Profiles of family engagement in home- and center-based Early Head Start programs: Associations with child outcomes and parenting skills

Abstract Using the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study (Baby FACES; Vogel & Boller, 2009-2012 ), the present study employed a person-centered approach to identify profiles of family engagement in home- and center-based Early Head Start (EHS) programs. We identified three profiles with different patterns across two structural dimensions (home involvement and program involvement) and one relational dimension (parent-staff relationships) of family engagement in both program types. We then examined associations of these profiles with child and parenting outcomes at age 3 and the outcome change scores from age 2 to 3. For home-based programs, children in profiles 2 and 3 indicating high home involvement showed significantly higher engagement/orientation skills than children in profile 1 indicating low home involvement and low parent-staff relationships. For center-based programs, a high home and low program involvement (profile 2) and a high involvement (profile 3) showed better child and parenting outcomes in the areas of child receptive vocabulary, parental sensitivity, stimulation of cognitive development, and intrusiveness as well as greater increases in parental cognitive stimulation than families in a low home and high program involvement (profile 1). Profiles 1 and 3 showed fewer child problem behaviors and greater increases in child engagement/orientation than profile 2, while profile 3 showed higher social competence than profile 2. In addition, profile 1 showed greater increases in child emotional regulation than profiles 2 and 3. This study contributes to advancing our understanding of the role of different dimensions and patterns of family engagement in home- and center-based EHS programs.