Poster #182 - Parenting Quality and Toddlers’ Emotional Regulation in Early Head Start Programs: Program Type as a Moderator

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - School Readiness/Childcare

Integrative Statement

Early Head Start is a one of the largest federally funded early intervention program that serves infants and toddlers and families from low-income backgrounds, with goals to promote healthy family functioning and positive child outcomes (Early Head Start National Resource Center, 2008). One of the key mechanisms in which the program leads to positive change is to promote parenting quality through partnerships between teachers and families. EHS offers different program types such as home- and center-based programs (see more details of program description in the method) that differ by structure and process to address families’ needs (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). For example, home visiting programs often directly target parents to lead to long-term effects on children but with a lower intensity of the intervention than center-based programs (biweekly home visits vs. daily basis center-based services). Thus, it is possible that parenting quality and child and parent outcomes may differ by program type (Elicker, Wen, Kwon, & Sprague, 2013; Ramey & Ramey, 1998) but little research on family engagement in EHS included parenting quality and child outcomes in both program models. We sought to fill the gap by comparing parenting quality and child social-emotional outcomes in two types of programs and examining a moderating role of the program type.

Method
The present study used the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study (Baby FACES; Vogel & Boller, 2009-2012). We created two sub-groups (home-and center-based programs) for the present 1) children in home-based program (n= 207) and 2) children in center-based program in EHS (n=285). For this study, first, we conducted mean difference and Chi-Square tests to examine group differences between home-and center-based programs. Second, we investigated moderation models to test interaction effects between parenting quality and the types of EHS programs on children’s developmental outcomes

Results and discussion.
Table 1 provides results obtained from group difference tests. Most of the child outcomes at age 3 were significantly higher in children in center-based programs than children in home-based programs except for social competence. However, child developmental outcomes at age 2 were not significantly different between the two groups except for problem behaviors. For parent outcomes, all three parenting skills (i.e., parental sensitivity, intrusiveness, & cognitive stimulation) at child age 3 were not significantly different between families in the two program types. One significant difference in parenting skills at child age 2 was found that parents in home-based programs showed significantly higher scores in parental intrusiveness than parents in center-based programs. In addition, there were significant differences in some child and family characteristics by type of programs. We found a moderation effect (see Figure 1) between the types of EHS program and parental sensitivity on children’s emotional regulation skills at age 3. The result suggested that high parental sensitivity in home-based programs may compensate the lack of group experience which can affect children’s self-regulation skills. Results will be further discussed.

Authors

• Shinyoung Jeon, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
  Presenting Author

• Kyong-Ah Kwon, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shannon Guss, Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI) at University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Samantha Evans, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tonya Thomas, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sherri Castle, University of Oklahoma Tulsa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adrien Malek, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa & Early Childhood Education Institute
  Non-Presenting Author