Kyle DeMeo Cook , Kevin Ferreira van Leer , Jill Gandhi , Lisa Kuh
{"title":"What's missing? A multi-method approach to gaining a fuller understanding of early care and education decision-making","authors":"Kyle DeMeo Cook , Kevin Ferreira van Leer , Jill Gandhi , Lisa Kuh","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the absence of large-scale investments of public resources, families in many communities are faced with making early care and education (ECE) decisions within a set of limited options. There is a need to better understand how families make decisions in these environments, the factors that influence their decisions, the information they need and how specific program or community characteristics may play a role in their decisions. This study used a mixed methods approach, integrating administrative, survey and qualitative interview data to provide an in-depth look at family decision-making and access to ECE within one community. We found that families were using multiple types of ECE arrangements for their children. Families considered many factors and engaged in multiple activities. These factors and activities included informal networks and formal local resources, often used simultaneously to garner access to the ECE situations needed. Complicating the decision-making context is that decisions about care change over time, and across children in families with more than one child. In addition, families found accessing information to make their decisions challenging, time consuming, and that universal information was limited. These findings have implications for policy and practice as well as for how the field continues to study ECE access and decision-making. We found that all three data sources alone provided insights, each with their own benefits and limitations. However, deep understanding of a family's ECE decision-making over time and across the family was only gained through multiple data sources and with important insights gleaned through in-depth qualitative interviews. Future research can consider different combinations of methods to use to study ECE decision-making while weighing what is gained and lost when different methods are used.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 367-380"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erika Jokimies , Noora Heiskanen , Hannu Savolainen , Vesa Närhi
{"title":"Consultative roles of early childhood special education teachers: A modeler, an advisor, and a spontaneous practitioner","authors":"Erika Jokimies , Noora Heiskanen , Hannu Savolainen , Vesa Närhi","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study focused on the ways in which early childhood special education teachers (ECSETs) perform their consultative work and the prevailing structural factors that are connected to it. The significance and centrality of ECSETs’ consultative work have increased as a growing number of ECSETs provide consultative support to other personnel with the aim of enhancing support for children's daily lives in early childhood education and care (ECEC). However, we have limited research-based knowledge about the consultative work done by ECSETs. Therefore, a more comprehensive examination of consultative practices and the factors influencing them is needed. We administered a survey on ECSETs’ (<em>N</em> = 207) consultative work focusing on ECEC in Finland. Using cluster analysis, we identified three consultative work profiles in ECSETs’ practices: a modeler, an advisor, and a spontaneous practitioner. This exploratory study contributes to understanding ECSETs' consultative work, creating potential for further development in this area.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 358-366"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shannon T. Lipscomb , Alexis Merculief , Beth Phelps
{"title":"Measuring resilience in young children: The Child and Youth Resilience Measure- Early Childhood (CYRM-EC)","authors":"Shannon T. Lipscomb , Alexis Merculief , Beth Phelps","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Early childhood is a particularly important time to nurture resilience. Strengthening measurement of resilience processes for young children is essential to advancing resilience science and application. The current study provides an initial validation of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) for parent/caregiver-report during early childhood (CYRM-EC). Participants included 265 children in the U.S. ages 4–5 years (M = 5.07 years) in the spring prior to kindergarten. The sample varied substantially by annual household income (36% earning ≤ $35,000; 43% ≥ $75,000) and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs; 47% had ≥ 1; 17% had ≥ 3). Diversity in child race/ethnicity was limited (69.5% White/Caucasian, 17.9% more than one race, 9.4% Latinx/Hispanic, 1.6% Asian, 0.4% Native American/Alaska Native, and 1.2% other races/ethnicities). The 11-item Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Early Childhood demonstrated strong internal reliability (α = .81) and a single factor structure. This measure also exhibited concurrent validity with both individual (children's self-regulation and social skills) and relational (positive parenting) promotive and protective factors and processes, accounting for covariates including child age, gender, race/ethnicity, ACEs, parent education, and nesting by classroom. Findings further indicated evidence for predictive (concurrent) validity of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Early Childhood to better overall child health status and fewer teacher-rated externalizing behaviors, but not to early literacy or math scores. Longitudinal research with young children of varying ages and from more diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds is needed to advance understanding of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Early Childhood and to inform application for preventive interventions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 347-357"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Julia Steigleder , Lilly Buhr , Jan-Henning Ehm , Caterina Gawrilow , Antje von Suchodoletz
{"title":"Pandemic-related threats and well-being: A longitudinal study of preschool teachers in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Julia Steigleder , Lilly Buhr , Jan-Henning Ehm , Caterina Gawrilow , Antje von Suchodoletz","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Working conditions in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) changed significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand how these changes affected preschool teachers, a longitudinal study was conducted in Germany from September 2020 to February 2022, a period that covers different phases of the global health crisis. Multilevel models were used to observe phase-specific changes and to test whether preschool teachers’ emotion regulation strategies moderated relationships between COVID-19 infection threat, economic threat, affective well-being, and COVID-19 related mental strain. A total of 388 preschool teachers (<em>M</em> = 37.54 years) participated in the online survey study (<em>M</em>=4.78 out of max. 16 participations). Results highlighted phases of higher and lower COVID-19 related threat perception and showed associations between perceived infection and economic threat and affective well-being and mental strain. Findings indicated that the extent of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression moderated the associations between COVID-19 infection threat and positive affect, as well as the association between economic threat and mental strain. Phase-specific changes and differences in change rates were discussed in the context of potential prevention and intervention measures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 320-333"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antje von Suchodoletz , Christin Camia , Amina Maliki , Mariam S. Alwahedi , Michelle P. Kelly
{"title":"Parenting programs in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region: A multilevel meta-analysis","authors":"Antje von Suchodoletz , Christin Camia , Amina Maliki , Mariam S. Alwahedi , Michelle P. Kelly","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.013","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.013","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Parenting programs worldwide provide families with essential knowledge and skills to foster positive child development. Meta-analyses on the effectiveness of parenting programs for parent and child outcomes predominantly included families from so-called WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Democratic) countries. Expanding upon existing meta-analyses, the current study focused solely on Middle East/North Africa (MENA) countries through a systematic search of the literature for records that evaluated the effectiveness of parenting programs delivered during early childhood (birth to eight years). A total of 395 effect sizes of parent outcomes and 190 effect sizes of child outcomes were obtained from 29 studies. Using multilevel meta-analytic models, the pooled effects suggested that parenting programs had a positive effect on parent (<em>g</em> = 1.01) and child outcomes (<em>g</em> = 1.43). An examination of publication bias suggested that the effects were robust. Moderator analyses showed trends suggesting that the overall effect may be influenced by program, study, and sample characteristics. Greater improvement of parent outcomes was not associated with greater improvement of child outcomes. Together, parenting programs may be promising support services for parents in MENA countries, with the potential of enhancing parenting and promoting psychosocial health and well-being for parents and children. Further implementation research is needed in MENA countries to increase knowledge about mechanisms and processes underlying effective parenting programs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 334-346"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Profiles of home language environment in Head Start classrooms: Patterns and associated developmental skills for Spanish-English dual language learners","authors":"Ji-Young Choi , Ye Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study utilized nationally representative data from Head Start programs (FACES 2014) to identify profiles of classrooms based on their practices and environments relevant to Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs). We then compared DLLs’ development across the identified classroom profiles over the preschool year. Finally, we explored whether the potential effect of classroom profiles on early development varies by DLL status, distinguishing between Bilinguals and Emergent Bilinguals. Latent profile analysis identified three classroom profiles: (a) High home language support with a Spanish-speaking lead teacher (High HL, Spanish LT; 34.2%), (b) High home language support with a non-Spanish-speaking lead teacher (High HL, non-Spanish LT; 26.9%), and (c) Low home language support (Low HL; 38.9%). DLLs in High HL, Spanish LT classrooms presented higher teacher-reported social skills than those in Low HL classrooms. Moderation analyses revealed that Bilinguals in High HL, Spanish LT classrooms presented higher social skills and fewer behavioral problems than those in High HL, non-Spanish LT classrooms, and higher approaches to learning skills than those in Low HL classrooms, as reported by teachers. Children's language and math achievement over a preschool year did not differ across classroom profiles. These findings highlight the importance of strong home language support in classroom environments for enhancing DLLs' social-emotional skills and learning behaviors, particularly for Bilinguals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 298-309"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annette Pic , Janette E. Herbers , Laura E. Wallace , McKenna M. Halverson , Sarah C. Vrabic , J.J. Cutuli
{"title":"Child care usage among families with young children staying in homeless shelters","authors":"Annette Pic , Janette E. Herbers , Laura E. Wallace , McKenna M. Halverson , Sarah C. Vrabic , J.J. Cutuli","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.11.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Families living in homeless shelters with young children (birth-36 months) face a variety of complex challenges which make it difficult to locate and maintain child care enrollment. Although the inequitable access to child care for families in shelter has been documented, little is known about the factors that predict child care usage among families experiencing homelessness. This investigation utilized interviews of 150 parents with children ages birth-36 months residing in nine different homeless shelters to identify: how many families used center-based care, how many families relied only on parental care, and what other types of nonparental child care arrangements families utilized. Next, we investigated whether usage of center-based child care was associated with child and family characteristics of race/ethnicity, unemployment, time spent in shelter, reasons for seeking shelter, and parent depression symptoms. Data for this study came from three data collection efforts considering risk and resilience factors among families with infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness. Parents in this study reported using nonparental child care at lower rates than the general population. Employed parents were more likely to use center-based child care, and families who reported their child's race/ethnicity as Black or African American were less likely to report using center-based child care. Findings have implications for policy considerations necessary to support the use of center-based child care among families living in homeless shelters.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 310-319"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142653297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mothers’ Perceptions of the Jewish–Arab Conflict and Social Information Processing Patterns: Relations to Their Children's Stereotypical Perceptions, Social Information Processing Patterns, and Social Adjustment in Preschool","authors":"Yazeed Mohammad Ghanayim, Yair Ziv","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One of the most intractable conflicts in the world is the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which has resulted in considerable losses, destructions, and sufferings for both societies. Such national conflicts had been found to relate to children's social perceptions and behaviors.</div><div>Consequently, the current study aims to examine the associations between Israeli Jewish and Arab mothers' and children's stereotypical perceptions of the others ethnic/national group (the outgroup; Brewer, 1999), their social information processing (SIP) patterns (i.e., their perceptions of common social situations), and children's social adaptation in kindergarten.</div><div>One hundred and twenty-one Arab-Muslim and Jewish preschoolers and their mothers from the Northern part of Israel participated in this study. During a home visit, mothers read to their child a book with 16 scenarios presenting Jewish and Arab families and individuals. Some of the scenarios were stereotypical and other were counter stereotypical (e.g., a Jewish family showing a behavior that is considered stereotypical Arab behavior, see Figure 2). Additionally, mothers completed questionnaires about their intergroup perceptions with the others national group (Arabs/ Jewish), and the way they view common daily social situations (their SIP), and sociodemographic characteristics of the family. children's SIP patterns were assessed through interview, and the kindergarten teacher completed questionnaires on children's social skills and problem behaviors.</div><div>A structural equation model (SEM) was constructed with the final empirical solution including two latent variables: the mothers’ Positive SIP, her Positive Ethnic Group perception; and three observed variables: the child stereotypes, and child aggressive response evaluation and decision (RED) and maladjusted social behaviors.</div><div>We found negative associations between the mother's positive perceptions of the outgroup, their positive SIP and children's stereotypes, as well as between mother's positive SIP and their children's negative SIP and maladjusted social behaviors. Additionally, Children's negative SIP was positively associated with their stereotypes, and maladjusted social behaviors. Moreover, a positive marginal association was found between children's stereotypes and their maladjusted social behavior. Although our findings explain only a relatively small portion of variation in children's maladjusted social perceptions and behaviors, they still highlight the role of maternal perceptions and SIP in shaping children's intergroup attitudes and social adjustment in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 287-297"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142572882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sumudu R. Mallawaarachchi , Jeromy Anglim , Sharon Horwood
{"title":"Types and contexts of child mobile screen use and associations with early childhood behavior","authors":"Sumudu R. Mallawaarachchi , Jeromy Anglim , Sharon Horwood","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With past research largely focusing on overall time spent using screen media (including televisions), little is known about how the type and context of mobile screen use in early childhood is associated with children's behavior. The current study aimed to examine how the proportions of time spent on types of engagement (program viewing vs. interactive app use) and social contexts (solo vs. co-use) of mobile screen use were associated with internalizing and externalizing behavior in early childhood, examined along with stability and change in patterns of use over a one-year period. Parents of young children (n = 536; 52% toddlers aged 1 to <3 and 48% preschoolers aged 3 to <6) completed measures of child mobile screen use (i.e., smartphone and tablet), traditional media use (e.g., television), and internalizing and externalizing behavior. A majority of early childhood mobile screen use was spent on program viewing, while interactive educational app use was the second most common activity. Over a one-year period, children were relatively stable in their type of engagement, and social contexts of use. There were no significant cross-sectional associations of behavior with types of engagement or social contexts of use. Nevertheless, contrary to the hypothesis, a lower proportion of program viewing (i.e., higher proportion of interactive engagement on games or apps) at baseline was associated with greater externalizing behavior at one-year follow-up in toddlers. The stability findings suggest that early childhood may be a crucial time within which persistent screen use patterns and habits are formed. The inconsistent associations of types and social contexts of mobile screen use with behavior show that other factors such as content, associated interactions and purpose of use may need to be considered to better understand how use of mobile technology may be implicated in early childhood psychosocial development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 274-286"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142552775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gospel Y. Kim , Kathleen N. Tuck , Mallory M. Eddy , Ankita Bhattashali , Kathryn M. Bigelow
{"title":"Caregivers’ perceptions on caregiver-implemented intervention and coaching","authors":"Gospel Y. Kim , Kathleen N. Tuck , Mallory M. Eddy , Ankita Bhattashali , Kathryn M. Bigelow","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although caregiver-implemented interventions are effective in promoting the development of young children with delays and/or disabilities, there has been limited understanding of how caregivers perceive caregiver-implemented intervention and coaching practices. This study aimed to explore caregivers’ perceptions of their experiences as intervention agents for their young children with delays and/or disabilities receiving early intervention services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six caregivers. Qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Using caregivers’ reports, we identified facilitators and barriers to caregiver coaching, caregiver-implemented intervention, and other contextual factors. Findings indicated caregivers had positive perceptions of effective coaching strategies, strong caregiver-provider relationships, and a systematic instructional approach. The need for individualization was captured in both caregiver coaching and intervention practices. We discussed further findings and implications with recommendations for research and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"70 ","pages":"Pages 264-273"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142538643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}