The present study examined how the dosage and quality of the federal preschool program "Head Start" (HS) in the US related to children's self-regulation skills in kindergarten. Using Propensity Score Matching and multiple regression (OLS), this study explored how the number of years and hours a week of HS were related to self-regulation…

This study explores the effects of the two-generation program Career"Advance"--which combines education and training for parents in healthcare with Head Start for children--on children's academic, language, mathematics, and inhibitory control followed for 3 years. The sample (collected in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 2011 to 2018) includes 147…

Identifying factors related to expulsion risk is of great need due to the high and disparate rates of young children routinely excluded from preschool classrooms. This study aimed to explore the pathways to expulsion risk among a sample of 88 preschool children from 22 Head Start classrooms. Data were collected on children's inhibitory control…

Decades of research suggest that both Head Start and public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs boost low-income preschoolers' kindergarten skills. What is not yet well understood is whether there are relative advantages of transitioning from Head Start after 1 year into a school-based public pre-k program for the year immediately before…

Research Findings: This study examined associations between observed emotion-focused teaching practices and preschool children's emotion expression, emotion-related behaviors, and learning behaviors. Four centers located in large midwestern and mid-Atlantic metropolitan areas participated in the study. Of these, one center was a Head Start…

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…

Preschool teachers' consistency of warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions with children may be more important than average levels and may moderate the association between children's cognitive and emotion regulation and their preschool adjustment. A sample of 312 boys and girls aged 32-68 months in 44 classrooms at 16 privately-funded centers…

Research Findings: Marginal food security is less studied relative to food insecurity but may also have adverse effects on family outcomes. The present study examined whether parental stress mediated the relationship between marginal food security (MFS) and preschool-aged children's observed self-regulation at three early education centers located…

The measurement of self-regulation in young children has been a topic of great interest as researchers and practitioners work to help ensure that children have the skills they need to succeed as they start school. The present study examined how a revised version of a commonly used measure of behavioral self-regulation, the…

Strength-based assessment of behaviors in preschool children provides evidence of emotional and behavioral skills in children, rather than focusing primarily on weaknesses identified by deficit-based assessments. The Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scales (PreBERS) is a normative assessment of emotional and behavioral strengths in…

Young children's social information processing (SIP) encompasses a series of steps by which they make sense of encounters with other persons; cognitive and emotional aspects of SIP often predict adjustment in school settings. More attention is needed, however, to the development of preschoolers' SIP and its potential foundations. To this end, a…

Using a multi-method approach involving fixed effects and logistic regressions, this study examined the effect of the Oklahoma's Promise Program on student persistence in relation to the Pell and Stafford federal programs and according to socio-economic characteristics and class level. The Oklahoma's Promise is a hybrid state program that pays…

This study reports new evidence for the dimensionality and validity of the Learning Behaviors Scale in samples of Head Start children. A sample of 900 former Head Start children enrolled in public kindergarten and first-grade classrooms was studied using modern techniques to analyze item responses represented as ordered categories. Findings from…

Research Findings: This study examines the theory of change of the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP), testing a sequence of theory-derived mediating mechanisms that include the quality of teacher-child relationships and children's self-regulation. The CSRP is a multicomponent teacher and classroom-focused intervention, and its…

The "No Child Left Behind Act" mandates that teachers employ evidence-based practices (EBPs) in the classroom in order to improve student performance. For students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) to be successful, particularly in inclusive settings, the most salient practices would probably be those promoting classroom organization…