Literature Review: Why A Boys and Girls Club of Hardy County

Literature Review

Identifying Factors Contributing to Negative Outcomes for Children: Justifying The Creation of Educational and Community Based Programs; Namely, Boys and Girls Club of Hardy County West Virginia

Health Communication and Advocacy

Health 634-B02

Sherri Hof           September 13, 2015

 Introduction

Children are important to the future of any community. Providing children the best opportunities for growth and development is a positive contribution to their chance for success. Increasing recognition in the communities of policy, research and clinical practice is the fact that early and middle childhood provides the physical, social-emotional and cognitive foundation for lifelong health, learning and well-being.1 This period plays an important role as there are conditions and illnesses that can seriously limit a child’s ability to learn, grow, play and prosper.1  Children learn and develop at their own pace, so it is difficult to pinpoint when a child should attain a certain skill. Milestones in how children play, learn, speak, behave, grow and move serve to give parent’s a general idea of the changes they can expect to see in their child.2 Many children with developmental delays are not being identified as early as possible and are therefore missing opportunities for helpful services leading to performing well in social and educational settings.2  While a child’s pediatrician should perform screenings, other professionals in health care, community, school, day care, family or additional settings may observe and screen for such delays.2

In Hardy County West Virginia there are limited resources for children to play, learn and grow in a healthy environment. Many of the people in this county drive long distances to work, leaving children with day care providers, neighbors, family members or even home alone. Parents should understand the negative impacts to children going home from school facing empty houses with little or no supervision, no regulating of snacks, exercise or television time, no assistance with homework and no social activities. Children should recognize the positive impacts toward their future success by having supervision, learning about healthy snacks, exercising with minimal time for television and electronic games, tutoring for difficult school subjects and peer socialization outside of school with opportunities to help others.

This review provides statistical evidence regarding various children’s situations that may contribute to adverse outcomes for children in those situations. Children need a place where they can play, learn, grow and prosper in a safe environment. The creation of a Boys and Girls Club of Hardy County will be such a place for children of all ages. While the Boys and Girls Club initially cannot meet all of the needs for all of the children in the county, it is a place where resources will be gathered and provided; while expansion follows as more agencies, organizations, providers, community members and merchants partner with the Boys and Girls Club for enhancements to the programs.

Following this introduction will be the section, “Body of Evidence,” presenting the statistical information surrounding children and their circumstances. References will be organized in such a way that the need will be confirmed and the solution recognized.  Finally, in the “Summary and Conclusion” section of the review, evidence will be synthesized for a clearer picture and identification of missing pieces for further research noted. Research material from the past eight years was sought from professional peer reviewed data and government websites. These resources are believed to have the most reliable data and the most recent research to maintain relevance to the issues children face today.

Body of Evidence

There is a large body of evidence describing adversarial circumstances for children and the harmful outcomes that result. Some of these circumstances are outlined below with specific statistical information provided for Hardy County West Virginia.

Once circumstance more children are experiencing today is being raised in single parent households. Nationwide, in 2014, there was a decline in the number of children living with two parents from 77% in 1980 to 64%.3 Children living with just a mother was 24%, children living with just a father was 4%, another 4% of children lived with neither of their parents but rather with grandparents or another family member and the remaining 4% lived with foster parents or nonrelatives in 2014.3

In Hardy County West Virginia, there are 2,284 families of which 997 are single parent homes equaling 35%.4   Single parent homes are families with the head of household being either male or female but a spouse is absent. Children in single family households are at a greater risk for severe morbidity and all-cause mortality than their peers residing in two parent households.5  There has been much supposition on the impact of  growing up in a single parent household. While it remains unclear if there is a direct link to adverse outcomes; there are social and contextual factors that are associated with single parent households.5 Some of these factors are: poorer due to only having one income and fewer benefits of employment such as health insurance, less parental time spent with children due to working and no division of household chores, burden of child care, lack of supervision and financial and organizational logistics.6   Parents also are the main source for promotion of a range of activities that may impair or enhance children’s health, such as arranging for their health care, managing family nutrition, providing direction regarding exercise and television and learning safety skills.6  Single parent homes tend to have limited resources which could affect the quality of parenting in turn affecting the outcomes for children.6

Creating multidisciplinary public health interventions addressing social determinants of health to improve outcomes for children need to:

  • Foster knowledgeable and nurturing families, parents and caregivers
  • Create supportive and safe environments in schools, communities and home
  • Increase access to high quality health care.6

Poverty is the second circumstance which limits children. It is well known that poverty puts children at a disadvantage in many areas of their lives such as health, mental condition, development, academics and other areas.7  Some reasons for these disadvantages stem from a lack of resources including access to health care, safe housing, nutritious food, exercise, high quality education, fewer social opportunities, exposure to toxins in the environment, less optimal parenting and exposure to violence and trauma.7   Level of education has been established to affect ability to obtain gainful employment with salaries commensurate with education level.7  While poverty affects all living in that circumstance children experience greater morbidity and mortality than adults.8  There are success stories but they are few and far between of children rising above poverty.8 One way to improve the outcomes for children in poverty is to make investments necessary that would help children succeed.9  Community based programs that implement mentoring identify positive results relative to education and overcoming poverty.9

In Hardy County there are 715 children under the age of 18 living in poverty which is 26% of the county’s children.4   Here, the definition of poverty is the one used by the US Census Bureau which includes all monetary income a family has prior to taxes.4   Hardy County is getting worse in this measure4, which is why we need an intervention now. Ninth graders who graduated from high school is four years was only 83% during the school year 2011-2012.4 Although Hardy County is higher in high school graduations than West Virginia as a whole4, there is still room for improvement. Research indicates increased education improves an individual’s self-perception of personal control and social standing, leading to higher health status as self-reported.10 

The last circumstance to be presented is access to healthy foods. Children living in families with limited availability to healthy foods are at a higher risk for poor nutrition, chronic illness and a greater chance for obesity.11 There is strong evidence that people residing in areas void of a large supermarket or large grocery store are more apt to be overweight, obese and experience premature death.12  Suggestions for this difference are that grocery stores tend to offer healthy food alternatives than convenience stores.12  Even when healthier foods are available, for example at convenience stores, higher prices make this choice unattainable for many.11

Hardy County had 16% of residents during school year 2011-2012 report limited access to healthy foods. These families reside farther than 10 miles away from a large grocery store and their annual family income was less than or equal to 200% of the federal threshold for their family size.4 Educating children on healthy foods and granting the opportunity to have access to healthier choices will improve outcomes for children.

Each of these circumstances has been researched and linked to adverse outcomes for children by various research projects and studies. All of the research reviewed indicated children need to be presented better opportunities for success and offered the environment conducive to thrive.1-12  Also identified in all of the research is that not one circumstance is responsible for negative outcomes for children but rather a combination of many difficult circumstances result in poor outcomes for children.1-12 The research reviewed suggested many different methods to address each of the situations concentrated on in that particular study with varying degrees of success.

Summary and Conclusion

All of the reference material reviewed supports the fact that children are a vulnerable population with many factors contributing to outcomes.1-12 While there are many factors to consider when looking for interventions to improve outcomes for children, this review concentrated on the three most feasible to be impacted with the establishment of a Boys and Girls Club of Hardy County. Implementing programs to assist single parents with child care burdens, educational assistance for children, supervision after school during parental working hours and the chance for socialization  provide support to parents and give children a safe healthy environment rather than being alone after school.9 Educational assistance in the form of tutoring school subjects, teaching healthier habits, importance of exercise, safety skills, and making better choices in an atmosphere where children are surrounded by their peers in a more relaxed setting helps to improve self-confidence and self-perception resulting in more positive outcomes.9  Finally providing wholesome snacks and supplying information on healthy foods, better dietary  habits, recipes for fun foods and even how to get healthy foods at the convenience store will improve the nutrition for children.9,12

There are many factors that skew data results which verify the need for additional studies relative to the mentioned factors. Measuring the success of programs is complicated by environmental factors, programming flaws, inconsistent definitions of parameters and difficulty in observing long term outcomes versus temporary outcomes during the programs.2 Identifying the most negative contributing factors within the target population is also difficult as many circumstances are compounded by more than one factor.1,2  Also, communicating to all stakeholder populations in a way that will ultimately influence the identified target population can be challenging.1

Founding a program that provides a safe environment for children to play, learn, grow and prosper where community involvement and partnerships evolve, expanding the number and quality of services afforded to children, has the greatest potential for success in improving outcomes for children. The Boys and Girls Club of Hardy County will be that environment.

References

  1. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy People 2020. 2020 Topics and Objectives. Early and Middle Childhood. http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/early-and-middle-childhood. Accessed September 8, 2015.
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthy Development/Developmental Monitoring and Screening. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment. Accessed September 8, 2015.
  3. The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. http://www.childstats.gov/forum. Accessed: September 7, 2015.
  4. County Health Ratings and Roadmaps. Health Rankings. http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/west-virginia/2015/measure/factors/82/data. Accessed September 7, 2015.
  5. Fergusson DM, Boden JM, Horwood LJ. Exposure to single parenthood in childhood and later mental health, educational, economic, and criminal behavior outcomes. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007; 64:1089-1095.
  6. Waldfogel J, Craigie TA, Grooks-Gunn J. Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing. The Future of Children. Princeton University. Fragile Families. Fall 2010; 20:2: 87-112. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20773696. Accessed September 12, 2015. 
  7. Lefmann T, Combs-Orme T. Prenatal Stress, Poverty, and Child Outcomes. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. December 2014; 31:6: 577-590. 
  8. Bargain O, Donni, O. Targeting and child poverty. Social Choice and Welfare. 2012: 39(4), 783-808. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00355-011-0556-z. Accessed September 12, 2015.
  9. Zimmerman D, Levine P. Targeting Investments In Children : Fighting Poverty When Resources Are Limited [e-book]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2010. Available from: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 12, 2015.
  10. Egerter S, Braveman P, Sadegh-Nobari T, Grossman-Kahn R, Dekker M. Education Matters for Health. Princeton, NJ: RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America; 2009. Issue Brief 6.
  11. Andreyeva T.PhD, Luedicke J.MS, Middleton AE.MPH, Long MW.MPH, Schwartz MB. PhD. Positive Influence of the Revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Food Packages on Access to Healthy Foods. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. June 2012. 112:6: 850-858.
  12. Ahern M, Brown C, Dukas S. A national study of the association between food environments and county-level health outcomes. The Journal of Rural Health. 2011;27:367-379.

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