Approaches to Meeting the Needs of Children and Parents Together in the Context of Head Start: Four Head Start University Partnership Grants

The brief introduces four research projects funded in 2013 under the Head Start University Partnerships (HSUP): Dual-Generation Approaches grant program. Each grantee rigorously tested a two-generation approach within the context of Head Start. Two-generation approaches are typically designed to address problems associated with poverty by combining child-focused services with adult-focused services. Head Start programs provide a unique opportunity to serve as a platform for meeting the needs of children and families together. In this brief, the four HSUP grantees introduce their research projects, highlighting the goals and key features of each intervention, their approach to meeting the needs of children and parents together, and the targeted outcomes of the interventions.

• Two of the interventions were designed to be provided to all Head Start children and their parents, while two were designed to be provided to a subset of families in the Head Start program.
• Two of the interventions provided additional services to Head Start parents while leveraging the existing Head Start high-quality early childhood education as the child component, while two interventions integrated additional child-focused curricula into the existing Head Start services and provided specific parent-focused curricula.
• The Power PATH program contains two key components: (1) PATHS, a socioemotional classroom curriculum, and (2) eight Power PATH parent group meetings. Targeted child outcomes of this intervention include self-regulation and school-readiness skills. Targeted parent outcomes include perceived stress and mental health. In addition, indicators of family well-being, such as cohesion, household chaos, and (social) supports are also being measured.
• Creating Connections: Strong Families, Strong Brains features full-year classroom implementation of a child-training component and mid-year delivery of a parent-training component. Targeted parent outcomes include brain function for selective attention, heart rate variability, brain function for inhibitory control and self-report measures of parenting stress and household organization. Targeted child outcomes include brain function for selective attention, heart rate variability, behavioral testing measures of language, nonverbal IQ, and executive function; parent-report measures of child problem behaviors and sleep problems; and Head Start classroom performance measures.
• The Two-Generation English as a Second Language (ESL) Program at Community Action Project (CAP) of Tulsa is implemented in courses designed for parents of children enrolled in CAP Tulsa’s Head Start centers and delivered in small groups. Targeted parent outcomes include ESL program completion and persistence, class attendance, English-language advancement, and engagement in children’s schooling. Targeted child outcomes include school attendance, academic skills, executive functioning, language skills, socioemotional skills, and behavior problems.
• The Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids program screens mothers for depression and offers a free intervention to address the mother’s depression. The program aims to relieve mothers’ depression, increase social support through better interpersonal relationships, improve parenting behaviors, and increase goal-directed behavior. These changes in mothers would lead to their children’s improved behavior, better cognitive functioning, and, thus, improved school readiness.

Gilpin, Ansley, Ferol Mennen, Eric Pakulak, Teresa Eckrich Sommer, Kathleen M. Dwyer, Erin Cannon, Theodore Bell, Caroline Boxmeyer, P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Elise Chor, Jason DeCaro, Kenn Lacsamana Dela Cruz, Ryan Giuliano, Melissa Gomsrud, Christina Karns, Scott Klein, John Lochman, Zayra Longoria, Abigail Palmer Molina, William Monro, Helen Neville, Lauren O’Neil, Mary Margaret Reynolds, Terri J. Sabol, Marisa Sclafani, and Lauren A. Tighe. (2020). Approaches to meeting the needs of children and parents together in the context of Head Start: Four Head Start University Partnership grants. OPRE Report # 2020-32. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.