Session: Research and Policy Partnerships That Promote Family-Centered Support in Early Childhood to Prevent Academic and Behavior Problems (Society for Prevention Research 26th Annual Meeting)

During the kindergarten transition, children are expected to have a number of school-readiness skills that enable them to learn in a public school environment. These skills include attention and behavioral regulation, social competencies, and early literacy skills. Longitudinal research indicates that children who do not enter school with these basic competencies are at increased risk for a variety of behavioral and adjustment problems.

A large body of research has linked parenting skills and the early home environment with children’s school adjustment and behavior. Parenting skills in early childhood predict school readiness and academic outcomes, especially in low-income families. Parents who socialize their children to the school environment by emphasizing reading at home, behavioral routines, family–school links, and positive parenting skills have children who are more successful in school. Yet, despite this robust research, few early childhood educational systems and elementary schools have been successful at embedding evidence-based, family-centered interventions into the educational environment.

In this session, 3 papers will be presented with research findings from family-centered, school-based intervention programs that strive to enhance both behavioral and academic competence of children as the enter school. In each of the papers, we will discuss key partnerships with educational systems that have facilitated the uptake of family-centered programming in schools.

The first paper highlights social and behavioral outcomes associated with the Family Check-Up delivered at school entry. Partnerships with school staff helped with program delivery and continue to support uptake. In the second paper, long-term outcomes associated with home visiting and parenting support during the transition to kindergarten are discussed. REDI-P, when delivered as home-based parenting support to complement classroom activities, resulted in long-term improvements in both behavior and achievement in third grade. Last, we present results from ParentCorps, a family-centered, school-based intervention to help parents and early childhood teachers create predictable environments to prevent behavioral and academic problems during the transition to kindergarten. Results from a large-scale implementation project will be discussed, along with community partnerships, fidelity of implementation, and outcomes associated with ParentCorps when delivered across over 100 schools in NYC. Quality of implementation and processes as well as program impact on teachers, classrooms, and parents will be discussed.

Discussion at the end of the session will focus on research that supports early childhood policy change and collaborations associated with the delivery of family-centered, school-based programs to enhance parenting skills and family-school partnerships.