Head Start’s Family Services: Promoting the Outcomes of Low-Income Children and Families

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Very little research has examined whether the contributions of Head Start’s Family Service Workers (FSWs) and family partnership services influence family and child outcomes. Using data from 215 families in the 2014 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), this study used structural equation models to examine associations between FSWs’ relationship, empowerment, and communication practices; families’ receipt of income supports; change in parent depression symptoms; and change in child approaches to learning, early literacy, early math, and social skills. FSWs’ practices and family receipt of income supports over the Head Start year were associated with reduced parent depression symptoms. Receipt of income supports also was associated with children’s improved approaches to learning skills. Results suggest that Head Start’s family partnership staff and services can help support parents and children living in poverty, identifying critical elements of successful two-generation programming. Practice or Policy: These findings have implications for Head Start and other two-generation programs targeting families with low incomes and suggest investment in strategies to help families address their financial needs and in staff who families view as supportive.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Tamara Halle for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

Drs. LaForett and Thomson wish to acknowledge having received external funding to work on the Head Start National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement.

Notes

1. While our core analyses hypothesized that the association between FSWs’ REC practices and child outcomes would be indirect (through their impact on family receipt of income supports and/or through their influence on change in parent depression symptoms), we also conducted a sensitivity analysis in which we added a direct path between FSWs’ REC practices and each of the child outcomes considered. We found no significant direct associations between FSWs’ REC practices and any child outcome; all other findings were robust to this model specification.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant 90YE0237 awarded to the first author by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.