Interdisciplinary research on global health problems through the lenses of economics, nutrition and politics.
Research Spotlight
Tackling the Health of Women and Children in Global Conflict Settings
A new four-paper series in The Lancet exposes the far-reaching effects of modern warfare on women’s and children’s health. Stanford researchers, including SHP's Paul Wise and Eran Bendavid, have joined other academics and health-care experts in calling for an international commitment from humanitarian actors and donors to confront political and security challenges.
Many countries have taken digital epidemiology to the next level in responding to COVID-19. Focusing on core public health functions of case detection, contact tracing, and isolation and quarantine, the authors explore ethical concerns raised by digital technologies and new data sources in public health surveillance during epidemics.
Does Diversity Matter for Health? Experimental Evidence from Oakland
African-American men have the lowest life expectancy of any major demographic group in
the United States and live on average 4.5 fewer years than non-Hispanic white men. This paper finds that the mortality disparity is partly related to underutilized preventive
healthcare services.
Background Mental health problems among children at preschool age are a common issue across the world. As shown in literature, a caregiver’s parenting style can play a critical role in child development. This study aims to examine the associations between a caregiver’s parenting style and the mental health problems (or not) of their child when he/she is at preschool age in rural China.
Methods Participants were children, aged 49 to 65 months, and their primary caregivers. The primary caregivers of the sample children completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, Short Version, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and a questionnaire that elicited their socio-demographic characteristics. The level of cognitive development of each sample child was assessed using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition. Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression analysis, and multivariable regression analysis were used to analyze the data.
Results The prevalence of mental health problems among sample children at preschool age was high (31.6%). If a caregiver practices an authoritative parenting style, it was found to be negatively associated with the mental health problems of their child. In contrast, a caregiver’s authoritarian parenting style was positively associated with the mental health problems of their child. Compared to those in a subgroup of primary caregivers that used a combination of low authoritative and low authoritarian parenting style, primary caregivers that used a combination of high authoritarian and low authoritative or a combination of high authoritative and high authoritarian were found to have positive association with child health problems. A number of demographic characteristics were found to be associated with the adoption of different parenting styles.
Conclusion Different parenting styles (including authoritative, authoritarian, and combination of authoritative and authoritarian) of the sample caregivers had different associations with the mental health problems of the sample children. Parenting programs that aim to improve the parenting styles (favoring authoritative parenting styles) should be promoted in an effort to improve the status of child mental health in rural China.
A new Stanford Internet Observatory report examines how to improve the CyberTipline pipeline from dozens of interviews with tech companies, law enforcement and the nonprofit that runs the U.S. online child abuse reporting system.
As government agencies move to adopt AI across a range of programs, choices made in system design can ensure individuals’ ability to effectively challenge decisions made about them.
To better understand the impacts of parenting interventions (e.g., parental training of psychosocial stimulating activities) on child developmental outcomes and design effective policies to benefit young children, it is essential to identify the mechanisms through which the interventions work. To this end, this paper presents the results of two randomized controlled trials that offered home visitation, parenting trainings to 435 households (with 527 households as the control group) in 174 villages across three provinces in China. The findings from the randomized controlled trials showed that the interventions significantly improved child cognitive development and had a positive effect on the primary caregivers’ parenting practices and their parenting beliefs. The analysis suggests three possible mechanisms through which the parenting interventions affected child cognitive development: changing the parenting beliefs of the primary caregivers, shifting the parenting practices of the primary caregivers, and improving the primary caregivers’ parenting beliefs, thus fostering better parenting practices.
Given the size of the problem and the scientific evidence that timely intervention can improve long-term outcomes, an important question is how to best scale-up early childhood development (ECD) interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A key component of the solution is financing. However, there has been little research on the question of whether cost-sharing models can equitably and sustainably finance ECD programs at scale in LMICs. We built parenting centers in two rural communities of Western China to teach caregivers how to stimulate child development through fun and interactive activities. We used the Becker-Degroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to elicit the household willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a one-month pass to the parenting centers. The results of the BDM suggest that a cost-sharing model would not be suitable for China's rural population at least in the short-run. Demand was found to be highly elastic. In addition, we found limited evidence of selection effects. We also found no evidence of sunk-cost effects.
