DEVELOPING A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MEASURE OF FAMILY ENGAGEMENT FOR TODDLERS IN THE EARLY HEAD START PROGRAM: A MIXED METHODS APPROACH

国家投资了6.35亿加元，通过早期开端-儿童保育伙伴关系和扩大赠款，支持婴幼儿早期干预工作。EHS的重点是可持续的干预努力，以支持家庭发挥“儿童的第一任教师”的作用。“作为低收入儿童和家庭最早的预防和干预计划之一，早期开端（EHS）采用了一种全面的“全儿童”和两代人的方法，承认父母在孩子的早期学习和社会情感发展中发挥的基础作用（谢里丹，马文，诺奇和爱德华兹，2008年）。作为这项全国性倡议的一部分，三个当地的迈阿密-戴德社区机构（迈阿密-戴德县/门罗早期学习联盟、迈阿密戴德县行动和人类服务部;迈阿密-戴德县联合之路）得到资助，以实施高质量的早期开端中心方案。这些机构已经确定“参与家庭”作为首要任务，但没有经过验证的措施，捕捉家庭参与的幼儿参加中心为基础的计划的多个方面。事实上，大多数措施侧重于跟踪家庭参与小时数，而不是收集有意义的措施，这将有助于支持家庭参与干预努力实施的早期开端计划。 本论文项目将与EHS工作人员和家庭合作开发一种家庭参与措施，适用于参加中心计划的幼儿种族多样化家庭。该项目的目标如下：（1）从EHS家庭支持人员、教师、和种族多样性的幼儿家庭（2）开发和获得结构效度证据，用于衡量与种族多样性的幼儿早期启蒙家庭相关的家庭参与（3）通过考察家庭投入量表与其他家庭投入量表、儿童社会情绪技能、和语言的结果和（4）调查的实际效用的家庭参与措施，在早期的头部启动计划，通知适当和有效的家庭干预工作。 该项目将导致第一个有效的措施，家庭参与可用于种族多样化的幼儿家庭在中心为基础的计划。此外，将与EHS计划共同构建使用该措施并与教师和家庭分享结果的实用方法。这将有助于方案管理人员使用新制定的措施来实施和不断改进家庭干预工作。

There has been a national investment of $635 million dollars to support early intervention efforts for infants and toddlers through the Early Head Start (EHS)-Child Care partnerships and expansion grants. EHS focuses on sustainable intervention efforts to support families in their role "as children's first teachers." As one of the earliest prevention and intervention programs for low-income children and families, Early Head Start (EHS) incorporates a comprehensive "whole child" and two-generational approach that acknowledges the foundational role that parents play in their children's early learning and social-emotional development (Sheridan, Marvin, Knoche, & Edwards, 2008). As part of this national initiative, three local Miami-Dade community agencies (Miami-Dade County/Monroe Early Learning Coalition, Miami Dade County Action and Human Services Department; The United Way of Miami-Dade County) were funded to implement high-quality Early Head Start center-based programs. These agencies have identified "engaging families" as a top priority, yet there are no validated measures that capture multiple dimensions of family engagement for toddlers enrolled in center-based programs. In fact, most measures focus on tracking the number of family participation hours, rather than collecting meaningful measures that will help support family engagement intervention efforts implemented by Early Head Start programs. This dissertation project will develop a family engagement measure in partnership with EHS staff and families that is appropriate for use with ethnically diverse families of toddlers enrolled in center-based programs. The project has the following objectives: (1) To gain an understanding of family engagement from the perspective of EHS family support staff, teachers, and ethnically diverse families of toddlers (2) To develop and obtain construct validity evidence for a measure of family engagement that is relevant for ethnically diverse Early Head Start families of toddlers (3) To investigate the concurrent validity of the family engagement measure by examining its relationship with other family engagement measures, children's social emotional skills, and language outcomes and (4) To investigate the practical utility of the family engagement measure in informing appropriate and effective family intervention efforts in the Early Head Start programs. This project will result in the first validated measure of family engagement available for ethnically diverse families of toddlers in center-based programs. Additionally, practical ways to use the measure and share results with teachers and families will be co-constructed with EHS programs. This will facilitate program administrators' use of the newly developed measure for implementation and continuous improvement of family intervention efforts.