Research Partners
Michigan State University | Purdue University | University of Miami | University of Virginia | Vanderbilt University
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Michigan State University
Project Title:
Nutrition Education Aimed At Toddlers Project
Grantee:
Mildred A. Omar
Project Funding Years:
2001-2004
Contact Information:
Michigan State University
College of Nursing
A320 Life Sciences Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1317
Phone: (517) 355-8360 Fax: (517) 353-9553
Email: millie@msu.edu
Project Abstract:
This project is aimed at promoting toddler development and self-regulation
by improving toddler feeding practices. Specifically, the project is designed
to explore whether completing a feeding and nutrition education program:
(1) improves parents' feeding attitudes, knowledge, confidence and behavior;
(2) positively influences toddler food consumption; and (3) positively influences
toddler growth and health. The focus of the Nutrition Education Aimed at
Toddlers (NEAT) intervention will be to promote healthy eating behaviors
and balance responsibility between Early Head Start (EHS) parents and their
children during the eating process. This project will compare toddler feeding
self-regulation behaviors and toddler-parent feeding interactions among
families in the intervention group receiving the NEAT intervention and families
in a control group. The NEAT intervention consists of two core components:
(1) in-class structured lessons on child development, feeding, food, nutrition,
mealtime, and parenting practices; and (2) in-home structured reinforcement
in the same context. The first core component of the NEAT program consists
of four weekly in-class lessons taught by trained paraprofessional nutrition
instructors. The second core component consists of weekly home visits over
a six month period by trained EHS home visitors. All families enrolled in
five collaborating EHS programs with a toddler between the ages of 11 and
25 months will be recruited for participation. Researchers estimate that
approximately 250 families will meet the inclusion criteria for the study,
with approximately 100 intervention and 100 control families. Researchers
hypothesize that toddler-feeding self-regulation will be more positive in
the intervention group when compared to the control group at 4-week and
6-month post-intervention assessments. In addition, researchers believe
that toddler-parent-feeding interactions will be more positive in the intervention
group when compared with the control group at 4-week and 6-month post-intervention
assessments.
Sample:
n=200 toddler-parent dyads
Measures:
Child
Children's Eating Behavior Inventory (CEBI)
Feeding Relationship Assessment Tool (FRAT)
Twenty-Four Hour Diet Recall
Block Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ)
Toddler Physical Growth
Parent Self-Report of Toddler's Visits to Health Care Facilities for Routine
or Sick Care
Parent-Child Interaction
Behavior Checklist for Use During the Observation of Meals
Parent
The NEAT Attitude, Knowledge, and Confidence in Nutrition Scale
Family Dinner Time Routines of the Family Ritual Questionnaire (FRQ)
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Social Influences Questionnaire
Caregiver's Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Feeding Toddlers Questionnaire
Nutrition Attitudes Questionnaire
Purdue University
Project Title:
Building Early Head Start Relationships: What Benefits Children and Parents?
Grantee:
James Elicker
Project Funding Years:
2001-2004
Contact Information:
Purdue University
Department of Child Development & Family Studies
1269 Fowler House
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1269
Phone: (765) 494-2938, Fax: (765) 494-0503
Email: elickerj@cfs.purdue.edu
Project Abstract:
Researchers at Purdue University are investigating the effectiveness of
Early Head Start services, focusing on interpersonal relationships that
develop between staff and families within the program. Specifically this
project will: (1) assess and describe the relationships that develop between
Early Head Start staff, children, and parents; (2) examine staff-family
relationships in several Early Head Start service delivery models (center-based,
home-based, and community-based child care) and in relation to variations
in staff characteristics and family characteristics; and (3) determine if
higher quality staff-family relationships are associated with better outcomes
for Early Head Start children and parents. The first year of the study will
serve as a planning year for the subsequent years' evaluations. During this
planning year, researchers will conduct in-depth qualitative interviews
with 30 Early Head Start parents, who will be selected to represent diversity
in ethnicity, income level, employment, and involvement in the partnering
Head Start programs. Goals of this first year are to understand the qualities
and influences of the relationships that develop between staff and program
participants and to field test parent and child outcome measures. In the
second and third project years, researchers will conduct a quantitative,
short-term longitudinal study with a sample of at least 100 families from
the participating Early Head Start programs. It is estimated that 60 families
will be followed for two years while 40 families will be followed for one
year. Data from this quantitative study will be used to test a mediational
model of projected associations between program, staff, and family variables,
staff-family relationship quality, and child and parent outcomes.
Sample:
Year One
n=30 Early Head Start parents
Year Two
n=75 Early Head Start children, their parents, and staff
Year Three
n=100 Early Head Start children, their parents, and staff
Child
Attachment Q-Set (AQS)
Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 2nd Ed. (BSID)
Infant-Toddler Social & Emotional Assessment-Revised (ITSEA)
Howes & Stewart's (1987) Peer Involvement Rating Scale
Rubenstein & Howes' (1979) Object Play Rating Scale
Parent
Brief Survey Questionnaire
Videotaped Observations of Mother-Child Interaction
Maternal Sensitivity Scale
Staff
Education and Training Questionnaire
Staff-Parent Relationships
Parent-Caregiver Relationship Scale (PCRS)
Staff-Child Relationships
Attachment Q-Set (AQS)
Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS)
Howes & Stewart's (1987) Adult-Child Involvement Rating Scale
Program
"Dosage" Data on Program Contact with Families and Children
University of Miami
Project Title:
A Multi-site, Multi-method Partnership for Improving Florida Head Start
Children's School Readiness
Grantee:
Daryl B. Greenfield
Project Funding Years:
2001-2004
Contact Information:
University of Miami
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 249229
Coral Gables, FL 33124-0721
Phone: (305) 284-3255, ext. 1, Fax: (305) 284-4795
Email: dgreenfield@miami.edu
Website: http://www.psy.miami.edu/Faculty/DGreenfield/
Project Abstract:
The current project is a multi-agency collaborative effort designed to enhance
an existing infrastructure of infant mental health services within Early
Head Start. As part of the effort, intervention services and data collection
will be carried out by teams of Early Head Start social workers, community-based
early intervention specialists, and university-based clinical and academic
staff. The goals of this project are to provide effective and culturally
competent mental health services to high risk families with young children,
including families struggling with poverty, violence, and potential delays
in children’s development; test hypotheses related to transactional
theories of child development in high-risk families across cultural groups;
and contribute to the empirical literature on the efficacy of parent-infant
psychotherapy in improving family and child functioning and development.
The project will target 128 high-risk children and families in Miami-Dade
County, for whom screening, including observations of parent-child interactions
and children in their classrooms will be conducted. Following the screening,
intensive parent-infant psychotherapy will be implemented with 30 families
observed to be at risk for relationship difficulties and developmental delays.
Assessments will include the quality of the parent-child relationship, multiple
domains of child development, exposure to violence in the community and
at home, parenting stress, and children’s adaptive functioning. The
project is designed to be longitudinal in nature, assessing both short-
and long-term effects of parent-infant therapy on family and child functioning
across multiple cultural groups.
Sample:
Year 1: n=100 preschool aged children
Year 2: n=360 Head Start children and their teachers
Measures:
Child
Galileo School Readiness Assessment
Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA)
Battery to Assess Problem Solving Flexibility, Persistence, Preference for
Challenge, and Curiosity
University of Virginia
Project Title:
Teaching Attachment-Based Interventions for Head Start Dyads
Grantee:
Robert S. Marvin
Project Funding Years:
2001-2004
Contact Information:
University of Virginia
Department of Psychiatric Medicine
Box 801075
Charlottesville, VA 22908-1075
Phone: (804) 924-0228, Fax: (804) 924-8164
Email: rsm8j@virginia.edu
Project Abstract:
This project extends the work of a previous Head Start-University Partnership
grant by developing an extensive manual for a brief, small group intervention
protocol, the Circle of Security (COS). The COS is a 20-week intervention
focusing on strengthening child-parent attachment security. In addition,
this project will empirically test whether the COS protocol can be successfully
taught to, and implemented on-site by, supervised, community-based service
providers (i.e., community mental health center [CMHC] staff working in
partnership with Head Start/Early Head Start [HS/EHS] staff). Researchers
will complete 1-year post-intervention follow-up assessments for a group
of child-parent dyads who participated in the initial partnership grant.
In addition, researchers will complete a "Beta-version" manual
for the COS protocol, including extensive coverage of the intervention protocol
and a collection of the most commonly used intervention goals and individualized
intervention plans developed during the initial partnership grant. During
the second and third years of the study, researchers will recruit a sample
of 44 HS/EHS child-parent dyads for participation in the COS intervention.
Researchers will determine the degree of success of the protocol as implemented
by trained CMHC staff and the HS/EHS center staff through measuring the
changes in pre- and post-intervention assessments, and then comparing these
changes to the changes found during the initial partnership grant. During
the final year of the study, researchers will complete a final version of
the COS protocol manual based on verbal and written feedback from the trained
CMHC and HS/EHS staff as well as feedback from the supervision process.
In addition, researchers will develop a dissemination plan for the manual
and write a set of suggested procedures for creating similar HS/EHS - CMHC
partnerships in other communities.
Sample:
n=44 child-parent dyads
Measures:
Child
Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Barkeley Disruptive Behavior Checklist (BDBS)
Ainsworth's Classification System for Infants or the Preschool Attachment
Classification System
Parent
Circle of Security Interview (COSI)
Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI)
Life Events Scale
Caregiver Behavior Classification
Child-Parent Dyads
Ainsworth's Strange Situation
Teacher
Conners' Teacher Questionnaire (CTQ)
Vanderbilt University
Project Title:
Building Social Communication Skills During Peer Interactions
Grantee:
Ann P. Kaiser
Project Funding Years:
2001-2004
Contact Information:
Vanderbilt University
Box 328 GPC
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: (615) 322-8160, Fax: (615) 343-1570
Email: Ann.Kaiser@Vanderbilt.edu
Project Abstract:
The goals of this study are to: (1) develop and test a multi-component intervention
to teach peer-directed, pragmatic communication skills to children at risk
for language and behavior problems; (2) determine the effects of this intervention
on the development of language, pragmatics, social behavior, and play in
children with identified language and behavior problems; and (3) determine
the effects of this intervention on children who represent a range of early
language and social skills. The intervention will include the use of storybooks
to provide specific models of language, pragmatics, and conversation to
be used during free play. In addition, corresponding thematic play materials
will be used that support peer interactions, provide an opportunity to role-play
and practice specific pragmatic skills. Finally, an advanced Play/Organizer/Play/Review
sequence will be used to structure children's opportunities to acquire,
practice, and integrate their skills for talking with peers. Researchers
have designed three separate studies to explore the relationship of their
intervention to peer play and social interaction. The first study will test
the proposed intervention with three dyads of children across six dramatic
play activities. During this study, researchers will design the storybooks
used to teach the targeted pragmatic skills, select and assemble materials
and themes for play activities, modify an already existing plan/play/review
protocol to include the storybooks, develop treatment implementation measures,
and develop the protocol for assessing peer language and play outside the
intervention context. The second study will examine the immediate and long-terms
effects of the intervention. For this second study, 36 children with low
language, low social skills, and elevated behavior problem scores will be
randomly assigned to treatment or comparison groups. Their communication
performance will be compared at three time points (pre-, post-, and 4-month
follow-up). The final study will examine the effects of an intervention
designed to increase children's skills in talking with their peers. The
peer-directed intervention will be provided to children in Head Start classrooms
by their teacher during center-based dramatic play activities. Approximately
64 4-year-old children enrolled in 16 classrooms will participate, with
two boys and girls randomly selected from each classroom to participate.
These classrooms will be randomly assigned to the intervention (8 classrooms,
32 children) or the comparison group (8 classrooms, 32 children). This final
study is proposed as an intermediate step in developing a universal intervention
for Head Start children. The primary objectives will be to determine the
immediate effects of the intervention on children's development of language,
pragmatic, and social skills, and determine the feasibility of classroom-wide
implementation of the intervention.
Sample:
Study 1
n= 6 Head Start children
Study 2
n=36 Head Start children with low language, low social skills, and elevated
behavior problem scores
Study 3
n=45 Head Start children and their teachers
Measures:
Child
Preschool Language Scale-3 (PLS-3)
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III)
Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT)
Language Sample
Index of Productive Syntax (IPSYN)
Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS)
Caregiver Teacher Report Form (CTRF)
Pragmatics Assessment (Ninio, et al, 1994)
Peer Play Code
Peer Language & Behavior Code (Revised)
Treatment Fidelity and Social Validity
Intervention Implementation Checklists
Social Validation of Peer Intervention
Treatment Fidelity of Peer Intervention