Advances

Advances gives a glimpse of the many significant research projects at the university. Tell us about your discoveries. E-mail: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.

Report: child-care improvement initiative is paying off
Based on a recent report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, the initiative to improve child care throughout Dane County is paying off.

Last March, the city of Madison and Dane County established funding for a two-year initiative, called the Local Childcare Wage Initiative, developed to improve the quality of child care by providing some 200 child-care workers throughout the county with quarterly bonuses ranging from $700 to $2,000. Research shows that job quality greatly affects child care quality.

Looking specifically at child-care centers throughout Dane County, COWS researchers evaluated the staff turnover rates, number of centers with state licensing violations and the wages of child-care providers. The results show a strong relationship between the caretakers’ wages and the centers’ rate of turnover and violations.

For instance, centers that paid teachers an average hourly wage between $7.08 and $8.74, depending on qualifications, had turnover rates greater than 50 percent; centers with average wages ranging from $7.73 to $10.65 had turnover below 19 percent. Furthermore, 58 percent of the lower-paying centers had licensing violations, compared to 16 percent of the higher-paying ones.

“Higher wages and lower turnover mean better care for kids in Dane County,” says Laura Dresser, COWS research director and co-author of the recent report.

The findings, she says, also confirm the value of the Local Childcare Wage Initiative:

“We can truly impact the quality of care in our community and do so with a modest public investment, one that will provide terrific dividends for our kids, their schools and our community,” she says

Studies show effects of marijuana on mental health
Three papers published in the Nov. 21 issue of the British Medical Journal show that cannabis, or marijuana, use during adolescence increases one’s risk of developing depression and schizophrenia later in life.

UW–Madison psychology professors Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt authored one of the papers.

The UW–Madison researchers, along with their colleagues in England, studied cannabis use among 759 young New Zealanders and noted any emerging symptoms of schizophrenia as the subjects grew into adulthood. Because the researchers had followed the subjects since their birth, they were able to control for any symptoms present before the subjects starting using marijuana.

The results showed that those individuals who used cannabis, compared to non-users, had more symptoms of schizophrenia in adulthood. And, among the users, those who started before the age of 15 years were four times more at risk of developing schizophrenic outcomes.

Moffitt points out, however, that the findings do not show that cannabis use commonly leads to such mental health outcomes: 90 percent of adolescent users in the study did not develop schizophrenic symptoms.

But, she does add, “Combined with the data from the other papers, the evidence is very strong.”