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ERIC Number: EJ1493465
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2026-Jan
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-9641
EISSN: EISSN-1097-0355
Available Date: 2025-09-22
Supporting Prenatal Families: Perspectives from Early Head Start Staff
Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood, v47 n1 e70041 2026
Early Head Start (EHS) serves prenatal families through their home visiting programs, offering support, referrals to services, and help preparing for parenthood. EHS programs individualize services to meet prenatal families' unique needs, yet we do not understand the full nuance of how this individualization occurs. In this study, we sought staff perspectives from those who work directly with prenatal families and/or have knowledge of how their EHS program serves prenatal families. We conducted interviews with nine EHS staff members (67% white, 22% Latina, 11% Black; 66% held a Bachelor's or Master's degree) with an average of 11 years' experience working for EHS from rural (56%) and urban (44%) EHS programs across the United States. Staff identified challenges they faced working with prenatal families (e.g., ensuring families had access to needed services) and successes they wanted to celebrate (e.g., individualizing service provision to meet families' unique needs). Findings from this study lend themselves to practice recommendations for improving EHS prenatal services even further, such as building out networks of community programs to support prenatal families, and additional research on cumulative benefits for families who enroll in EHS prenatally.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Early Head Start
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA; 2Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA