Poster #66 - Parent and Early Educator Perspectives on Child Well-Being: A Place-Based Investigation

• In Event: Poster Session 07

Abstract

Parents and early educators are critical to ensuring the education and well-being of young children. Programs and policies that are responsive to the range of young children’s needs are instrumental to enhancing the lives of young children. Understanding the perspectives of parents, educators, and communities on factors that facilitate or hinder well-being is essential to creating opportunities for young children to thrive. In particular, cultivating a place-based understanding of these individual and collective perspectives is crucial in helping local communities identify what matters most for young children—i.e., what it means for them to be doing well. This is equally important to surfacing what resources would best support young children, the adults in their lives, and the contexts in which they are nurtured.
This study aims to provide a place-based investigation of parents’ and early educators’ beliefs about what it means for a child from birth to the age of five to be doing well and what supports and acts as barriers to their well-being. This study draws on Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) bioecological systems model and collects information from individuals with the most direct influence on young children’s lives. Data were collected using structured virtual interviews with 23 parents and early educators from each of the 10 council districts in Philadelphia. At least one parent and educator in each district participated. Interviews lasted 45-70 minutes and were audio-recorded and transcribed.
The study team used an inductive and deductive process to establish a coding scheme. The scheme was piloted with a team of coders through iterative rounds of coding and review. During the piloting, coders participated in consensus discussions to refine coding procedures, clarify concepts, and ensure consistent code interpretation and application. The revised coding scheme was used to calculate inter-coder agreement using a random subset of 10% of the interviews before the remaining interviews were coded. All disagreements and questions were resolved through consensus. Once all interviews were coded, the team surfaced trends and patterns within and across groups.
The results are organized by three themes: understanding of, facilitators of, and barriers to child well-being. When asked for their thoughts on what it meant for a child to be doing well, parents and early educators characterized well-being as a child thriving socially and emotionally. Parents and early educators believed that a supportive home and early care and education setting as well as parent-educator communication and connection facilitate child well-being. Respondents reported issues related to parenting and parental knowledge of child development, community safety, and risks associated with systemic disadvantage (e.g., homelessness) as barriers to child well-being. Findings are summarized in Table 1.
Findings reinforce the importance of researchers and policymakers including parents’ and early educators’ views on their children’s learning and well-being as well as the strengths and challenges of local communities to better understand and support child well-being. This study surfaced parent and early educators’ knowledge, an underutilized source of information, to inform local practice and policy dialogues aimed at supporting the development of children in their unique contexts.

Authors

• Caroline DeWitt, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Vivian Lynette Gadsden, University of Pennsylvania

• Katherine Barghaus

• Cassandra Henderson, University of Pennsylvania