R L Coley
Biographic Data
| ID | 67815 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R L Coley |
| GIVEN NAMES | R L |
| FAMILY NAME | Coley |
| SIGNATURE | COLEY R L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston College |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7172-061X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 74 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 645 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 74 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
The 4Cs of Housing
The residential environment, encompassing housing and neighborhood of residence, is a critical context shaping health and well-being. The 4Cs model delineates four pathways through which residential environments affect health including cost, conditions, consistency, and context, all of which are often compromised for low-income individuals. Affordable housing programs, like public housing, should mitigate negative exposures across the 4Cs but dis…
State policy variation and emergency rental assistance take-up during the Covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic threatened to exacerbate an existing U.S. rental housing affordability crisis. In response, the federal government implemented the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERA), transferring nearly $47 billion to state and local governments to provide financial assistance to vulnerable renter households. Programs varied in several dimensions, including in novel policies, such as the use of self-attestation and proxies in lieu of…
Rental assistance, housing insecurity, & well-being
Incongruence in fathers' and mothers' adverse childhood experiences and children's behavior problems
Objective To examine associations between (in)congruence within parent dyads' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and children's behavior problems. Background Despite evidence that both parents influence child health, studies on multigenerational consequences of ACEs have focused on one parent. Yet many children have two parents exposed to ACEs. Fathers' and mothers' ACEs may intersect, and their shared, or differing, experience of ACEs may have…
Associations between recreational cannabis legalisation and disparities in use and co-use of tobacco and cannabis
Recreational cannabis legalisation is increasing cannabis-only use and co-use of tobacco and cannabis, including rises in co-use among populations with lower levels of cannabis use. Increased surveillance of and screening for co-use of tobacco and cannabis can help inform public health responses to legalisation
How poverty shapes children’s home, neighborhood, and school environments
Poverty is a notable feature of societies around the world. Poverty constrains children's development and life opportunities, largely through its impacts on environmental forces. As such, it is essential to understand the contexts of poverty. This integrative review presents a conceptual framework of the contextual forces imposed by poverty in children's key proximal environments-their homes, neighborhoods, and schools-delineating both structural…
Rental Arrears and Perceived Risk of Eviction among U.S. Renter Households by Household Composition, Race, and Ethnicity 2020 to 2024
This visualization presents trends in the estimated proportion of U.S. renter households in arrears and their perceived risk of eviction from August 2020 through June 2024 constructed using the Household Pulse Survey, a nationally representative repeated cross-sectional survey fielded by the U.S. Census Bureau. The proportion of renter households in arrears fell following the initial shock of the coronavirus pandemic and an increasing fraction of…
Community Bias and Black Child and Maternal Health
Did Emergency Rental Assistance Support Housing Stability During the Covid-19 Pandemic? Differential Effects Across Risk Strata
Neighborhood resources and stressors associated with parenting inputs for children's learning and development
Prior research has assessed the ways in which neighborhoods promote or inhibit children's development but has paid less attention to delineating the particular processes through which neighborhoods are linked to child outcomes. This study combines geospatial data with survey data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of 2010–2011, a nationally representative sample of kindergarteners followed through 5th grade ( N ~ 12,3…
Neighborhood social environments and mental health among youth and adults in public housing
Neighborhoods influence health in part through social processes. However, little is known about how multiple neighborhood social processes co‐occur, or about within (vs. between) neighborhood variation in social processes and health. This study asked how residents of a large public housing development describe their neighborhood and used latent profile analysis to develop profiles of residents according to their social environment perceptions ( N…
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Fathers' Food Parenting Practices and Children's Diets
Racial and ethnic disparities in children's diets are prevalent. Little is known about how fathers' food parenting practices may contribute to these disparities. We examined racial and ethnic variations in food parenting practices and their associations with 2–6-year-old children's diets in a cross-sectional sample of U.S. fathers surveyed in 2021–2023 (N = 1015; 16% Asian, 9% Black, 6% Hispanic, 70% White; Mage = 37 years) using path analysis. F…
Examining How School Resources Contribute to Income Achievement Disparities Across Race and Ethnicity
Extending work documenting historical resource inequities across U.S. schools, we examined how school financial and social resources mediate the relationship between family income and student achievement, and tested how these associations varied by race and ethnicity. Merging administrative school data sources to a nationally representative sample of U.S. elementary students, and employing structural equation modeling, we found that family income…
You’ve made it if you can, not have to live to survive, but live to live
Using fixed-effects analyses to examine how neighborhood structural, process, and physical characteristics predict children’s cognitive skills in a national cohort of elementary school students
Associations between tobacco 21 and state flavour restrictions with young adult tobacco use
State and federal T21 laws are broadly effective at reducing adult tobacco use, while state flavour restrictions specifically lower use of cigarettes and ENDS
School connectedness and social exclusion
This study examined early adolescents’ sense of school connectedness and social exclusion. • Multilevel models assessed both individual-level and school-level aggregate perceptions. • Individual reports of connectedness were negatively linked with internalizing problems. • Individual reports of social exclusion were positively associated with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. • Attending highly connected schools buffered the rela…
Racial Inequities in Educational Opportunity
Short- and long-term effects of Hope VI redevelopment on neighborhood housing conditions
Recognizing the negative effects of concentrated poverty on access to quality housing and neighborhood investment, governments have pursued poverty deconcentration policies such as mixed-income housing, which promotes neighbourhood social mix to improve housing and neighborhood conditions. This study evaluated the effects of HOPE VI, an influential mixed-income housing policy in the U.S., on the housing context of surrounding neighbourhoods using…
Did Hope VI Move Communities to Opportunity? How Public Housing Redevelopment Affected Neighborhood Poverty, Racial Composition, and Resources 1990–2016
Public housing is a key federal investment, yet it has suffered severe underfunding and decay. HOPE VI sought to transform public housing by improving housing quality, deconcentrating poverty, and enhancing economic opportunities. Using rigorous quasi-experimental methods and an array of geocoded annual national administrative data from 1990 to 2016, we evaluated the effects of HOPE VI redevelopment on neighborhood composition and resources. Afte…
Shelter From the Storm
Forty-four state governments enacted eviction moratoria freezing or tempering the eviction process during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to forestall evictions. Combining data on state and federal eviction policies with data on eviction filings at the census tract level in 27 municipal areas from very late December 2019 through March 2022, we estimated correlated random effects Poisson models to examine effects of the moratoria. We found that…
The Early Emergence of SES Achievement Gaps
Covid-19 vaccinations and mental health among U.S. adults
Early childhood education decision-making among Latinx foreign-born parents in the United States
This study aims to better understand the decision-making process for Latinx foreign-born parents choosing early childhood education settings for their children ages 3 to 5. Using a transformative mixed methods design, this study develops a culturally-based model of decision-making for these families. Grounded theory was used to analyze group interviews with twenty-two Latinx immigrant parents across four communities to produce an ecologically val…
Family and community resource and stress processes related to income disparities in school-aged children’s development
Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood
This paper presents an overview of recent research and theory concerning adolescent sexual activity, pregnancy, and parenthood. Although the rate of teenage childbearing has decreased substantially since mid-century, increasing proportions of teenage mothers who are unmarried and receiving welfare have raised public concern about repercussions of young parenthood. New research with innovative methodologies is discussed which suggests that many of…
Relations between housing characteristics and the well-being of low-income children and adolescents
Extant research has highlighted the importance of multiple characteristics of housing but has not comprehensively assessed a broad range of housing characteristics and their relative contributions to children's well-being. Using a representative, longitudinal sample of low-income children and adolescents from low-income urban neighborhoods (N = 2,437, ages 2-21 years) from the Three-City Study, this study assessed housing quality, stability, type…
Predictors of paternal involvement for resident and nonresident low-income fathers
In a sample of low-income families (N = 239), structural equation models assessed predictors of fathers' involvement with preschool-aged children in instrumental, behavioral, and emotional realms. Results suggest that parental conflict has a strong negative relation with father involvement. Fathers' human capital characteristics, healthy psychosocial functioning, and past stability in family relationships all predicted greater father involvement …
Comparing Father and Mother Reports of Father Involvement Among Low-Income Minority Families
Currently available data and concerns about the validity of reports by mothers significantly truncate the ability of researchers to address a myriad of research questions concerning the involvement of fathers in families. This study aimed to inform this concern by examining predictors of father involvement and father-mother discrepancies in reports of involvement within a low-income, predominantly minority sample of families with both resident an…
Fertile Ground for Community
Research suggests that the formation of neighborhood social ties (NSTs) may substantially depend on the informal social contact which occurs in neighborhood common spaces, and that in inner‐city neighborhoods where common spaces are often barren no‐man's lands, the presence of trees and grass supports common space use and informal social contact among neighbors. We found that for 145 urban public housing residents randomly assigned to 18 architec…
Selection into early education and care settings
Child care experiences in low-income communities
Welfare Receipt, Financial Strain, and African‐American Adolescent Functioning
Using a random sample of African‐American adolescent girls in impoverished urban neighborhoods in Chicago, we consider income‐related predictors (poverty, financial strain, welfare receipt, and welfare exposure) of adolescents' job preparation and nonmarital childbearing risk. Maternal financial strain is the most consistent predictor, linked to poor school performance and greater sexual experience. Maternal welfare receipt predicts higher school…
Gender, male-typicality, and social norms predicting adolescent alcohol intoxication and marijuana use
Timing, extent, and type of child care and children’s behavioral functioning in kindergarten
Prior research has unearthed a link between early education and care (EEC) experiences and worse behavioral functioning for children, yet the research has not clearly delineated whether this link is due to early entry into care (timing), extensive hours of care (extent), or use of center-based care (type). Using a nationally representative sample of children followed from infancy through kindergarten (N ≈ 6,000), we assessed links between EEC tim…
Early exposure to environmental chaos and children's physical and mental health
Immigrant families’ use of early childcare
Welfare History, Sanctions, and Developmental Outcomes among Low‐Income Children and Youth
Using a representative sample of low‐income, urban preschoolers (n = 755) and adolescents (n = 1,130), this article addresses links among family welfare receipt, family processes, and child outcomes. For adolescents, family welfare receipt is related to decreased cognitive achievement and heightened behavioral and emotional problems. For preschoolers, both current and past welfare receipt are associated with problematic functioning. Families who …
Daughter-Father Relationships and Adolescent Psychosocial Functioning in Low-Income African American Families
This study examines the role of biological and social fathers in the lives of low-income African American adolescent girls (N= 302). Sixty-five percent of adolescents identified a primary father; two thirds were biological and one third were social fathers. Adolescents reported more contentious and less close relationships with biological than with social fathers. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that daughters' perceptions of anger and…
Comparing public, private, and informal preschool programs in a national sample of low-income children
Low-income families' selection of child care for their young children
Biological Fathers' Contributions to Maternal and Family Functioning
SYNOPSIS Objective . This study assessed the supposition that fathers' parenting and economic contributions help to support maternal and family functioning. Design . Using longitudinal data from a representative sample of low-income families with young children (N = 402), semidifference models assessed whether fathers' parenting, cash, and in-kind contributions predicted maternal functioning (mothers' psychological distress and parenting stress) …
Explaining income disparities in young children’s development
The Home and the ‘Hood
Adolescents from low-income families face various opportunities and constraints as they develop, with possible ramifications for their well-being. Two contexts of particular importance are the home and the neighborhood. Using adolescent data from the first two waves of the Three City Study ( N = 1,169), this study explored associations among housing problems and neighborhood disorder with adolescents' socioemotional problems, and how these associ…
Predictors of early care and education type among preschool-aged children in immigrant families
Early maternal employment and children’s school readiness in contemporary families
This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among children generalized to modern families. Using a representative sample of children born in the United States in 2001 (N = 10,100), ordinary least squares regression models weighted with propensity scores assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and children's school readiness skills at …
Family economic well-being following the 1996 welfare reform
An Insider View
This article presents African American adolescent girls' views of welfare and welfare reform at the cusp of welfare legislation in 1996. Interview data from a random sample of poor and low‐income families indicate that adolescents have a limited knowledge of basic welfare rules. Low‐income girls see welfare as an important safety net, yet they also have negative views of welfare recipients and the effects of welfare on recipients. The vast majori…
Long-term implications of welfare reform for the development of adolescents and young adults
Does Early Paternal Parenting Promote Low-Income Children's Long-Term Cognitive Skills
Although scholars and policy makers herald the promotive influence of fathers' parenting involvement, limited research has carefully delineated effects of fathers' parenting on low-income children's development and whether early contributions from fathers confer long-term protective effects. Using data from the Three-City Study ( N = 261), analyses assessed whether fathers' parenting practices during early childhood showed long-term links with lo…
Where Does Community Grow?
This study examines how the availability of nature influences the use of outdoor public spaces in two Chicago public housing developments. Ninety-six observations were collected of the presence and location of trees and the presence and location of youth and adults in semiprivate spaces at one high-rise and one low-rise public housing development. Results consistentiy indicated that natural landscaping encourages greater use of outdoor areas by r…
Fertile Ground for Community
Research suggests that the formation of neighborhood social ties (NSTs) may substantially depend on the informal social contact which occurs in neighborhood common spaces, and that in inner‐city neighborhoods where common spaces are often barren no‐man's lands, the presence of trees and grass supports common space use and informal social contact among neighbors. We found that for 145 urban public housing residents randomly assigned to 18 architec…
Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood
This paper presents an overview of recent research and theory concerning adolescent sexual activity, pregnancy, and parenthood. Although the rate of teenage childbearing has decreased substantially since mid-century, increasing proportions of teenage mothers who are unmarried and receiving welfare have raised public concern about repercussions of young parenthood. New research with innovative methodologies is discussed which suggests that many of…
Stability and change in paternal involvement among urban African American fathers.
Urban African American fathers' involvement with their children born outside of marriage is assessed through maternal reports. Multivariable composites of paternal involvement indicate that about half of unmarried fathers are highly involved at the time of birth and when children are preschool age, and half are uninvolved. However, nearly 40% of fathers move into or out of active parenting during this time. Multinomial logit analyses indicate tha…
Welfare Receipt, Financial Strain, and African‐American Adolescent Functioning
Using a random sample of African‐American adolescent girls in impoverished urban neighborhoods in Chicago, we consider income‐related predictors (poverty, financial strain, welfare receipt, and welfare exposure) of adolescents' job preparation and nonmarital childbearing risk. Maternal financial strain is the most consistent predictor, linked to poor school performance and greater sexual experience. Maternal welfare receipt predicts higher school…
An Insider View
This article presents African American adolescent girls' views of welfare and welfare reform at the cusp of welfare legislation in 1996. Interview data from a random sample of poor and low‐income families indicate that adolescents have a limited knowledge of basic welfare rules. Low‐income girls see welfare as an important safety net, yet they also have negative views of welfare recipients and the effects of welfare on recipients. The vast majori…
(In)visible men
The author aims to help make low-income, unmarried, and minority fathers more visible by reviewing the emerging literature base on this population and addressing important conceptual, methodological, and policy issues. Recent evidence is reviewed concerning patterns of fatherhood, factors that support or prohibit fathers' active involvement with their children, and the impact of paternal involvement on children's development. To move the field fo…
Comparing Father and Mother Reports of Father Involvement Among Low-Income Minority Families
Currently available data and concerns about the validity of reports by mothers significantly truncate the ability of researchers to address a myriad of research questions concerning the involvement of fathers in families. This study aimed to inform this concern by examining predictors of father involvement and father-mother discrepancies in reports of involvement within a low-income, predominantly minority sample of families with both resident an…
Mothers' Transitions from Welfare to Work and the Well-Being of Preschoolers and Adolescents
Results from a longitudinal study of 2402 low-income families during the recent unprecedented era of welfare reform suggest that mothers' transitions off welfare and into employment are not associated with negative outcomes for preschoolers (ages 2 to 4 years) or young adolescents (ages 10 to 14 years). Indeed, no significant associations with mothers' welfare and employment transitions were found for preschoolers, and the dominant pattern was al…
Daughter-Father Relationships and Adolescent Psychosocial Functioning in Low-Income African American Families
This study examines the role of biological and social fathers in the lives of low-income African American adolescent girls (N= 302). Sixty-five percent of adolescents identified a primary father; two thirds were biological and one third were social fathers. Adolescents reported more contentious and less close relationships with biological than with social fathers. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that daughters' perceptions of anger and…
Child Care and Low-Income Children's Development
A large literature has documented the influence of child care on young children's development, but few studies have examined low-income children in community care arrangements. Using data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study (N=204), this study examined the influence of child care quality and the extent of care on low-income children's (ages 2–4 years) cognitive and socioemotional development over time. Higher levels of child …
Welfare History, Sanctions, and Developmental Outcomes among Low‐Income Children and Youth
Using a representative sample of low‐income, urban preschoolers (n = 755) and adolescents (n = 1,130), this article addresses links among family welfare receipt, family processes, and child outcomes. For adolescents, family welfare receipt is related to decreased cognitive achievement and heightened behavioral and emotional problems. For preschoolers, both current and past welfare receipt are associated with problematic functioning. Families who …
Special Reviewers
Child care experiences in low-income communities
Predictors of paternal involvement for resident and nonresident low-income fathers
In a sample of low-income families (N = 239), structural equation models assessed predictors of fathers' involvement with preschool-aged children in instrumental, behavioral, and emotional realms. Results suggest that parental conflict has a strong negative relation with father involvement. Fathers' human capital characteristics, healthy psychosocial functioning, and past stability in family relationships all predicted greater father involvement …
Commentary
Numerous scholars have called for increased attention to, and sophistication in, understanding the family roles of fathers and their influence on children's development. The articles in this section provide notable moves forward in several arenas, focusing on traditionally understudied populations of fathers, employing a variety of data collection methodologies, and assessing leading theoretical models in the field. In this commentary, the author…
Measuring Father Involvement Within Low-Income Families
SYNOPSIS Objective. This study assesses and compares the internal reliability and predictive validity of fathers’ versus mothers’ reports of father involvement. Design. Two hundred and twenty-seven fathers and mothers reported separately on 6 identical items regarding father involvement with a designated focal child. Mothers reported on their own parenting and child demographic characteristics. Direct assessments assessed child cognitive skills. …
Family economic well-being following the 1996 welfare reform
Maternal welfare and employment experiences and adolescent well-being
Maternal functioning, time, and money
Biological Fathers' Contributions to Maternal and Family Functioning
SYNOPSIS Objective . This study assessed the supposition that fathers' parenting and economic contributions help to support maternal and family functioning. Design . Using longitudinal data from a representative sample of low-income families with young children (N = 402), semidifference models assessed whether fathers' parenting, cash, and in-kind contributions predicted maternal functioning (mothers' psychological distress and parenting stress) …
Is Maternal Marriage Beneficial for Low-Income Adolescents
The present study investigated the association of mothers' marriage and changes in young adolescents' cognitive and socioemotional development and changes in family processes. Analyses employed longitudinal data from the Three-City Study to track maternal partnerships for 860 lowincome adolescents (10-14 years-old in Wave 1) across a 16 month period. No short-term benefits or risks emerged for youth when mothers entered marriage, with few changes…
Long-term implications of welfare reform for the development of adolescents and young adults
Does Early Paternal Parenting Promote Low-Income Children's Long-Term Cognitive Skills
Although scholars and policy makers herald the promotive influence of fathers' parenting involvement, limited research has carefully delineated effects of fathers' parenting on low-income children's development and whether early contributions from fathers confer long-term protective effects. Using data from the Three-City Study ( N = 261), analyses assessed whether fathers' parenting practices during early childhood showed long-term links with lo…
Do Children's Behavior Problems Limit Poor Women's Labor Market Success
Economically disadvantaged mothers face numerous barriers to stable, quality employment opportunities. One barrier that has received limited attention in previous research is having a child with significant psychological or behavioral problems. Using a representative sample of low-income mothers and early adolescent children from the Three-City Study (N = 717), we assessed whether adolescents' behavior problems prospectively predicted mothers' em…
Psychology (51 works) · Developmental psychology (44 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (29 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Medicine (25 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (22 works) · Economics (20 works) · Political science (20 works) · Demographic economics (19 works) · Economic growth (17 works)