In 2040, Latino children will make up the majority of Texas’ child population, at a projected two out of every three children. As we consider the inevitable demographic shifts in our state and nation, we recognize the critical importance of identifying proven solutions to the issues confronted by Latino children in America, including physical inactivity, educational attainment, childhood obesity, and teen pregnancy. To bring together practical children-focused research on these issues, research on Latino Children was featured in the very first issue of the new peer-review, online, open-access journal, Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk. This issue, guest edited by University of Houston-Downtown President Dr. Bill Flores, featured new findings on the effects of population diversification (Steve Murdock and colleagues), physical activity (Norma Olvera and colleagues), walking and biking to school (Jason Mendoza and colleagues), teen pregnancy (Susan Tortolero and colleagues), and scholarship on Latino children (Adolfo Santos). Select findings include:
- Taking no action today will allow simple demographic changes to exacerbate the problems of poverty, educational attainment, and poor health among our children, especially Latino children.
- Multi-component approaches that enhance physical activity among Latino youth are needed to combat obesity among Latino children and adolescents.
- Low-income Latino youth are significantly more likely to actively commute (i.e. walk or bike) to school than their peers, yet too few of these children performed fundamental pedestrian safety behaviors.
- Teen pregnancy disproportionately impacts Latino adolescents in Texas, and Texas’ public schools enroll roughly 415,000 sexually experienced Latino students.
- As the Latino population continues to grow, combined with further federal investments in research, more academic research will be produced on Latino children.
The purpose of the journal is to inform legislative and policy decisions, as well as existing and innovative practice models, to improve child well-being.
As with all the work of CHILDREN AT RISK, this project represents tremendous collaboration across sectors and across our state and nation. The Journal of Applied Research on Children (JARC) is a product of the CHILDREN AT RISK Institute, an academically oriented policy and research collaborative focused on bringing the research and problem solving powers of the Texas higher education community to facilitate new and innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the children of our community, which also oversees the organization’s biennial publication Growing Up in Houston. The Journal is lead by co-Editors-in-Chief Angelo Giardino, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert Sanborn, Ed.D., and Associate Editors Christopher Greeley, M.D., F.A.A.P. and Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H., and an editorial board comprised of members of the CHILDREN AT RISK Institute—senior-level academics from higher education institutions across Texas. The Houston Academy of Medicine – Texas Medical Center Library has served (and continues to serve) as a tremendous partner in this project, and publishes the journal online in Digital Commons.
To read the first issue, please visit http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol1/iss1/.