News and Opinions

Interacting with Dr. Jennifer Lansford and Dr. Ann Skinner, Dr. Rose Opiyo visited Duke’s Center for Child and Family Policy, delivering a lecture titled, ‘Developmental Outcomes, Drivers, and Interventions: A Focus on At-Risk Children and Adolescents in Kenya,’.

Dr. Whitney McCoy was honored with an annual Samuel DuBois Cook Society award, honoring research and service that reflect the social activism and leadership of Samuel DuBois Cook, the University’s first Black faculty member.

Food assistance programs specifically earmarked toward subsidizing household food costs such as SNAP and WIC have positive effects on infant health and school achievement and reduce behavioral problems in school, promoting a range of health and educational benefits in the short- and long-term. 

This article dives into how climate change affects children’s physical and psychological well-being, highlighting 3 strategies to help combat this.

In this study, Jennifer Lansford highlights the importance of support from family, friends, and colleagues on an individual’s well-being and mental health.

This op-ed by Lisa Gennetian and Jenni Owen warns that challenges and the restructuring of federal government programs are putting North Carolinian children at risk, urging lawmakers to pass a budget that protects Medicaid expansion, restores a child tax credit, and supports early education.

Sarah Komisarow studied the effects of school-based telehealth, reporting that offering telemedicine in schools lowered students’ risk of chronic absenteeism by approximately 29%.

The summit is part of a partnership between the Flood Center, the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

Jennifer C. Mann, Duke research scientist, collaborated with Nermin Vehabovic, an assistant professor of education, to explore how three girls from refugee backgrounds cultivate relationships that promote care for themselves and their communities.

Dr. Lisa Gennetian assisted in a study looking at causal impacts of unconditional cash transfers on economic hardship and key family processes that may affect children’s development

Dr. Jennifer Lansford emphasized that one of the most immediate financial considerations [for parents-to-be] is childcare in the early years – something often overlooked in baby budgeting.

Anna Gassman-Pines talked to Education Week about the far-reaching effects of SNAP cuts in Trump’s economic bill.

Leslie Babinski was mentioned throughout this analysis of the state and local impacts of federal cuts to the Department of Education.

Dr. Lisa Gennetian quoted about the impact of tariffs on baby gear. 

The budget bill’s expanded SNAP work requirements ignore the reality of low-wage work, writes Anna Gassman-Pines with co-author Elizabeth Ananat in The Regulatory Review.

Commentary by Duke University professors Lisa A. Gennetian, Christina Gibson-Davis and William A. Darity Jr.

Katie Rosanbalm talked to the School Superintendents Association for this article about innovative mental health initiatives in public schools.

Jennifer Lansford discussed her new child development research with the Society for Research in Child Development. She detailed how children build beliefs about safety in the world around them. ScienMag also summarized her research.

Charles Clotfelter was cited again for his public school demography work in this Times Union article about Albany, NY, public school representation.

Jennifer Lansford was cited in this Blick (Germany) article that examined and compared different cultural approaches to raising children.

“Love any Child Policy course. Of the ones I took, I liked Child Policy Research with Dr. Whitney McCoy, a phenomenal course. I was a freshman in that class. They were really sweet because I’d never written a research paper at that point, but they let me take the class.'”

Jennifer Lansford spoke at the United Nations, offering into four megatrends shaping families worldwide: technology, demographic shifts, urbanization and migration, and climate change.

Katie Rosanbalm was the featured expert for an article in St. Louis Mag that tells the story of one St. Louis school that has chosen to completely ban student cell phones on school grounds.

The Child Tax Credit is a valuable tax benefit for families with dependent children, currently offering up to $2,000 per qualifying child.

The pluses and pitfalls of the world’s most disciplined primary schools

Through the InventHERs Institute, Drs. Whitney McCoy and Shaundra Daily are revolutionizing how girls and women see themselves in STEM fields.

Jennifer Lansford is quoted in article about her research on the long-term consequences of dropping out of high school, previously featured in Newsweek.

Classrooms – I might argue, especially economics classrooms – can go a long way to interrogate normative perspectives and issues from non-normative tools in all of the
ways that a true democracy demands, writes Lisa Gennetian.

Family Connects, an initiative started by Kenneth Dodge through the Duke Endowment, has been rolled out nationally by Family Connects International. NPR highlighted the program’s rollout in Oregon.

On September 27-28, 2024, the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity will host its annual Color of Education summit. The convening will bring a community together to progress collective action toward achieving racial equity and eliminating racial disparities in education.

In 2018, a remarkable experiment was launched called Baby’s First Years, studying young children in the US. The main question it asked was simple: What does giving $4,000 a year, unrestricted, to families with young kids do for them?

Jennifer Lansford spoke with CBS Sunday Business Page about the importance of fathers in a child’s life and the research that shows how children gain positive support from an active and engaged dad.

Jennifer Lansford told Newsweek in a previous interview that students who end up dropping out of high school could face adverse ramifications well into adulthood, pointing to her research.

America’s childcare crisis is taking another turn for the worse, now impacting a new group of parents. The employment gap between those who have a four-year college degree and those who don’t is growing larger, which is impacting how parents are seeking out childcare.

This podcast episode features researchers from Baby’s First Years, a multi-year effort to test the connections between poverty reduction and brain development among very young children.

Duke student Phoebe Ducote writes about her recent experience meeting with the Wilson Lecture speaker, Adam Benforado, who recently spoke at the Sanford School of Public Policy.