Profiles of Family Strengths Among Early Head Start Caregivers and Associations with Young Children's Socio-Emotional Well-Being

Background and Purpose: Young children from families experiencing poverty are disproportionately vulnerable to social-emotional difficulties. Early Head Start (EHS) programs serve children from families with low income, aiming to support children’s holistic development and family well-being. Traditional deficit-based approaches often overlook the strengths and resilience demonstrated by families from marginalized communities. Despite growing recognition of the value of bolstering existing familial strengths, such as parent-child closeness and strong social support, few studies have identified underlying patterns of family strengths within an EHS context or examined their association with child well-being. Guided by resilience theory and ecological systems theory, this study employed a strengths-based lens to (1) identify distinct strengths-based profiles among EHS families, and (2) examine associations between profiles and children’s social-emotional functioning.

Methods: We used data from the 2022 Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey, a nationally representative dataset of families participating in home-based and center-based EHS programming. The analytic sample included 886 home-based and 575 center-based families. Eight constructs were included as primary indicators of family strengths (parent-child closeness [CPRS-SF], parent-child interactions [HFPI], social support [HFPI], parental calm [PSI-4-SF], mental well-being [CESD-R], orderly home environment [CHAOS], and parent- and staff-reported involvement in EHS). Children’s social-emotional competence and behavioral functioning (BITSEA) served as distal outcomes. Using Factor Mixture Modeling, we first separately identified best-fitting latent profile models for families participating in home- and center-based programming. Next, we compared children’s outcomes (e.g., social-emotional competence, behavioral functioning) and tested the equality of means across profiles using the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars method.

Results: We found three distinct family strength profiles for each service model (home-based, center-based). Among home-based families, profiles consisted of 1) Strained Parent-Child Relationships (17.2%); 2) Emotionally Distressed (8.4%); and 3) High Strengths and Engagement (74.5%). Among center-based families, profiles included: 1) Emotionally Distressed with Low Engagement (7.5%); 2) High Engagement (25.4%), and 3) High Strengths, Low Engagement (67.1%). For both home-based and center-based families, the High Strengths profiles (Home-based: High Strengths and Engagement; Center-based: High Strengths, Low Engagement) had significantly better parent-reported child outcomes, including higher social-emotional competence (m_Home/Center=18.15/18.93 [R = 0-22]) and lower problem behavior ratings (m_Home/Center = 9.15/8.54 [R = 0-50]), compared to the other profiles (p < .001). Additionally, for home-based families, staff-reported child social-emotional competence was significantly higher in the High Strengths and Engagement profile (m = 16.48 [R = 0-22]) than in the Strained Parent-Child Relationships profile (p < .001). No significant differences were found in other profile comparisons.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings revealed distinct profiles of family strengths in both home- and center-based EHS models, with most families falling into High Strengths profiles. These findings challenge deficit-based assumptions about low-income families and demonstrate that most EHS caregivers exhibit substantial relational, emotional, and program-engagement strengths. Importantly, children in the High Strengths groups also consistently demonstrated positive socio-emotional outcomes, suggesting that these multidimensional strengths are developmentally meaningful. Findings reinforce the importance of redefining low-income families through a strengths-based lens, creating opportunities for transformative practice that reflects families’ lived realities and builds on existing capacities.