Social Confounders for Health Outcomes Linked to Education (SCHOOL)
What We Do
The University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development and School of Medicine have partnered with Boston University and Washington University on a five-year study, Social Confounders for Health Outcomes Linked to Education (SCHOOL), to examine factors that might mediate or explain why parental education is associated with children’s health and well-being outcomes.
Project Info
Project Status: August 2018 - Present
Funding Source: National Institute of Child Health and Development
Principal Investigator: Khara Turnbull
Partners: UVA School of Medicine, Boston University, Washington University in St. Louis
Researchers are analyzing data from previous studies — Social Media and Risk Reduction Training for Infant Care Practices (SMART) and Study of Attitudes and Factors Effecting Infant Care Practices (SAFE) — and conducting qualitative analyses with current SMART mother-infant pairs. The qualitative studies will help further our understanding of the range of parental education experiences and critical home experiences that predict children’s health and well-being outcomes.
Using a sample from the SMART study, the researchers developed and implemented a new SCHOOL data collection protocol, which included parent-report surveys, virtual observations of mother-child interactions in the home, teacher-report surveys, and child direct assessments. This approach enables a detailed examination of both concurrent and predictive pathways through which parental education and home and school experiences contribute to children’s health and well-being.