This study documented that nearly half of a large national sample of Head Start and Early Head Start children enrolled in participating programs experienced adversity and that this adversity is ...related to their learning and development. However, children in the programs, including those who had experienced adversity, had better outcomes in some domains if they had longer durations in their early childhood programs. Implications of these findings include the need to a) understand the experiences of the children and families in Head Start as part of preventing and reducing adversity; b) address the effects of adversity in instructional and other interventions to promote children's learning and development; and c) work to retain high risk families through targeted programming and professional development.
Changes in distress and problem behaviors of 38 infants/toddlers were examined after children transitioned from familiar to new classrooms to look at effects of non-continuity of caregiver. Child's ...age, classroom quality, teacher sensitivity, and transitioning with a peer were examined as possible mediators. Results suggest that transitions were associated with increased distress, especially for younger children. In addition, although overall classroom quality was low, children in higher quality pre-transition classrooms showed more distress after transitioning than children in lower quality classrooms. Transitions were associated with decreased problem behaviors. Both distress and problem behaviors returned to pre-transition levels within 3 weeks. Teacher sensitivity and transitioning with a peer did not relate to distress or problem behaviors. These findings contribute evidence about immediate effects of infant/toddler transitions in child care. Future research should explore child, classroom, and teacher–child relationship variables that influence effects of continuity versus non-continuity of caregiver.
This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effects of a supplementary preschool classroom music and movement curriculum on Head Start children's language skills. The curriculum consisted of ...sequenced music and movement activities conducted by outside interventionists. The evaluation compared the language skills of children attending either intervention or comparison classrooms. Results revealed that children receiving the intervention made greater gains in teacher-rated communication skills than children in the comparison group. Results for receptive language and phonological awareness indicated no significant differences between groups. These findings provide limited support for the beneficial effects of offering specialized music and movement curricula to preschool-age children.
This article describes a music and movement intervention for children in preschool classrooms. The intervention, consisting of sequenced music and movement activities, has been studied as a ...curriculum conducted by outside interventionists (
Yazejian & Peisner-Feinberg, 2009
/this issue) with results providing some support for the beneficial effects of the program. This article describes the curriculum and provides recommendations for how classroom teachers might adapt the activities for use in Head Start and other preschool classrooms.
Studies have shown that adversity in childhood has harmful effects on well-being across the lifespan. This study examined the prevalence of children's cumulative experiences of adversity, based on ...parent report, in a national sample of low-income children (N=3,208) enrolled in a high quality early childhood education (ece) program. It explored the association between family adversity that occurred within the year prior to the parents' interview and the child's well-being measured after the interview. Well-being was based on language, school readiness, and social emotional outcomes. Almost half of all families reported experiencing at least one adversity. Family adversity was associated with worse school readiness and health outcomes. Adversity had mixed associations with socialemotional outcomes and no association with language outcomes. This study also explored time enrolled in ece (dosage) as a protective or promotive factor in relation to adversity. Time in program had a positive relationship to most child outcomes and could be interpreted as a promotive factor within the context of adversity for all outcomes except behavioral concerns.
This study documented that nearly half of a large national sample of Head Start and Early Head Start children enrolled in participating programs experienced adversity and that this adversity is ...related to their learning and development. However, children in the programs, including those who had experienced adversity, had better outcomes in some domains if they had longer durations in their early childhood programs. Implications of these findings include the need to a) understand the experiences of the children and families in Head Start as part of preventing and reducing adversity; b) address the effects of adversity in instructional and other interventions to promote children's learning and development; and c) work to retain high risk families through targeted programming and professional development.
Studies have shown that adversity in childhood has harmful effects on well-being across the lifespan. This study examined the prevalence of children's cumulative experiences of adversity, based on ...parent report, in a national sample of low-income children (N=3,208) enrolled in a high quality early childhood education (ece) program. It explored the association between family adversity that occurred within the year prior to the parents' interview and the child's well-being measured after the interview. Well-being was based on language, school readiness, and social emotional outcomes. Almost half of all families reported experiencing at least one adversity. Family adversity was associated with worse school readiness and health outcomes. Adversity had mixed associations with socialemotional outcomes and no association with language outcomes. This study also explored time enrolled in ece (dosage) as a protective or promotive factor in relation to adversity. Time in program had a positive relationship to most child outcomes and could be interpreted as a promotive factor within the context of adversity for all outcomes except behavioral concerns.
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between school identification and school dropout using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). School ...identification was conceptualized as having components of belonging (social support and participation) and value (the extent to which students value school). Factor analyses were used to create school identification scales from individual NELS:88 items. Three school identification factors were found: (a) teacher supportiveness, (b) classroom participation, and (c) valuing school. These three factors were confirmed with a hold-out sample, and the equality of the factor structure and loadings was confirmed across gender/ethnic, urbanicity, and SES subgroups. In addition to the three school identification factors, eighth grade measures of achievement, retention history, parental aspirations, and demographic characteristics, which have all been shown in previous research to relate to dropout, were included in the analysis. Students' dropout status as of the 12th grade was regressed onto these 8th grade measures along with the three school identifcation factors using logistic regression. Analyses indicated that the set of three school identification factors made a significant contribution in predicting dropout, above and beyond the contribution made by the academic, demographic, and parental aspiration variables. However, within the set of school identification factors, only Teacher supportiveness and classroom participation were significant in predicting dropout. A one unit increase in each of these variables improved the odds in favor of staying in school by a factor of about 1.3 (in other words, the odds of staying in school increased 30%). There were no significant interactions between the school identitication factors and gender or ethnicity; the school identification factors predicted dropout equally for race and gender subgroups. These modest but significant results suggest that educators should work to develop ways of fostering a sense of school identification among students. At the same time, researchers should continue to explore the factors that contribute to the decision to drop out of high school. Identification with school helps explain a small portion of this decision, but many other factors, unmeasured in this study, are leading students to leave school early.
