Families of youth with disabilities often access services to promote youth's transitions to adulthood. Such services can be oriented toward the youth or family. Using descriptive statistics and regression modeling of survey and administrative data, we explored patterns of service use and the association between outcomes for 9,013 U.S. youth with…

Background: Home-visiting programs often aim to improve parenting skills, parent-child relationships, and children's developmental outcomes for at-risk families. Although research has identified what elements of these interventions are effective when provided by professionals, little is known about effective components of volunteer-based…

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of fathers' participation in the Father Support Education Programme on their perception of their role as fathers and the development of play skills in their children. The study sample comprised 40 fathers whose children, aged 5 and 6, were enrolled in independent pre-schools located in the…

Families are central to promoting communication in young children with disabilities with complex communication needs. Providing coaching on naturalistic language interventions (NLI) gives parents tools for independently intervening on communication across activities in the home. Both parents and professionals have limited resources, which requires…

This paper is based on a trauma-informed family literacy program implemented in a residential treatment facility for fathers with substance-use disorders, with many of their population experiencing homelessness. Informed by a critical approach to family literacy that recognizes the social, cultural, and historical perspectives of families'…

The home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children's early literacy learning. Texting programs are an increasing feature of family literacy interventions that support parent engagement in their children's learning. Unlike face-to-face interventions, texting programs can offer sustained parental support at low cost and large…

Family navigator programs are becoming increasingly common among families of children with autism. Yet, it is unclear how family navigators are developed; by exploring the input of families of children with autism, such programs can be responsive to family needs. In this study, 12 parents of autistic children from low-resourced communities were…

Eating disorders have substantially risen in school-aged youth, especially in a post-pandemic world. Impacting children and adolescents across races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations, prevalence rates suggest that eating disorders do not discriminate. Interestingly, despite the rising prevalence rates and increase of eating disorders,…

There are a variety of different psychological interventions used to treat recurrent abdominal pain in childhood. Active components in these interventions are unclear. Parents play an important role when it comes to their children's response to pain and management of pain, and are regularly involved in interventions. Four electronic databases were…

This paper examines the challenges service providers encounter when supporting children in Direct Provision in Ireland. It focuses particularly on the organisations--both voluntary and statutory--that are charged with providing support for this vulnerable cohort. Specifically, the paper considers the roadblocks these organisations face helping…

Service coordinators (SCs) in Part C early intervention (EI) programs fulfill critical supportive roles assisting families in accessing and successfully navigating services needed for their infants/toddlers identified with delays or disabilities. However, evidence of effective training for SCs is limited. One state scaled up training in the…

Family child-care programs (FCCs) are a unique and vital part of the Massachusetts child-care and education system. FCC owners tend to serve some of the highest-need children and families in the Commonwealth, yet the owners and assistants who run these programs often take home some of the lowest wages among educators. While much research has been…

On any given day, around 400,000 youths involved in the child welfare system eventually prepare for the transition into safe and stable permanency placements. Although schools play an integral role in permanency planning and transition success, there are no evidence-based programs that focus solely on supporting and improving student educational…

In March 2022, Child Trends contracted with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to conduct an independent evaluation of Parent Aware, Minnesota's quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) for early care and education (ECE) programs. The evaluation, required by the 2021 Minnesota Legislature, includes several research activities…

Professionals play an important role in when and how families access autism services. Black families often experience disparate access to autism services compared to White families. Family Peer Advocates (FPAs) are professionals who have personal experience with the diagnostic process, school-based supports, and community-based services, and…