Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey

Early Head Start programs are comprehensive, two-generation programs that focus on enhancing children's development while strengthening families. Designed for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers up to age three, the programs provide a wide range of services through multiple strategies. Services include child development services delivered in home visits, child care, case management, parenting education, health care and referrals, and family support.

Mathematica's six-year descriptive study of Early Head Start is building on the success of Head Start’s flagship study, the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES). The Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES) is designed to be a rich source of data describing the experiences of children and their families in Early Head Start. Important data sources are direct child assessment and videotaped parent-child interactions at ages two and three; interviews with parents, teachers, home visitors, and program directors; observations of the home environment, home visits, and child care settings; and ongoing reports of program services families and children receive.

The study's main goals are to:

• Provide descriptive information about Early Head Start services offered, their frequency and their intensity
• Identify key characteristics of families currently served in Early Head Start
• Investigate how programs individualize services to meet family needs
• Learn how Early Head Start children and families are faring over time
• Explore associations between the type and quality of Early Head Start services and child and family well-being

Mathematica is identifying a representative sample of 90 Early Head Start programs with two cohorts of children (and their families) in each program: (1) a perinatal group, and (2) a group of infants approximately one year old. Data will be collected annually, in the spring, until the sample children reach three years of age.

Mathematica's partners in the study are Alphabet Soup, Branch Associates, Brenda Jones Harden, Judith Jerald, Shugoll Consultants, Twin Peaks Partners, LLC, and ZERO TO THREE. In addition, a number of early childhood development experts serve as consultants.

The study will yield survey materials, annual reports (beginning in 2010), and products for dissemination to the research and practitioner communities. It is funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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