Child Trends

Opportunities to Maximize Home Visiting Benefits for Native Families Through Data and Collaboration - Child Trends This brief describes the landscape of home visiting within American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities and provides a brief overview of the federal investment in home visiting for AIAN famili...

NEW: Opportunities to serve more American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) families, align performance measures, and facilitate and enhance collaboration across home visiting programs that serve AIAN families in the same geographic region.
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Declines in parental divorce/separation and income insecurity are notable in part because they have consistently been the most common adverse childhood experiences tracked in the National Survey of Children’s Health since 2018.
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Most Youth in Extended Foster Care Live in Supervised Independent Living Placements - Child Trends

As of 2023, most youth (54%) in extended foster care lived in a supervised independent living placement, such as an apartment or dorm. Our new blog post looks at placement types among youth in extended foster care, and the supports they may (or may not) receive.
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YouTube video by Child Trends AI Literacy to AI Coherence Webinar: How Educators Can Integrate AI in Teaching and Learning

You can also watch the webinar recording here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjqQ...

Five Lessons for Schools to Prepare Students and Teachers to Use AI - Child Trends This blog highlights lessons from a Child Trends webinar to help schools prepare their students and teachers to use AI responsibly.

We brought experts together and outlined 5 practical strategies that districts and schools can use to prepare teachers and students for an AI-driven future while building the infrastructure necessary to implement AI safely, responsibly, and at scale.
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Home Visiting Nutrition Insights - Child Trends

Experts at Child Trends have extensive experience researching and supporting home visiting. Visit our new webpage that shares information about how home visiting programs talk with families about nutrition.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Roadmap to Career Services That Meet Foster Youth Where They Are: One Size Doesn't Fit All - Child Trends

Child Trends’ new brief—written by four members of the Evaluation Advisory Board for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Foster Youth Initiative—shares recommendations for strengthening career services & expanding opportunities for youth with foster care experience.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Foster Youth Employment at Age 21 Recovers From Pandemic-era Dip - Child Trends

Despite the barriers young people in foster care often experience around finding and keeping jobs, new data from @childtrends.bsky.social shows that nearly 60% of foster youth were employed at the age of 21.

According to recent Child Trends analysis, in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, child welfare agencies across the country spent $632 million in Title IV-B funds, a decrease of 16% over the past decade.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Many teenage boys say they’re online almost constantly, and some of the content they see about relationships, consent, and masculinity can be harmful. Our new brief addresses common questions for youth-supporting professionals and other caring adults.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

As research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has expanded over the past 25 years, so has our understanding of how these experiences affect our bodies and brains, the value of preventing them, and the importance of protective childhood experiences.
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An Approach to Conceptualizing and Defining Black Family Flourishing to Inform Research, Policy, and Practice - Black Families Flourishing This white paper explores how we conceptualize flourishing within Black family life and offers an emerging definition of “Black family flourishing” for the BFF project.

Black Families Flourishing, a Child Trends project supported by @rwjf.org, recently published a white paper that offers a fresh perspective on Black families’ strengths, history, and linkages across generations. blackfamiliesflourishing.org/bff-research...

States are innovating their ECE career pathways to recognize the competencies educators gain from the field. @natecewkfcctr.bsky.social has 2 promising approaches for ECE systems leaders to incorporate experience into career ladders. www.nationaleceworkforcecenter.org/publications...

Leveraging Positive Youth Development to Build and Sustain a Young Adult Workforce - Child Trends

Employers of young adults can draw on positive youth development strategies that allow young workers to identify their goals, build on their strengths, develop positive relationships with other staff, and contribute to work that feels meaningful.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Leveraging Positive Youth Development to Build and Sustain a Young Adult Workforce - Child Trends

Our latest blog—based on a decade of work funded by the @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social—explores how positive youth development principles apply in workforce development settings for young adults.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

A Child Trends analysis of federal data finds that 59% of foster youth were employed at age 21 in FY24, representing nearly a decade of growth since these national data were first collected in FY15.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Several Adverse Childhood Experiences Declined Modestly From 2018 to 2023 - Child Trends

New Child Trends research finds that the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (or ACEs) declined modestly from 2018 to 2023. Declines in three specific ACEs stand out: income insecurity, parental divorce or separation, and parental incarceration.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

If you’re tackling complex early care and education (ECE) access challenges—whether it’s supply gaps, data limitations, or policy barriers—the ECE Access Center is here to help you build practical and sustainable solutions. www.childtrends.org/research-cen...

Honoring Indigenous Families’ Preferences and Contexts in Child Care and Early Education - Child Trends For child care and early education to meet Indigenous families’ preferences, practitioners, researchers and evaluators, and funders should consider how Indigenous worldviews and community contexts sha...

A recent Child Trends brief explores foundational considerations for those in the child care and early education (CCEE) sector to best support Indigenous families and communities. Our researchers developed four recommendations for research and evaluation efforts. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Organizations and leaders across the business community have an opportunity to move beyond symbolic gestures to genuinely support employees’ sexual and reproductive health.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

How Employers Can Meaningfully Support Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Workplace - Child Trends

Child Trends’ latest brief highlights several factors that may be keeping employers from taking advantage of timely opportunities to promote sexual and reproductive health-related benefits that support well-being, productivity, and retention.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Two Thirds of Foster Youth Remain Stably Housed Through Age 21 - Child Trends

Our new analysis of federal data shows that 2/3 of foster youth remain stably housed through age 21. Research shows that young people transitioning out of foster care are best positioned to achieve their goals when they have a foundation of stable housing. www.childtrends.org/publications...

In 2023, 7% of women who gave birth in the United States received late (beginning in the third trimester) or no prenatal care, according to data from the National Vital Statistics System. Read more in our latest blog.
www.childtrends.org/publications...

Fewer High Schoolers Say They’ve Had Sex - Child Trends

Fewer high school students say they’ve had sex, and this number has been trending downward over the past three decades. Jenn Rogers, senior program area director for sexual and reproductive health at Child Trends, explains the data behind the trend. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Lessons From Generation Work on Centering Young Adult Worker Voice in Employer Engagement - Child Trends Increasingly, workforce development practitioners seek to elevate the voices of young adult workers as a means to partner with employers on improving workplace practices. Hearing directly from young…

Hearing directly from young workers about their wants and needs can help companies attract, retain, and support a stronger future workforce. Our research brief for the @annieecaseyfdn.bsky.social's Generation Work initiative provides lots of valuable ideas.

Activate created an infographic showing key takeaways about the sexual and reproductive health of youth who experience the justice system, with the goal of helping youth-supporting professionals strengthen their practice. activatecenter.org/resource/key...

According to recent Child Trends analysis, child welfare agencies reported spending a total of $34.3 billion from federal, state, local, and other sources in state fiscal year (SFY) 2022, a 3% increase over the past decade. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Youth researchers created this zine (i.e., short magazine) to share their guidance, reflections, and resources with future youth researchers. We are so grateful for their leadership. www.childtrends.org/publications...

Want to stay up to date on the Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRTL) measure? Subscribe to our newsletter to get HRTL updates directly in your inbox and be the first to know when new data, analyses, and resources are available. childtrends.us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=...

Want to stay up to date on the Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRTL) measure? Subscribe to our newsletter to get HRTL updates directly in your inbox and be the first to know when new data, analyses, and resources are available. childtrends.us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=...