The NSCDC is a multi-disciplinary collaboration comprising leading scholars in neuroscience, early childhood development, pediatrics, and economics. Created to seize the opportunity that arose from response to the landmark report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, the Council works to build strong, informed, bipartisan leadership in both the public and private sectors to close the gap between what we know and what we do to promote successful learning, adaptive behavior, and sound physical and mental health for all young children.

This paper, co-authored by Drs. Jack P. Shonkoff, W. Thomas Boyce, and Bruce S. McEwen, illustrates that the origins of many adult diseases can be traced to negative experiences early in life, so confronting the causes of adversity before and shortly after birth may be a promising way to improve adult health and reduce premature deaths.
Summary of Essential Findings (pdf)
Q&A (pdf)

Resilience is all around us. Certainly as risk levels increase, the rates of resilience fall, and there are conditions under which no child can survive or flourish. However, early risk researchers did not expect to observe so much variation or so many good  outcomes among children who experienced poverty, violence, disaster, or trauma.

This article will highlight key lessons learned from current research on resilience that may guide practices and policies aimed at promoting positive development among children exposed to high levels of risk or adversity.

The Partnership is an economic justice organization that works to ensure that public resources are invested in ways that are economically sound and provide a return to the community. They are working to reform development policy throughout the country so that the social and economic return on investment is tracked and reported to the public. The Partnership also seeks to secure a systematic and timely process for accomodating community input into development decisions.

What are the most important policy issues for children’s healthy development? There is clear evidence of the dangers of prenatal exposure to poor nutrition, infections and environmental neurotoxins (e.g., alcohol, lead), most of which are readily preventable with established interventions. Routine pediatric care for infants can effectively screen for and treat many important causes of early developmental delays. Recent experiments and many nonexperimental studies suggest that economic deprivation during the preschool years is harmful for children’s development. Accordingly, policy should minimize the chance that children experience severe economic hardship early in life, although it should also be mindful of the employment incentives that these policies may create.

"Think for a moment of poverty as a disease, thwarting growth and development, robbing children of the healthy, happy futures they might otherwise expect. In the exam room, we try to mitigate the pain and suffering that are its pernicious symptoms. But our patients’ well-being depends on more, on public health measures and prevention that lift the darkness so all children can grow toward the light."

Dr. Braveman made this presentation, fully titled "The Unsolved Mystery of Racial Disparities in Birth Outcomes: Is Racism-Related Stress a Missing Part of the Puzzle?" at the NIH Summit on Health Disparities in December 2008. It provides an excellent summary of the logic and evidence that points to structural racism as a key factor in explaining the Black / white gap in infant mortality and low birth weight. Includes considerations of neighborhood, employment, social factors, the life-course model, and the "immigrant paradox."

This workbook is for community-based organizations seeking to affect the social determinants of health through community-based participatory approaches and nontraditional partnerships. Along with an introduction to the concepts of health equity, the workbook presents case studies of communities working at both small and large scales. The authors then provide guidelines for developing your own initiative, from creating partnerships to identifying your approach to assessing and maintaining your progress.

Public Health Advocacy Curriculum: This ten-lesson curriculum combines classroom- and community-based activities to teach students about the upstream or root causes of health, and to encourage them to become health advocates.

This issue of cdnr is the first part of a 2-part series on eliminating health disparities. It includes articles on disparities in maternal and child health, eliminating disparities in oral health, and health disparities among Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

The chronic stress of racism and the social inequality it engenders may be underlying social determinants of persistent racial disparities in health, including infant mortality, preterm delivery, and low birth weight. This article describes the problem of racial disparities in adverse birth outcomes; outlines the multidimensional nature of racism and the pathways by which it may adversely affect health; and discusses the implications for clinical practice.

This background paper examines the impact of stress and stress mediators on pregnancy outcomes for African American women. The report also examines social support and other relational experiences, and makes recommedations for related changes in public policy and maternal and child health practices.

Learn more about Dr. Michael Lu’s “life-course perspective”
(Abstract only)

It is well known that people in racial and ethnic minority groups and in lower social-class positions have higher morbidity and mortality rates from virtually every disease. To effectively deal with the problem, we will need to adopt a more appropriate conceptual model that focuses on the fundamental determinants of health, we will need to understand how important this is for all Americans as a society, and we will need to better deal with the issues people care about: their children, homes, jobs, safety, education, families, retirement, and future prospects.

Abstract only. Subscription required to read full text.

This concept paper is a first step in assisting the Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau explore how life course theory (LCT) might be used as a strategic planning framework, guiding the work of MCHB, its grantees, and partners over the next 5 years.   Four core life course concepts are identified – timeline, timing, environment and equity – that can be used to redirect public health practice for greater impact. The paper briefly introduces the implications of these concepts for MCHB strategic planning. Further, it proposes that in order to effectively advance a life course approach, MCHB will need to develop a strategic agenda for change, working simultaneously in three broad arenas: (1) knowledge base, (2) program and policy strategies, and (3) political will. Finally, examples provided throughout the paper highlight how a shift to a life course framework might be applied in each of these areas. 

Community activist Torm Nompraseurt leads a "toxic tour" of Richmond, California where high levels of industrial pollution are wreaking havoc on the health and wellbeing of residents.

A positive look at how some young people living on reservations are becoming involved in cross country running. Wings of America, a team of Native American athletes from around the country that has won 20 national titles since 1988, is also an NGO that works to counter the high rates of diabetes, obesity, alcoholism, and suicidal depression on reservations.

Journalist Jill Eisen explores the importance of the social determinants of health from a Canadian perspective. The program devotes considers the importance of looking at "upstream" causes of health and presents possible policies for intervention on different levels.
Part One: S. Leonard Syme, Richard Glazier, Carol Shively, and Michael Marmot explain the concepts behind social determinants of health, present evidence for how stress contribute to "modern" diseases, and elaborate the moral and practical obligations we have to demand action. Part Two: Dennis Raphael, Richard Glazier, and Clyde Hertzman discuss the obesity and diabetes epidemics and early childhood development. Raphael makes an interesting commentary as to why governments continuously fail to address social threats to health.

The notion of ‘human rights to health’ is gaining increasing recognition in research and few would disagree with this social justice principle and ideal. But it is time to think of how these rights can be guaranteed and protected in concrete terms and there is a critical need to begin cross-disciplinary dialogues between health, law, politics and health economics to map out the path to reaching this goal.

The Society for Equity in Child Health (SECH) is an interdisciplinary group of professionals committed to improving the health and well-being of children through the integration of the principles of equity, social justice, and children's rights into child health practice.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot has been asked by the British government to Chair an independent Review to propose the most effective strategies for reducing health inequalities in England from 2010. This review is a response to the recommendation of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health that national governments develop and implement strategies and policies suited to their particular national context aimed at improving health equity.

Take Back Your Time is a campaign to pass The Minimum Leave Protection, Family Bonding and Personal Well-Being Act of 2007. This amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act would guarantee that anyone who's worked at a job for a year would get three weeks of vacation. On the site, you can download a handbook and other resources for mobilizing around this goal.

This memo reports on the findings from FrameWorks’ research on how the public views early childhood issues in general and school readiness policies in specific. This work was first undertaken with the specific intent of providing a foundation for understanding how the public thinks about school readiness, what are the implications of these thinking patterns, and what alternative frames might yield better public support for the kinds of policies that child-focused organizations propose. In subsequent years, as the research base has expanded, the research question has evolved as well to test whether frames currently in use by advocates, legislators, policy experts and scientists are in fact advancing a coherent understanding of how children grow and develop, sufficient to support a movement that must persist over time, and address a range of issues that spans health, education, housing, and economic policies.

With characteristic humor and clear, accessible style, Dr. Bezruchka illustrates how the US falls behind less affluent countries in health indicators and argues for better policies to address early childhood development and improve national health. The page contains a text summary of the presentation, or you can listen to the audio while following along with his slides by clicking "audio slides" under Dr. Bezruchka's photo on the right side of the page.