” Members examined definitions, initiatives, research methods, and current literature in their review, which delved into aggression, violence and cyberbullying as well as bullying prevention.
NCSL: Lead Hazards Project
The National Conference of State Legislatures’ Lead Hazards Project offers a comprehensive look at U.S. states’ efforts to address the hazards of lead. The site includes a searchable list of relevant laws by state as well as related legislation under consideration. Media contact: 202-624-3557.
Low Level Lead Exposure Harms Children: A Renewed Call for Primary Prevention
This key 2012 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention includes specific recommendations for the CDC as well as other federal agencies as well as state and local authorities to take action to prevent lead poisoning. The expert panel’s report also outlines evidence behind the group’s call for lowering the CDC’s blood lead level of concern.
Stress and Child Development
Ross A. Thompson, The Future of Children (Spring 2014)
The kinds of stressful experiences that are endemic to families living in poverty can alter children’s neurobiology in ways that undermine their health, their social competence, and their ability to succeed in school and in life. This massively footnoted review considers the evidence for the most promising types of interventions that can help children growing up in adverse environments.
Early Childhood Investments Substantially Boost Adult Health
Frances Campbell, James Heckman & others; Science (2014)
Early childhood programs are effective at promoting school success, raising earnings in adulthood, and reducing crime. And now there’s good evidence that they produce health benefits that persist into adulthood. Babies born in the 1970s in North Carolina were randomized to receive cognitive and social stimulation interspersed with caregiving and supervised play throughout a full eight-hour day for the first five years. Thirty years later, researchers found that the group that got care was far healthier. Disadvantaged children randomly assigned to treatment have significantly lower prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in their mid-30s. The evidence was particularly strong for males.
Lifetime Socioeconomic Inequalities in Physical and Cognitive Aging
Louise Hurst, Mai Stafford, Rachel Cooper, Rebecca Hardy, Marcus Richards, and Diana Kuh; American Journal of Public Health (2013)
This study demonstrates that in a representative British cohort born in 1946, the legacy of low socioeconomic status during childhood persists at least up to conventional retirement age, affecting both physical and cognitive performance. The authors conclude that “effective strategies will need to affect the social determinants of health in early life to influence inequalities into old age.”
Childhood socioeconomic status and adult health
Sheldon Cohen, Denise Janicki-Deverts, Edith Chen, Karen A. Matthews; Annals of the New York Academy Of Sciences (2010)
There is strong evidence that socioeconomic status during childhood influences health and mortality well into adulthood, but it’s not yet known when childhood experiences matter most, how long they need to last, what behavioral, psychological, or physiological pathways link the childhood socioeconomic status to adult health, and which specific adult health outcomes are vulnerable to childhood exposures.