1-013 - Family Engagement in Early Childhood: New Findings Across Developmental Periods, Intervention Types, and Ecological Settings

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Research has long established the central role families play in promoting children’s positive early development. Yet, studies of parents in this period are too often siloed, with little synthesis of learning and theories across developmental periods, intervention types, and ecological settings. This paper symposium brings together new research focused on family engagement in the 0-5 period that spans the infancy, toddler, preschool, and kindergarten transition periods, and different intervention or program types. The first paper examines the types of home-learning activities families engage in while their children are enrolled in prekindergarten, whether these activities differ by family SES, and the value-added of these activities in contributing to children’s learning. The second paper examines how parent-school engagement varies across the prekindergarten year and across rural versus urban settings. The third paper examines which families actively participate in a multi-tiered 0-3 intervention designed to address poverty-related disparities through universal parenting program and a secondary/tertiary prevention program at home. The fourth paper examines impacts of a parenting program designed to support children’s transition from Head Start to kindergarten on children’s executive function skills and mediational pathways to third-grade academic skills. This symposium offers a rare opportunity for the kind of synthesis and cross-setting learning necessary to inform the next generation of family engagement research.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Christina Weiland, University of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• The Added Value of Learning Activities at Home During the Preschool Year - Presenting Author: Meghan McCormick, MDRC; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Ketner, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: Christina Weiland, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: JoAnn Hsueh, MDRC; Non-Presenting Author: Catherine Snow, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Jason Sachs, Boston Public Schools

• Parent Engagement in Rural and Urban Contexts - Presenting Author: Susan Sheridan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Lisa Knoche, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Witte, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Natalie Koziol, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Understanding parental engagement in tiered prevention in primary care: Predictors of participation in Smart Beginnings - Presenting Author: Elizabeth B Miller, New York Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Caitlin Canfield, NY UMC; Non-Presenting Author: Pamela A. Morris, New York Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Carolyn Brockmeyer Cates, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Alan L. Mendelsohn, New York University School of Medicine

• Gains in Executive Functions Support Sustained Intervention Effects in a Parent-Focused School Readiness Intervention - Presenting Author: John Loughlin-Presnal, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Karen Bierman, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Janet Welsh, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Robert Nix, University of Wisconsin