The Northwestern University Two-Generation Study of Parent and Child Human Capital Advancement (NU2Gen)

The Northwestern University Two-Generation Child and Family Outcomes Study (NU2Gen) of the Community Action Project of Tulsa County's (CAP Tulsa's) CareerAdvance® program examines the effects of CareerAdvance® on parent and child human capital outcomes (e.g., child academic achievement, parent educational advancement and certification, and psychological and family functioning), and (2) explore mechanisms that might give rise to program effects (e.g., home language environment; coping, balance, and stress; and parent and academic and career identity).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Children; Parents
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: CareerAdvance®

Detailed Description

The Northwestern University Two-Generation Study (NU2Gen) of Parent and Child Human Capital Advancement is funded through Community Action Project of Tulsa County's (CAP Tulsa) Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG II) from the Administration for Children and Families and through the HPOG II University Partnership grant. The federal awards support the implementation of CareerAdvance®, a workforce training and career employment program for parents living in Tulsa, Oklahoma and the surrounding communities, as well as our Northwestern-based research project.

CareerAdvance® provides education and training, career coaching, and other supportive services for parents while their children attend CAP Tulsa-run Head Start programs, other Tulsa-area public preschool programs, and Tulsa-area K-12 public schools. The explicit goal of the program is to promote the economic self-sufficiency and well-being of low-income families across generations.

The evaluation is composed of two parts: the Two-Generation Human Capital Outcomes Study and the Two-Generation Explanatory Mechanisms Study. Through parent surveys and parent and child administrative data we will examine the effects of CareerAdvance® on parent and child human capital outcomes (e.g., child academic achievement, parent educational advancement and certification, and psychological and family functioning). Using innovative measurement tools (e.g. Language Environment Analysis (LENA)) along with parent and child focus groups and interviews, we will also explore mechanisms that might give rise to program effects (e.g., home language environment; coping, balance, and stress; and academic and career identities). Participants will actively take part in the study for three years and we will collect child administrative data for study parents' children until they turn 18 years old or graduate high school, whichever occurs last. Current funding for NU2Gen is through September 2020.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 478
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Evanston, Illinois, United States, 60201
      • Northwestern University
  • Oklahoma
    • Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, 74146
      • Community Action Project of Tulsa County

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Applicants to CAP Tulsa's CareerAdvance® program under the HPOG II evaluation study, including participants who are randomly assigned not to participate in CareerAdvance® by the HPOG II evaluation study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not proficient in English

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: CareerAdvance®; CareerAdvance® provides education, career coaching, and soft-skills training for parents while their children attend Head Start programs.	Behavioral: CareerAdvance®; CareerAdvance® is a dual-generation program providing education, career coaching, and soft-skills training for parents while their children attend CAP Tulsa's Head Start programs.
No Intervention: Control Standard of CAP; No assignment to participate in the CareerAdvance® program, but given community referrals and resources

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parent's employment	We expect higher rates of employment	Year 2
Parent's healthcare sector employment	We expect higher rates of employment in the healthcare sector	Years 1 and 2
Parent's income	We expect higher income	Year 2
Parent's income	We expect lower income	Year 1
Parent's healthcare training certification	We expect higher rates of healthcare training certification and credentialing	Years 1 and 2
Child's academic achievement	We expect higher levels of academic achievement	Year 2
Child's attendance	We expect higher rates of school attendance	Years 1 and 2
Child's grade promotion	We expect higher rates of grade promotion	Years 1 and 2

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parent's depression	We expect less depression; Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996)	Year 2
Parent's optimism	We expect increased optimism; Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994)	Year 2
Parent's work-family balance	We expect better work-family balance; Fragile Families Study; CAP Family Advancement Study (NU)	Year 2
Parenting stress	We expect stable or increased parenting stress; Aggravation in Parenting Questionnaire (APQ; Cooper et al., 2009); Fragile Families Study	Year 1
Parent's perceived stress	We expect stable or increased perceived stress; Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen & Williamson, 1988)	Year 1
Parent's hope/goal efficacy	We expect higher levels of hope/goal efficacy; State Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1996)	Year 2
Parent's social capital	We expect higher social capital; Willingness to ask for/offer help (Adapted from the Boston Non-Profit Organizations Study survey; Tran, Graif, Jones, Small, & Winship, 2013)	Year 2
Child adaptive skills	We expect an increase in child adaptive skills; Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS-RS; Gresham & Elliott, 2008)	Year 2
Home language environment	We expect an increase in positive home language environment factors (e.g., books, reading time, learning activities) and a decrease in negative home language environment factors (e.g., television, video games/computer time, phone); Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system	Year 2
Time use	We expect improved time use in the home; LENA Time Diary (Northwestern University, 2017)	Year 2
Routines	We expect more stable routines in the home	Year 2
Child emotional and behavior problems	We expect stable or increased child behavior problems; Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000)	Year 1

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Northwestern University
• Collaborators: Department of Health and Human Services
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Teresa E Sommer, PhD, Northwestern University

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Study description via website

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 7, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): April 19, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 7, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 6, 2021
• Last Verified: July 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Children; Parents; Education; Low income; Poverty; Head Start
• Other Study ID Numbers: STU00201886

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No