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This study examines the mechanisms through which a risk factor such as poverty exerts its well-established negative effects on child development. Following the work of Baldwin, Baldwin, Kasser, Zax, Sameroff & Seifer (1993), risk factors were classified by theoretical proximity to the child into distal intermediate and proximal risk indices. Focusing on socio-emotional competence, this study tested the theory that distal factors, such as poverty, influence competence largely through effects on more proximal factors, such as family functioning. Participants were 25 preschoolers who were enrolled in Head Start programs in Southern New England and their families. Parents completed self-report questionnaires that provided information on 10 risk factors, including family functioning. Observer reports of family functioning were also obtained during home visits in which families were videotaped having a meal together. Information on children's socio-emotional competence in three domains--Regulatory Skills, Maladaptive Behaviours, and Social Relatedness, was obtained through teacher and experimenter ratings done in the children's Head Start classrooms. Hierarchical multiple regressions were performed using the three risk indices to predict each of the domains of socio-emotional competence. Contrary to expectations, none of the risk indices predicted children's socio-emotional competence. Moreover, a cumulative risk index formed by tallying risk factors was not significantly associated with children's socio-emotional competence, and only two risk factors were associated with developmental outcomes (maternal depression and family social support). Results regarding the nature of family functioning in poor families unexpectedly varied with the assessor. Observers rated the majority of families' Overall Family Functioning in the unhealthy range, while most parents rated their families' Overall Family Functioning in the healthy range. Moreover, mothers rated their Overall Family.
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.
Since its beginning in 1965 as a part of the War on Poverty, Head Start's goal has been to boost the school readiness of low-income children. Based on a 'whole child' model, the program provides comprehensive services that include pre-school education; medical, dental, and mental health care; nutrition services; and efforts to help parents foster their child's development. Head Start services are designed to be responsive to each child's and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage. The Congressionally-mandated Head Start Impact Study was conducted across 84 nationally representative grantee/delegate agencies. Approximately 5,000 newly entering 3- and 4-year-old children applying for Head Start were randomly assigned to either a Head Start group that had access to Head Start program services or to a non- Head Start group that could enrol in available community non-Head Start services, selected by their parents. Data collection began in fall 2002 and is scheduled to continue through 2006, following children through the spring of their 1st-grade year. The study quantifies the impact of Head Start separately for 3- and 4-year-old children across child cognitive, social-emotional, and health domains as well as ii on parenting practices. This book is essential reading for those in the education field.
The problems of studying families arise from the difficulty in studying systems where there are multiple elements interacting with each other and with the child. How should this system be described? Still other problems relate to indirect effects; namely the influence of a particular dyad's interaction on the child when the child is not a member of the dyad. While all agree that the mother-father relationship has important bearing on the child's development, exactly how to study this--especially using observational techniques--remains a problem. While progress in studying the family has been slow, there is no question that an increase in interest in the family systems, as opposed to the mother-child relationship, is taking place. This has resulted in an increase in research on families and their effects. This volume, by leading figures in child development on families, attests to the growing sophistication of the conceptualization and measurement techniques for getting at family processes. The third in a series that aims to address topics relevant to the developmental problems and developmental disabilities of retardation, this volume is divided into two parts. Section 1 presents basic family processes and approaches for describing family dynamics. It deals with these issues from a broad perspective, including studying families at dinner, families in different cultural contexts, and the understanding of family in nonhuman primates. Section 2 looks at family processes in the service of studying families at-risk. The risk factors include poverty, malnutrition, and developmental delay and retardation. The study of family processes in these contexts provides data on family dynamics as well as how these dynamics impact on the children's developing competence. This volume will be informative for researchers, clinicians, and educators from a variety of disciplines and settings. The editors' aim is to bring a greater clarity to issues concerning the family life of children and highlight new research and possibilities for intervention.
Are you prepared to deliver effective services to a wide range of families and family situations? Diverse Families, Competent Families provides human service professionals with a portrait of the real lives and practical challenges of our nation's families as they face a new millennium. It examines family adaptation and competence in a variety of contexts and situations such as, day-to-day issues of coping and survival, as well as major milestones such as sending children off to school and becoming a caregiver for a family member. This unique book also spans multiple levels of families’existence, examining home, school, and the larger community to provide you with an understanding of the societal dynamics that can have an influence on families. With Diverse Families, Competent Families, you'll explore: the need to reexamine the ways that single parent families are viewed, and the risks inherent in over-generalizing about this type of family ways that men can make the most of their experience as fathers the relationship between parents’perceptions of teacher behavior and how willing they are to become involved at school the ways in which changes or disruptions in a family's functioning can influence their children's academic skills the results of an innovative intervention for “sandwiched” generation mothers who must simultaneously care for an older family member and attend to the needs of their own children ways to help Mexican immigrant parents feel more effective in their parenting roles In Diverse Families, Competent Families, you will discover new, and positive ways to view families, particularly ethnic minority families, low-income families, immigrant families, and families who are coping with specific life stressors such as financial loss, unemployment, divorce, and death.
Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.
With an emphasis on promoting self-reliance, autonomy and independence, this exciting new book provides a contemporary and holistic analysis of the childhood resilience. It recognises 'resilience in childhood' as a complex construct, critically deconstructs it by drawing upon a wide range of academic disciplines and practices, and provides an account of the factors that help and hinder the development of resilience during childhood and adolescence. Part I unpacks definitions of resilience and its "construction" over the last 50 years. Part II examines psychological, sociological and neurobiological perspectives that contribute to our understanding of how childhood resilience can be developed and fostered. Part III explores strategies and approaches relating theory to current intervention practice and policy drivers. Application to professional practice within a multi-agency context is explored throughout. Importantly, this book seeks to develop the notion of 'the promise of resilience' and establish the bond between capabilities built up in childhood and the promise of a positive successful future. Efforts to foster and build effective skills that lead to resilience will result in long-lasting abilities to positively navigate through life's challenges and to become the key architect of one's own success in later life.
The first three years of life play a crucial role in setting the stage for later adjustment and success. For children with disabilities, children at risk, and even for healthy infants and toddlers born into well-functioning families, support and early intervention can foster optimal growth and development. This concise and readable guide presents a developmentally sound framework for strengths-based intervention with parents and young children. The volume is filled with practical suggestions for building positive family relationships, cultivating parental knowledge and understanding of child development, and enhancing family support systems. Also featured is an extensive annotated bibliography that describes a wealth of additional resources for professionals and parents. Grounded in research and informed by wisdom from the field, this book provides essential knowledge and skills for professionals and students across a range of health care, social service, and educational disciplines.