scholarly journals Higher Utilization of Social Services Is Associated with Higher Language Scores in Children from Deeply Impoverished Urban Families

Author(s):  
Morgan A. Finkel ◽  
Sonya V. Troller-Renfree ◽  
Kimberly G. Noble

Language development has been consistently linked with socioeconomic status (SES), with children from lower SES backgrounds at higher risk for language delays. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between familial social service use and language development during the first year of life. Thirty-one low-income mothers and their infants were recruited from the New York metropolitan area. Mothers provided information about demographics and utilization of social services (Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing). Infant language skills were assessed using the Preschool Language Scale. Multiple linear regressions were used to investigate the relationship between social service use and language skills. We found that the number of social services utilized was not an overall significant linear predictor of language skills. However, social service use interacted with poverty level to predict language skills. Specifically, for families living in deep poverty, higher service use significantly predicted higher infant language scores (β = 3.4, p = 0.005). These results suggest that social services may be an appropriate target to help narrow socioeconomic disparities in language development.

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Kelly

ABSTRACTThe theory of incrementalism is a long-standing and influential perspective on policy making and resource allocation in the public sector. Previous research on social services budgeting suggests that resources are allocated incrementally, although there has been some debate as to whether this would persist in an era of prolonged expenditure restraint. Incremental budgetary outcomes are operationalised as percentage changes in budgets pro-rata with percentage changes in the total budget, and as stable shares of total expenditure for each activity. Data for 99 English social service departments supports incrementalism in that budget shares change by only 1.8 per cent, but percentage allocations depart from pro-rata incrementalism by a mean of 74 per cent. The comparison of the two summary indices over time supports those who have argued that prolonged restraint would encourage non-incremental budgeting, but change in the agency's total budget does not consistently predict budgetary outcomes. The effect of restraint on incrementalism varies with the measure used and across the component activities of the measures, but there is enough evidence to suggest a significant decline in the level of incrementalism in social service departments. In particular, non-incremental budgeting is strongly associated with the growth of day centre expenditure on the mentally ill and the elderly before 1982–3, and after that with the pursuit of the ‘community care’ strategy within state provided services for the elderly and children. Incrementalism as a general theory of agency budgeting is limited in its ability to explain variations in the degree of incrementalism between agencies, between component budgets and over time. The conclusion suggests that further research should seek explanations for these variations in the varying balance of the competing forces which shape outcomes in welfare bureaucracies and in the relationship between these forces and the organisation's environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Snow

The lessons I have learned over the last many years seem always to come in pairs – a lesson about the findings that brings with it a lesson about life as a researcher...Lesson 1. Even as a doctoral student, I believed that the sorts of social interactions young children had with adults supported language acquisition. In 1971, when I completed my dissertation, that was a minority view, and one ridiculed by many. I was, unfortunately, deflected from a full-on commitment to research on the relationship between social environment and language development for many years by the general atmosphere of disdain for such claims. In the intervening years, of course, evidence to support the claim has accumulated, and now it is generally acknowledged that a large part of the variance among children in language skills can be explained by their language environments. This consensus might have been achieved earlier had I and others been braver about pursuing it.[Download the PDF and read more...]


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
RHYS ANDREWS ◽  
SEBASTIAN JILKE

AbstractIn this article, the authors evaluate whether the provision of good quality social services has the potential to create social cohesion. In addition to examining the relationship between social services and social cohesion, the authors expand institutional theories of social capital by investigating whether this potential for building social solidarity may be resilient to the corrosive effects of economic strain. Multilevel analyses of variations in the perceptions of social cohesion amongst Europeans were conducted for 27 member countries of the EU using the Eurobarometer 74.1 on poverty and social exclusion from 2010. The results suggest that individuals receiving better quality social service provision perceived higher levels of social cohesion within the country in which they live. By contrast, individuals living in households experiencing economic strain perceived lower levels of cohesion. Further analysis revealed that the experience of economic strain does not weaken the positive relationship between social services quality and perceptions of cohesion.


2018 ◽  

Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds tend to have poorer language skills when starting school than those from higher SES backgrounds. Now, data shows that increasing the amount of “contingent talk”— whereby a caregiver talks about objects that an infant is directly focusing on — within an infant’s first year of life promotes a wide vocabulary later in infancy.


Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 1696-1713
Author(s):  
Jae Sik Jeon

Strong social connections often deter residential mobility beyond reach of the social network. A missing link in the body of research on this subject is the significance of the role of social networks in pooling resources for costly services and neighbourhood-level access to social services. Few have explored whether assistance from local social service agencies may substitute for practical help from social networks, thereby enabling low-income assisted renters to locate housing in more desirable neighbourhoods. Relying on data from the Moving to Opportunity experiment, this article examines the impact of social networks and social services on the dynamics of residential mobility. I find that the existence of social networks in the place movers left behind tends to increase the likelihood of moving back, but this likelihood varies with current access to social service providers and distance moved. These findings suggest that policy efforts in spatial dispersion of poverty should pay close attention to the geography of social services.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Ahmet Akçay

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the demographic characteristics and the language development of children. In the research, a "Personal Information Form" consisting of 14 items containing information about the demographic structure of the family was used and a "Language Development Checklist" consisting of 25 items that the students are required to possess the language skills in the learning process was used. The sample of the study consists of 147 children who are studying in Ağrı province center determined by purposeful sampling method. Descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test of multiple comparison tests were used for the analysis of data in the study. As a result of the research, it was determined that there is a direct relationship between the demographic characteristics of the family and the language development of the children. The increase in the level of income and the level of educational background of the parents has influenced the language development of the child; besides, families with democratic attitude have been found to be more successful in terms of children's language development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Bardha Kika

Learning to talk is one of the most visible and important achievements of early childhood (Rvachew, 2015). Language skills, in particular, are critical to children’s adjustment in school and in later life (Benner, Nelson, Ron, Epstein, 2002). There is evidence to suggest that children with language problems may develop social, emotional,and behavioral problems (Schoon, Parsons, - Rush, 2010). In the literature, the environment with all its complexities it is mentioned as one of the most influential factor for the language development (Johnston, 2010). However, most of the studies that treated this aspect have been conducted in developed countries and less is known whether the pattern of influence is the same among other underrepresented study population. This study is focused on identification of the role of the environment on the toddlers’ language development in a low-income country, such as Kosovo. In total, 201 randomly selected parents (55% males) from three kindergartens in Kosovo were interviewed for this study. We used the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBS DP; Wetherby-Prizant, 2002) to collect the data and a demographic questionnaire to identify the characteristics of the environment. The preliminary results show a positive correlation between parental education and toddlers’ language development (r = .19, p - .01). Moreover, a positive correlation was found between socio-economic status and toddlers’ language (r = .21, p - .05). Importantly, it was found that there are significant differences between toddlers’ language that frequent kindergarten and the group of toddlers that do not frequent early education institution. The present finding goes into the same line with other studies that confirm environment as important factor on language acquisition. Not only parent’s education, but also the economic status is shown to play a major role on language development. Most importantly, it is shown that along with family kindergarten influences the toddler language skills. These results that attend kindergarten have significantly higher language skills. This can serve to develop intervention programs in Kosovo, to raise awareness among general population for the importance of the early education attendance, which currently is less than 10%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Kornelia Mina ◽  
Imelda Feneranda Seravia Tambi ◽  
Roberta Yutri

ABSTRAK Penyebaran virus covid 19 pada tahun 2020 menjadi tantangan khusus bagi seluruh Negara dan berbagai aspek kehidupan. Peningkatan jumlah kasus yang terkofirmasi memberikan perhatian khusus bagi persiapan dan pencegahan meluas di dalam Masyarakat. Partisipasi dan kesadaran masyarakat sangat dibutuhkan untuk menurunkan jumlah kasus di wilayah Samarinda, khususnya Kelurahan Loa Buah. Kegiatan Bakti Sosial dilakukan kepada masyarakat kelurahan loa buah dan beberapa pedagang. Kegiatan pengabdian ini bertujuan untuk memotivasi masyarakat dalam penggunaan masker dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat. Bakti sosial dilakukan kepada masyarakat kelurahan Loa Buah dengan mensosialisasikan penggunaan masker kain dan kebiasaaan penggunaan masker. Setelah dilakukan bakti sosial dan penggunaan masker maka diharapkan dapat menjadi kebiasaan dalam kehidupan dimasa Pandemi Covid 19.   Kata Kunci: Covid 19, Bakti Sosial, Penggunaan Masker   ABSTRACT COVID-19 Pandemic virus in 2020 is a special challenge for all countries and various aspects of life. The increasing number of confirmed cases pays special attention to preparation and widespread prevention within the Society. Community participation and awareness is urgently needed to reduce the number of cases in the Samarinda area, especially Loa Buah Village. Social Service activities were carried out for the people of the Loa Buah sub-district and several traders. This service activity aims to motivate the community to use masks in social life. Social services were carried out to the people of the Loa Buah sub-district by socializing the use of cloth masks and the habit of using masks. After doing social services and using masks, it is hoped that they can become a habit in life during the Covid-19 Pandemic.   Key Words: Covid 19, Social Service, Use of Masks


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Dedi Dedi

Background; Elderly age is the biological systems that undergo changes in the structure and function due to old age. One of service unit that serves the safety of the elderly is UPT of Social Service of Elderly and Early Childhood in Binjai and Medan Regional. Based on the preliminary research of this study was found some old people who experienced changes of the self-care ability with self concept change by 7 men and 28 women. Objectives; This study purpose is to determine the relationship between the level of self-care ability of elderly with changes in self-concept of the elderly in UPT of social Services Elderly Social and Early Children in Binjai and Medan. Material and Method; This study used analytical (explanatory research) with cross sectional approach. The population of this study amounted to 72 people and sample in this study were taken from the population amounted 63 respondents by using purposive sampling techniques. The data used primary data, secondary data, the data tertiary, and the analysis of data was done with univariate and bivariate analysis by using chi-square test. Results;of this study with a statistical test of chi-square that the relationship between the level of self-care ability to change the self-concept of the elderly in UPT. Elderly Care and Early Children in Binjai and Medan p = 0.025 < α = 0.05 is found. Conclusion; of this research is that there is a relationship between the level of self-care ability of elderly with changes in self-concept of the elderly in UPT of Elderly Social Services and Early Childhood area Binjai and Medan. It is suggested to further researchers to do deep research about the treatments themselves with self-concept changes in Social UPT of social service of elderly and Early Childhood in Binjai and Medan regional with another methods.


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