2-100 - Mechanisms to Enhance Executive Functions and Stress Physiology in Head Start Populations

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Since its inception, Head Start has provided children and families with enriched learning environments. However, multiple factors associated with poverty often compromise family well-being and parents' ability to provide necessary supports for children's healthy development (Yoshikawa et al., 2012). This has led to a call for interventions that target important predictors of long-term success, such as executive functions and stress physiology. Yet, little empirical evidence exists to guide programs in their selection of specific strategies to improve positive long-term child outcomes in impoverished families.

This symposium will address this call by presenting findings from three studies in a Head Start population. The first study examines the efficacy of a two-generation intervention impacting EF and physiology called Creating Connections: Strong Families, Strong Brains (CC). The second study examines a two-generation socio-emotional curriculum called Power PATH, impacting child EF, behavior, family well-being with a discussion of intervention moderators such as stress physiology. The third study considers the impact of child behavior, namely pretend-play, as a low-cost method for enhancing child EF. This symposium provides a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of systems important for school readiness and family well-being, such as executive function and stress physiology. Together these papers underscore the potential for developmental science to address disparities related to poverty.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama

Discussant

• John E. Lochman, University of Alabama

Individual Presentations

• Intergenerational Adversity: Executive Function and Stress Physiology in a Two-Generation Head Start Intervention - Presenting Author: Eric Pakulak, University of Oregon

• Power PATH: Integrated two-generation intervention for Head Start children and families - Presenting Author: Jason DeCaro, University of Alabama

• Pretend-Play as a Protective Factor for Executive Function and School Readiness Outcomes in Head Start - Presenting Author: Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama

Non-Presenting Authors

• Theodore Bell, University of Oregon

• Christina Karns, University of Oregon

• Ryan Giuliano, University of Manitoba

• Melissa Gomsrud, University of Oregon

• Scott Klein, University of Oregon

• Zayra Longoria, University of Oregon

• Lauren Vega O'Neil, University of Oregon

• Helen Neville, University of Oregon

• Caroline Boxmeyer, University of Alabama

• Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama

• John E. Lochman, University of Alabama

• Alexandra Nancarrow, University of Alabama

• Carmen Brown Farrell, University of Alabama

• Rachel Thibodeau, University of Missouri

• Jason DeCaro, University of Alabama