Profiles of Family Strengths and Their Associations with Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development In Center-Based Early Head Start

Background and Purpose: Children growing up in families with low income often face elevated risks to social-emotional (SE) development due to factors such as limited access to quality early care and education. Center-based Early Head Start (EHS) programs serve these families by providing supportive environments to promote children’s healthy development. Although prior research has documented specific strengths among EHS families (e.g., positive parent-child interactions), less is known about how multiple family strengths co-occur within families and how these distinct configurations differentially relate to infants’ and toddlers’ SE functioning. Understanding these patterns is critical for informing how EHS programs can tailor supports, leverage existing family strengths, and address needs among families experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Accordingly, this study adopted a strengths-based approach to identify distinct profiles of family strengths among families enrolled in center-based EHS and to examine their associations with young children’s SE outcomes.

Methods: Data were drawn from the 2022 EHS Family and Children Experiences Survey, a nationally representative study of families enrolled in EHS programs. The analytic sample was restricted to families enrolled in center-based EHS programs (N = 291; non-Hispanic White [16%], non-Hispanic Black [39%], Hispanic [33%], other [12%]; Child M_age = 28.71 months). Eight indicators were used to capture family strengths: parent-child closeness, parent-child interactions, social support, parenting stress (reverse-coded), parental mental well-being, orderly home environment, and parent- and staff-reported EHS activity involvement. Child SE outcomes were assessed using the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment, capturing both parent- and staff-reported child SE competence and behavior problems. Factor mixture modeling was conducted using a manual three-step maximum likelihood procedure to determine the optimal number of profiles. Next, we compared child SE outcomes and tested the equality of means across profiles using the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars method.

Results: The three-class solution was selected as the optimal solution based on fit indices and interpretability: 1) “Multidimensional strengths” (high probabilities across all family strengths [63%]), 2) “Low mental well-being” (low probabilities of parental mental well-being [9%]), and 3) “Engaged but strained relationships” (low probabilities of parenting-related indicators, moderate probabilities EHS activity participation [28%]). Pairwise comparisons revealed that children in the “Multidimensional strengths” profile showed significantly higher levels of parent-reported SE competence (m_1/2/3=16.04/12.00/12.47) and lower levels of staff-reported behavior problems (m_1/2/3=12.38/15.65/18.42) compared to other profiles. Children in the “Low mental well-being” profile showed significantly higher parent-reported behavior problems compared to other profiles (m_1/2/3=8.49/21.19/8.04).

Conclusions and Implications: Findings highlight meaningful heterogeneity in family strength among families enrolled in center-based EHS, demonstrating that strengths and needs are not uniform within this population but show distinct configurations associated with differential child SE outcomes. Notably, the majority of families were classified into the “Multidimensional strengths” profile, underscoring the importance of moving beyond deficit-oriented perspectives and recognizing existing assets within EHS families. The “Low mental well-being” profile highlights the need to expand caregiver mental health screening and services within EHS systems. Together, findings reinforce the importance of redefining low-income families through a strengths-based lens and creating opportunities that build on families’ existing strengths to support children’s optimal development.