Parent Service Use, Parenting Characteristics, and Child Outcomes Among Early Head Start Children and Families

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Family Partnership in Early Childhood

Abstract

This study used the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation database to examine the associations among parent service use, parenting behaviors, and their children’s developmental outcomes. A longitudinal path analysis was performed on a sample of 564 Early Head Start children and families. Findings suggest that after controlling for maternal education and poverty, the extent to which parents participated in parenting classes, parent support groups, or parent-child group socializations during birth to three were positively associated with their parenting behaviors (i.e., the quality of the home environment and parent supportiveness during a task) at the age of three. Parenting characteristics at age three were longitudinally related to child outcomes at pre-kindergarten in the areas of cognitive, social, and emotional development.

Authors

• Jisu Han, Sungkyunkwan University

• Marisa Leigh Schlieber, Southern Utah University