Daphne C. Hernandez

image of Daphne C. Hernandez

Ph.D., Boston College, 2005

Assistant Professor of Human Development

Contact Information

119 South Henderson
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802

(814) 867-2245

dch19@psu.edu

Research

I study vulnerable populations and how individual, contextual, and policy factors contribute to children’s development and families’ heath and well-being. I have focused on three specific vulnerable populations:

Fathers and Family Health & Well-being

I have focused on addressing methodological concerns surrounding measurement and reporter biases in survey measures of father involvement. In addition, I have investigated how family characteristics and mother-father relationship contributes to nonresident and resident father involvement.
Building upon my delinquency and fatherhood research, I conducted a study during my postdoctoral tenure on incarcerated fathers and the mother of their children, which was funded by the National Poverty Center. I interviewed 30 young fathers (between the ages of 20-35 years of age) who have a child that is 6 years or younger. Half of the sample was recruited through parenting classes that are offered in the jail; the other half was recruited from the general inmate population. A life-history approach was used in the semi-structured interviews, allowing inmates to give detailed narratives. A short survey at the end of the interview explored inmates' involvement with the criminal justice system and services (provided by the jail). I also interviewed 12 of the corresponding mothers of the children. I am currently analyzing this data and hope to pursue more inmate/prison-related research.

Currently, I am investigating how human capital and health contributes to fathers’ engagement in regular and underground economies. I am also collaborating with two HDFS graduate students. Emily Doyle and I are investigating how father involvement during early childhood is related to his health. Beth Riina and I are exploring how father incarceration influences father and mother consensus of coparenting support. All three projects use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW)

Antipoverty Policies on Children’s Development

Through my Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, I received training in poverty and public policy at the National Poverty Center , allowing me the opportunity to further study the effects of antipoverty policies on children's development. Specifically, I have been focusing on the effects of food assistance program participation and food insecurity on children's health and well-being. The first project investigated the association between changes in family structure and income volatility on food stamp program participation. I am co-investigator on two USDA Research, Innovation, and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) and principal investigator on another one. The first RIDGE grant (PI: Kathleen Ziol-Guest, Harris/USDA Grant 2006-2007) has funded 2 papers. The first paper explores the effect of participation in the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program on infant feeding practices using data from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). The second paper investigates the association between the Food Stamp Program and the WIC program on infant growth, health, and maternal breastfeeding practices using the FFCW data. In the second RIDGE grant (PI: Alison Jacknowitz, IRP/USDA Grant 2007-2008), I use the ECLS-B data to explore the effects of transitional and persistent child and adult food insecurity on toddler development. The last project is in collaboration with Dr. Lori Francis. In this project we investigate how food assistance programs contribute to weight status trajectories using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K).

At-risk Adolescents and their Risk Taking Behaviors

For my dissertation, I investigated family and neighborhood characteristics that contribute to gender differences in adolescent trajectories of delinquency. Currently, I am collaborating with Dr. Elizabeth Susman to investigate how cortisol and testosterone are related to relational aggression in a sample of rural youth.

Currently Funded Research Projects

Trends in Food Assistance Program Participation on Childhood Weight Trajectories. United States Department of Agriculture Research Innovation and Development Grant in Economics (RIDGE) Grant, 2008-2009, (Principal Investigator)

There is a current debate in the literature as to whether participation in food assistance program(s), which are geared to reduce poor nutrition, is consequently contributing to an increase in weight gain among participants. Given the adverse health and economic consequences related to being overweight and the fact that children are the participants in the school nutrition programs (e.g., National School Lunch Program [NSLP], School Breakfast Program [SBP]) and make up the majority of the participants in the Food Stamp Program (FSP), understanding how participation in various food assistance programs influence patterns of change in weight is needed. Using four waves of data drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), a nationally-representative, longitudinal study of children’s development from kindergarten through grade 5, we investigate how trends in participation in various food assistance programs is related to school-aged children’s weight status trajectories over time. Specifically, we address the following three questions:

  1. How does the level of participation at each grade level influence the initial level and rate of change in children’s body mass index (BMI) over time? In other words, how does participation in specific programs (e.g., FSP only, NSLP only, SBP only, Both NLSP & SBP, All 3 programs) influence childhood weight trajectories?
  2. How does the duration of participation in food assistance programs influence initial level and rate of change in children’s BMI? In order words, how does persistent program participation, transitional participation, and no program participation influence childhood weight trajectories?
  3. How do the above trends vary by gender?

The Effect of Food Insecurity on the Physical, Cognitive, and Socio-emotional Development of Infants and Toddlers, United States Department of Agriculture Research, Innovation, and Development Grant in Economics (RIDGE) Grant, 2007-2008, (Co-Investigator)

This study uses the first two waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to examine the effect of food insecurity on physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental outcomes of children at nine months and two years of age. Specifically, the research investigates these questions:

Education

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, A.B., 1998, Psychology

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, MSEd, 2000, Psychological Services

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, Ph.D., 2005, Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology

Professional Experience

2007 – Present Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University

2007 – Present Research Associate, Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University

2007 Visiting Scholar, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison

2005 – 2007 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Research and Training Program on Poverty and Public Policy, University of Michigan

2006 – 2007 Washtenaw County Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative (MPRI)

2006 – 2007 Association of Public Policy and Management (APPAM) Web Site Committee

2004 – 2005 Boston College Education Policy Committee

2001 – 2005 Educational Consultant, Developmental Medicine Center, Children’s Hospital of Boston

2000 – 2001 Guardian ad Litem, Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project, Boston College Law

1999 – 2000 Clinical Intern, Youth Study Center (Juvenile Detention Center) and Kirkbride Child/Adolescent Outpatient, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

1999 – 2000 Head Diving Coach, University of Pennsylvania

Publications

Hernandez, D. C. & Coley, R. L. (2007). A multidimensional measure of father involvement among low-income families. Who is a reliable and valid reporter? Parenting: Science and Practice, 7 (1), 69-97.

Coley, R. L, & Hernandez, D. C. (2006). Predictors of paternal involvement for resident and nonresident low-income fathers. Developmental Psychology, 42, 1041-1056

Coley, R.L., Morris, J.E., & Hernandez, D. (2004). Out-of-school care and problem behavior trajectories among low-income adolescents: Individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics as added risks. Child Development 75 (3) 948-965.

Weissenberger, A. A., Dell, M. L., Liow, K., Frattalli, C. M., Hernandez, D., Zametkin, A. J. (2001). Aggression and psychiatric comorbidity in children with hypothalamic hamartomas and their unaffected siblings. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.