Income-based childcare programs provide children access to developmentally appropriate and vocabulary-rich literacy experiences. For this study, participating U.S. Head Start Centers requested families complete a weekly home literacy log to encourage vocabulary-rich shared book reading activities in the home. Using participant characteristics,…

Research Findings: The ability to manage emotions is thought to be important for regulating stress at a physiological level, yet no prior published studies have examined young children's emotion understanding or knowledge in relation to the stress hormone cortisol. The present study investigated the statistical relation between emotion knowledge…

The current study investigated the prevalence and outcomes related to Head Start (HS) children's dual enrollment in state-funded prekindergarten (state Pre-K) using a secondary analysis of a statewide integrated administrative dataset (N = 2,986). It also explored whether a program partnership between HS and the local school district (within the…

Using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 Cohort, this study investigated the school readiness trajectories of 2,908 Head Start children from Head Start to kindergarten. Multilevel growth curve models examined differences by immigrant-origin status and the moderating role of enriching experiences. Research Findings:…

The current paper reports long-term impacts of the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP) on measures of achievement, cognitive functioning, and behavioral regulation taken toward the end of students' high school careers. The CSRP was a self-regulation-focused early childhood intervention implemented in Head Start centers serving high-poverty…

Detrimental circumstances (e.g., poverty, homelessness) may affect parents, parenting, and children. These circumstances may lead to children being labeled "at risk" for school failure. To ameliorate this risk, more school and school earlier (e.g., Head Start) is offered. To improve child outcomes, Head Start teachers are expected to…

Teachers in early childhood education (ECE) settings are central to providing children with high-quality experiences that promote both early development and long-term well-being; unfortunately, rates of teacher turnover are high in ECE settings. There are strong theoretical reasons to assume turnover is negatively linked with children's academic…

Research Findings: A constellation of social positions of difference can contribute to substantial variation among children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. Using data from the "Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey" 2009 cohort, the present study identified intersectional typologies of cultural…

In the present study, we investigated the relative impact of age- versus schooling-related growth in school readiness skills using four modeling approaches that leverage natural variation in longitudinal data collected within the preschool year. Our goal was to demonstrate the applicability of different analytic techniques that do not rely on…

Despite strong evidence self-regulation skills are critical for school readiness, there remains a dearth of longitudinal studies that describe developmental trajectories of self-regulation, particularly among low-resource and underrepresented populations such as Spanish-English dual-language learners. The present study examined individual…

The Developmental Screening, Monitoring, and Enrichment (DSME) program for low-income children and families is an initiative developed to support the goal of the Healthy People 2020 and 2030 that aims to increase the number of healthy young children to be ready for school. The 8-week DSME program focuses on reducing health disparities and…