Increasing research evidence has indicated the meaningful effect nutrition and family income between the ages of 0 to 5 has on child development (Birch & Gussow 1970; Duncan & Brooks-Gunn 1997). This research conducts an evaluation study to examine the effect of the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program participation during pregnancy on child reading achievement. This is a large evaluation study using a national probability sample, the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and thus has meaningful policy implications.
Using the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. This research examines if the effect of WIC program participation during pregnancy is moderated by (1) family income, (2) race, and (3) the current age of the child. Assumptions need to be evaluated and changes were made to the data and model in order to account for assumption violations.
The report includes: the descriptive statistics (i.e. N, means/medians/proportions, standard deviations, frequencies, observed ranges, and correlations) of the variables and the multiple regression analyses with interaction effects.
Definition of Variables:
• WICpreg – Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program participant during pregnancy: 0 = No, 1 = Yes.
• Race – Centered Binary Coding of Race: -0.5 = Black, 0.5 = White.
• mathraw97 – Woodcock-Johnson Revised Mathematics Achievement Test Raw Score. Minimum = 0, Maximum = 98.
• age97 – The child’s age in 1997. Minimum = 3, Maximum = 13.
• faminc97 – Total family income in 1997 (in 2002 constant dollars). Minimum = $- 72296.26, Maximum = $784610.59.
• bthwht – Low birth weight status of the child. 0 = non-low birth weight child, 1 = low birth weight child.
• HOME97 – A composite total score of the emotional and cognitive stimulation at home. Minimum = 7, Maximum = 27.