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

国家投资6.35亿美元，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措施，以支持家庭发挥“孩子的第一任老师”的作用。作为针对低收入儿童和家庭的最早的预防和干预计划之一，早期开端（EHS）结合了一个全面的“整个孩子”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（Sheridan, Marvin, Knoche, & Edwards, 2008）。作为这项国家倡议的一部分，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项目。这些机构已经将“家庭参与”确定为首要任务，但没有有效的措施来捕捉参加中心项目的幼儿家庭参与的多个维度。事实上，大多数措施侧重于追踪家庭参与的小时数，而不是收集有意义的措施，这些措施将有助于支持早期开端计划实施的家庭参与干预工作。

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.