10.1 Family Stress and ResiliencyAll families must deal with a v.docx

10.1 Family Stress and Resiliency
All families must deal with a variety of stresses, including the
stress created by raising young children. In examining family
stress, it is important to remember that in today's United States,
there is no typical family; rather, there is a vast diversity of
family structures in which children develop and learn. Thus, in
examining family stress and resiliency, we can look at the
family through two different lenses: family structure and family
function. Family structure is the relationship of the adults in the
family: two parents, single parents, stepparents, extended
family, foster parents, and so on. Family functions exist in
every family structure; in some, the family works together
effectively to care for its members; in others, it does not. While
it is important to examine the various family structures that
early care and education staff must work with, the key to family
health and resiliency is how well the family functions.
Family Structures
As we are all aware, the two-parent, father-and-mother family is
no longer the norm in the United States (U.S. Census, 2007).
The diversity of family structures in the United States includes
a number of different arrangements.
Nuclear family. The nuclear family is made up of a husband and
wife and their biological children under age 18. While nuclear
families are the established norm, there is also an increasing
number of unmarried couples with children living together.
Stepfamily. When children from a former relationship live with
a new couple in the home, this is a stepfamily; when the
stepparent family includes children born to two or more couples
(i.e., the spouses of previous marriages and children of a new
couple), this is then called a blended family.
Adoptive family. As many as one-third of couples who cannot

have biological children adopt, forming an adoptive family.
Most, however, adopt only one or two children, because
adoption today is often difficult and expensive (U.S. Census,
2009). For a variety of reasons, most infants and young children
are adopted from countries outside of the United States.
Adoptive families also include transracially adoptive families,
in which the children and parents are of a different race or
ethnicity (Wardle & Cruz-Janzen, 2004).
Foster families. These are temporary situations in which
children are cared for as they wait to be adopted or to be
reunited with their biological or other parents. Foster families
themselves come in a variety of structures, including two
parents and single-parent families. In many of these families,
there are also biological children of one or both parents.
Grandparents. Grandparents take on the primary function of
raising their grandchildren due to many reasons, including
parents who are dead, incarcerated, on drugs, or extremely sick
(Birckmayer, Cohen, Jensen, & Variano, 2005). Sometimes
grandparents are temporary foster parents while others have
officially adopted their grandchildren. Sometimes a single
grandparent becomes the sole caregiver of his or her
grandchildren.
Two same-sex parents. Some of these couples have children by
one of the parents (and a surrogate); others adopt. The legal
status of same-sex families differs from state to state.
Single parents. Single-parent families include mothers who have
never been married. Almost 40% of all U.S. births are to
unmarried mothers (U.S. Census, 2007), but many of these
mothers later marry the child's father or another male. They also
include single mothers who are divorced, separated, or
widowed. Although almost 50% of all first marriages in the
United States end in divorce, many of these marriages had no

children, and some of these mothers remarry. Almost 20% of
divorced, separated, or widowed fathers have physical custody
of their children, whom they raise alone, without remarrying
(U.S. Census, 2009).
Extended family. An extended family is formed when children
live with a grandparent or other relative, and one or more
biological parents. Certain new immigrant groups are more
likely to live in extended families. Further, due to recent
economic hardships in the United States, more families live
together in extended family groupings. Finally, there is a
growing trend of older people staying at home and receiving
health care services there, rather than going to senior living
arrangements (Cooke, Martin, Yearns, & Damhorst, 2007).
Some of these grandparents live with one or more of their
children.
Polygamous family. In some countries outside of the United
States, men can legally have several wives, forming a
polygamous family. Some of these families come to the United
States as immigrants.
Each one of these structures comes with a vast amount of
diversity. This diversity includes the number of children, ages
of children, whether the children are single or multiple births,
and biological, adopted, or foster children. It also includes
interracial, interethnic, and interreligious families. Some
families speak more than one language in the home; some may
include a variety of professions and occupations. In some
homes, there are children or adults with various disabilities and
developmental delays. Also, families live in a variety of
communities and living arrangements: rural, urban, low income,
suburban, Indian reservations, trailer parks, apartment
complexes, homeless shelters or hotels, religious communities,
segregated or integrated communities, or military bases
(Wardle, 1996).

Family Functions
Family function, unlike family structures, is a universal way of
looking at all families and can be applied to any family,
regardless of its structure. Family function refers to the way the
family works to care for its members (Olson & Gorall, 2003). In
general, this care is provided by the significant adults in the
family.
The work of Maslow helps us understand the various family
functions, beginning with meeting children's basic needs.
Abraham Maslow (1962) studied human needs and developed a
theory of the hierarchy of needs. Maslow lived from 1908 to
1970 and, with Carl Rogers, created the humanistic field of
psychology. Humanism is a psychological movement of the
1960s suggesting that all people, regardless of educational,
cultural, racial, gender, and other differences, have universal
human impulses, needs, and a human spirit. It is based on a
belief that a universal perspective can exist to describe all
humans, and it focuses on the potential for all humans to be
good, fulfilled, and positive contributors to the human condition
(Maslow, 1962/1999; Rogers, 1961/2004).
In Maslow's hierarchy of needs (1962), he indicated that basic
human needs have to be fulfilled before other, more advanced
needs could be met:
Physiological (basic) needs of food, water, warmth, and shelter
Safety and security: protection from injury and death (physical
and psychological)
Love and belonging: having friends, family, and community
(often religious belonging)
Respect and esteem: being respected by others and by oneself
Self-actualization: becoming truly oneself; fulfilling one's
unique human potential, while also respecting and
acknowledging others (Maslow, 1962/1999)
Maslow believed this hierarchy existed for all people,

regardless of human diversity. He felt that these needs must be
met from basic to advanced (thus the hierarchy); in fact, a
person might jeopardize one level to meet the needs of a lower
level. For example, a hungry man might jeopardize his own
safety to meet his basic need for food or water.
While Maslow did not address the needs of children or discuss a
developmental approach to meeting these needs, his theory
makes sense for children and is the basis for several school-
related policies, such as free breakfasts and safe schools so that
children can feel secure and focus on learning. The USDA food
program used by most early care and education programs is
another example.
Family functions are divided into five categories: to provide
basic necessities, encourage learning, develop self-esteem,
nurture peer relationships, and maintain harmony and stability.
However, they are not arranged in a hierarchy; young children
need all of these functions to be provided, and the extent to
which they are not provided will cause stress.
Provide basic necessities. The first function that all families
must provide is to meet their children's basic needs (see Think
About It: Family Functions: Provide Basic Necessities).
Encourage learning. Even very young children need adults at
home who encourage all sorts of learning. This includes reading
to them on a regular basis; taking them to the library, local
museums, parks, and other cultural events; and supporting
emergent language development. It also includes teaching
children important trades and skills from the family's culture,
such as carpentry, farming, canning, and sewing, and teaching
the family's and culture's traditions and ceremonies. For
children who attend an early care and education program,
families should also work closely with the child's program,
making sure the child's learning needs are met and supporting

the program's efforts on the child's behalf.
THINK ABOUT IT:
Family Functions: Provide Basic Necessities
All families, regardless of their structure, must provide these
basic functions for their young children:
Food
Shelter
Clothing
Medical care
Supervision
Transportation
Adequate sleep
Hygiene
Safety
Love and affection
Develop self-esteem. As we have discussed throughout this
book, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social competence are
critical characteristics of the resilient and successful child. And,
as we have also discussed, adults in the home have a profound
impact on all three of these critical dispositions.
Nurture peer relationships. In the previous chapter, we
discussed in detail the importance of social competence in
children, both with adults and with peers. Adults in the home
can help children develop social competence by engaging in a
variety of behaviors:
Treating each child in the home as a unique individual, while
respecting the rights and needs of each child
Modeling social competence with other adults in the home,
neighborhood, and early care and education program
Giving young children in the home opportunities to interact
with other young children: at the local playground, early care
and education program, dance classes, and so on. This is

particularly important when there is only one child in the
family, or when the children in the family are many years apart
in age
Empowering children to solve their own problems, while also
intervening when the child begins to develop negative
behavioral cycles (e.g., always dominating other children, or
always behaving as a victim)
Ensure harmony and stability. Young children need security and
predictability. They need to know that they will be fed, when
they will be picked up from day care, who will pick them up at
the end of the day, and who will provide discipline in the home.
Elsewhere in this book, we have discussed the considerable
negative impact of stress on the brain development of young
children (Shore, 1997). Conflict, insecurity, and lack of
harmony and predictability can have a negative effect on the
young child's emotional state, behaviors, cognitive achievement,
and learning (Kostelnik et al., 2009).
Traits of Resilient Families
A resilient family is one that, regardless of structure, fulfills all
of its functions in a healthy way, to meet each person's basic
needs. A resilient family is one that can address challenges,
solve problems, and maintain a certain level of equilibrium. It is
not without conflict or problems, but it is simply able to address
them in a healthy way. Some resilient families find that the best
approach to meeting everyone's needs is simply to replicate
what the parents learned from their own family and culture
regarding being a family and raising children; others find that
they must totally reinvent the very idea of the family and how
to meet all the basic needs of their family. Most adults in a
family balance these two approaches—accepting and using some
of the approaches from their own family and culture, and
reinventing and changing others to meet their own family's
unique needs and the ever-changing nature of culture and
society (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

While families must provide for the basic physical, social, and
emotional needs of their children, they also act as central agents
in socializing their children to the ever-changing culture and
greater society. Thus, adults in the home develop children who
will grow into the next generation of adults. To this end,
children in resilient homes are empowered to be themselves and
to have a positive impact on society and the world (Gonzalez-
Mena, 2009). These children develop their own unique identity,
fulfilling their own unique potential.
The Circumplex Model of Family Adaptability and Cohesion
The circumplex model is a family systems approach to
examining relationships within a family. It focuses on three
important family dimensions: family cohesion, family
flexibility, and family communication. The model has been
validated on a diversity of families, including race and
ethnicity, marital status (cohabiting and married), family
structure (single parent, stepparents), sexual orientation, and
family life cycle (newlyweds and retired couples) (Olson &
Gorall, 2003).
Family Cohesion
According to Olson and Gorall (2003), family cohesion is the
emotional bond that family members have with one another.
Family cohesion flourishes in balance between separateness
versus togetherness. There are five levels of family cohesion:
Disengaged/disconnected
Somewhat connected
Connected
Very connected
Enmeshed/overly connected
The three middle levels make for the optimal family functions
(somewhat connected, connected, and very connected), while
the two extremes (disengaged/disconnected and
enmeshed/overly connected) are considered problematic for

relationships over time. Another way of saying this is that with
a balanced level of cohesion, families can moderate both
separateness and togetherness, while those who fall at the
extremes—unbalanced—are too separate or too enmeshed. Thus,
when cohesion is too high (enmeshed), there is too much
consensus and closeness; when disengaged with family
members, there is little family commitment.
Family Flexibility
Family flexibility is the amount of change in family leadership,
role relationships, and relationship rules. Family flexibility is
concerned with how systems balance stability and change. There
are five levels of flexibility:
Rigid/inflexible
Somewhat flexible
Flexible
Very flexible
Chaotic/overly flexible
As with family cohesion, the three levels in the center are more
conducive to positive family functioning, with the extremes
(rigid and chaotic) being the most problematic. Flexibility
focuses on change in family leadership, roles, and rules.
Families need both stability and change to be functional; the
ability to change is one of the characteristics that distinguishes
functional families from nonfunctional ones (Olson & Gorall,
2003).
Somewhat flexible relationships tend to have democratic
leadership characteristics; flexible relationships have an
egalitarian leadership with a democratic approach to decision
making. Negotiations are open, shared, and fluid. Unbalanced
families exhibit one of the extremes—too much stability (rigid)
or too much change (choice). In rigid relationships, one
individual is in charge and is very controlling. In a chaotic
relationship, decisions are impulsive and not carefully thought

out, and roles are unclear and shifting all the time. Thus,
extremely high (chaotic) and extremely low (rigid) levels of
flexibility tend to be problematic for individuals and families.
Relationships with moderate flexibility (the middle three levels)
balance change and stability in a positive, functional way.
Family Communication
The third dimension of the model is family communication.
Communication is considered a tool to assist families to alter
their levels of cohesion and flexibility to meet family needs
(Olson & Gorall, 2003). It involves listening skills, speaking
skills, self-disclosure, continuity tracking, respect, and regard.
Listening involves empathy and attentive listening; speaking
includes speaking for oneself and not for others; self-disclosure
concerns sharing feelings about oneself and one's relationships;
tracking involves staying focused on a topic; and respect/regard
is attending to the affective (feelings) aspects of
communication.
Combining Cohesion, Flexibility, and Communication
It is believed that combining these three dimensions produces
specific positive results in families:
Balanced families generally function more adequately than
unbalanced families do—both in cohesion and in flexibility.
Being balanced means that family systems can operate at
extremes for short periods of time, but not for long. Thus,
balance enables individuals in a family to be both independent
from and connected to the family (cohesion), and maintain some
level of stability with openness to change when it is necessary
(flexibility). The exception to this balanced view is when the
family belongs to a group where norms dictate that all family
members function in the same rigid manner. For example, the
Hmong ethnic group and Amish and Mormon religious groups
may exhibit unbalanced family systems but may be quite
functional.

Positive communication skills enable couples and families to
change the levels of cohesion and flexibility. This helps
families facilitate a balance between these two dimensions; poor
communication prevents movement from the unbalanced
conditions to the balanced ones.
Couples and families will modify their levels of cohesion or
flexibility to deal with stress and changes across the family life
cycle. It is assumed that families change and that they will
change levels of flexibility and cohesion. For example, in many
families over time, wives seek more autonomy from husbands
and want more power and equality in their relationships
(flexibility).
Independence and Interdependence
Another family systems approach to resilient and functional
families is to examine levels of independence and
interdependence. Family members should be able to help and
support each other without creating codependence. Some of the
concepts of this approach are similar to the circumplex model.
This idea was discussed earlier, when we explored using the
family systems approach to describe family dynamics
(Christian, 2007). Components of independence and
interdependence are boundaries, self-esteem, communication,
protection and connection, and rules.
Boundaries
Boundaries defines a level of togetherness and separateness.
Some families value individual decision making, openness to
new ideas, and supporting the unique, separate identity of each
member, while other families value connections, conformity,
togetherness, and unity. Families exist along a continuum of
independence-dependence, with each one exhibiting a different
set of boundaries (Christian, 2007). The question is how each of
these serves the needs of individual family members, especially
the children; most need to be somewhere in the middle (see also
Chapter 6).

Self-Esteem
As we have continually stressed in this book, self-esteem is
critical to all family members, both adults and children.
Resilient and functional families build and maintain self-esteem
in their members, rather than destroying it. Procedures used to
discipline children need to help guide and control without
destroying self-esteem, and there are many approaches to
discipline that can empower and increase a child's sense of self-
worth. While there is a vast variety of cultural ways to raise and
discipline young children, all of the approaches must focus on
empowering a child's self-esteem and development of self-
efficacy, either individually or as a critically important part of a
group.
Communication
As we discussed in the circumplex model, effective
communication is an essential characteristic of resilient and
healthy families. Conflicts are addressed in a way that considers
the needs of everyone; further, all family members give and
receive feedback in a productive manner. Deliberate problem-
solving methods are used; also, these families can tolerate a
level of ambiguity and confusion when a problem cannot
immediately be solved. In some cultures, words are the primary
manner to express these feelings and to communicate within the
family, while in others cultures, non-verbal forms of
communication are used (Hall, 1976). And then, of course,
many families of young children use both.
Protection and Connection
Resilient and functional families provide their members with a
warm, secure haven away from the big, often threatening world.
Family members can retreat to their home to receive support,
nurturing, and unconditional acceptance. At the same time, each
family member has a series of connections to the outside world,
such as the workplace, early care and education program,
school, religious institution, or grocery store. One way to

understand how well a family functions is to examine the
various links and connections members have with the greater
society.
The early care and education program provides a wonderful
bridge between the family, the community, and the overall
society. For new immigrant families, the early care and
education program is often how they learn about expectations of
the new society, especially as it relates to young children.
Information about childhood immunization schedules, car seat
laws, and community agencies that serve children and families
with developmental delays can be obtained at the program.
Additionally, for all families the program is where they learn
about educational options, school rules, and the U.S. culture of
care and education.
Rules
All families have rules that they follow. These are sets of
standards, rules, or traditions that tell family members how to
live in relation to each other (Christian, 2006). Rules come from
the parents' culture, how the parents were raised, and a
consensus of the adults in the home as to how to raise and
educate their children. They cover everything from how money
is shared and household costs budgeted, to the allocation of
duties, religious practices and expectations, traditional
celebrations, and mealtime rituals. Some families may have
rules that are not really enforced because they are not that
important; others may have important practices that are so
ingrained that no one has to talk about them. Different rules are
reinforced by different people in the home: A young child may
remind everyone that birthdays are traditionally celebrated with
cake and ice cream; a grandmother may insist that her favorite
greens are planted in the backyard garden every year.
10.2 Resilient Children and Children Who Struggle
Very young children are extremely sensitive to the impact of the
world around them—at home, in the community, in the early

care and education program, and from the culture at large.
Throughout this book, we have discussed a variety of factors
that appear to improve a child's ability to survive the various
challenges of growing up. One such concept is known as
resilient children, or resiliency in children.
Initially, research showed that certain children have some kind
of built-in ability to withstand abuse and other negative
childhood experiences (Masten, 2001). These studies suggested
that resilient children have the psychological strength to recover
from misfortune and to emerge intact from a history of severe
distress (Gonzalez-Mena, 2009). Studies suggested that resilient
children have certain common protective factors and personality
traits (Luther, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000; Werner, 1995; Werner
& Smith, 1992). It was believed these children had affirmative
personalities and the ability to recruit positive responses from
the environment that were denied them under normal
circumstances.
However, more recent research suggests otherwise—resilience
is a result of normal human adaptive processes, children's
responses to the support of positive environments, and
significant relationships of families, and the overall ecological
environment, including teachers and caregivers (Masten, 2001).
Part of this new understanding is the concept we discussed
earlier: a goodness-of-fit between human relationships and
adaptive systems, and the needs of the child.
Most children who experience abuse do not perpetuate this
behavior on their own children (Kaufman & Zigler, 1993), but
some do. Many children of mothers who are clinically depressed
are able to function adequately in their lives, and there are
innumerable people who overcame poverty to be highly
successful (Goldstein & Brooks, 2005). Children who withstand
negative early experiences seem to be able to take advantage of
the family and societal supports to increase their competence
and efficacy (Werner, 2005). They have connections to

competent and caring adults and are able to develop positive
cognitive and self-regulation skills, high self-esteem and self-
efficacy, and social competence (ability to use the environment
effectively) (Masten, 2001). These are characteristics and
dispositions we examined in detail in Chapter 9.
While a child's individual personality and temperament seem to
play a role in resiliency, it is also evident that people who work
with very young children—parents, child care providers,
teachers, youth leaders—play a critical role in helping young
children withstand the stress of poverty, family strife, abuse,
and neglect. We need to find ways to reduce the stress many
young children experience, while also finding ways to help all
children become as resilient as possible.
Developing Resilient Children
There are many ways adults involved in the lives of young
children can develop resilience in all children under stress—
both in families and in early care and education programs. Many
of these ideas have been mentioned throughout this book, but
they need to be repeated here as we look at ways to help
families mitigate conditions that cause stress and children
develop ways to withstand stress.
Support Children and Families
Early care and education programs have a vital role to play in
supporting all families, regardless of the families' struggles. By
supporting the family, we support the child. This is where we
must return to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory
(1979) and the idea that all services and agencies in the
community that support families need to work in concert with
each other to meet each family's unique needs. The early care
and education program—whether it is a family child care home,
religious program, Head Start or Early Head Start, military
program, or school-based preschool—must become a vital and
dynamic center for all these services and networks. The early

care and education program should try to find ways to help all
of their families feel connected, empowered, and able to meet
the unique needs of their children.
Teach Children Self-Efficacy
In Chapter 9, we discussed the tremendous power of self-
efficacy, which is the beliefs and dispositions of a child to be
able to learn and problem solve. Self-efficacy is the deep belief
a child has in the child's ability to affect the world and to learn
to function proactively in the world. We need to help children
learn how to make and maintain positive human connections
with other children and adults. All the approaches we discussed
in encouraging self-efficacy apply here: Help children enter and
maintain play episodes, help children resolve problems with
peers in a positive fashion, support contacts children have with
their peers and significant adults, and help children find
positive and special words and phrases to use with others. We
know that self-efficacy begins in infancy—both at home and in
the early care and education program. And as we continue to
emphasize, central to developing a sense of self-efficacy in
young children is the use of positive approaches to discipline
and guidance (Kostelnik et al., 2009).
Teach Problem Solving
Children who know how to problem solve clearly feel a sense of
empowerment and efficacy. One of the best ways to teach
children how to solve a problem is for adults to model problem
solving. Crockenberg (1992) found that when mothers used a
discipline technique of telling their 2-year-olds what they
wanted them to do while also explaining the reasons behind
their requests, it was quite effective. Adults need to let children
know their wishes are important but also satisfy the children's
need to know how and why the adults' requests are important.
Throughout this book, we have discussed ways to help young
children problem solve, from selecting their own clothes to
wear, to helping develop classroom rules and playground

procedures. It is important to stress here that teaching young
children problem solving is not about taking authority away
from adults, either at home or in the early care and education
center. It is about facilitating the development of a child's
problem-solving skills within existing conditions and situations.
Give Children Responsibilities
Children need opportunities to care for others who are more
vulnerable than they are. This can be younger children in the
center or classroom and younger children in the home. One of
the reasons to have mixed-age classrooms, especially at a time
of smaller families, is that this enables children to develop a
sense of nurturing and responsibility toward younger members
of the class (Katz, 1998). Children can also learn responsibility
by caring for animals and plants, both within a program and at
home. By having a variety of responsibilities on their shoulders,
children develop a sense of importance and trust.
Provide Positive Role Models
Probably the most powerful way for young children to learn is
through modeling by adults they trust and respect. These role
models are in the home and early care and education center, and
they exhibit the behaviors discussed in this section:
Show ways to access needed support and resources.
Demonstrate prosocial behaviors.
Demonstrate a variety of ways to make positive connections
with other children and with important adults.
Take on important responsibilities freely and purposefully.
Use a variety of problem-solving approaches throughout the
day.
Show positive dispositions about the world and the value of life
and life's experiences.
Show a disposition to find the positive and good in what they
do, and in whom they work and play with.
Central to the role of the model is the environment in which the

role model functions. A parent who is supported, empowered,
and acknowledged will be a much better role model than one
who is constantly under stress. Also, teachers and caregivers
who are empowered by a positive climate in the early care and
education program are much more able to be positive role
models to the children and parents they serve.
Be Super-Sensitive to the Child Who Struggles
Children who struggle at home or in the early care and
education program need warm, responsive, understanding, and
very patient adults who can provide them with the important
human attachments they desperately need. Unfortunately,
children who struggle often make it extremely difficult for
adults to like and care for them (Patterson, Reid, & Dishion,
1992). These children might have a developmental delay that is
difficult or frustrating for adults to deal with, the child may
have learned adaptive behaviors that are extremely destructive,
or the child may be very emotionally and behaviorally immature
due to a life of constant stress and confusion. Teachers and
caregivers need to make a deliberate, concerted effort not to
label these children as troublemakers, problems, or children
with specific disabilities; rather, they must understand that
these children need special attention, patience, and love.
Children Who Struggle
Just as we need to provide opportunities for all children to
develop resiliency, so too must we intervene when children
receive abuse at home. In previous chapters, we have discussed
a range of things early care and education staff can do to work
with children who struggle behaviorally, emotionally,
cognitively, or developmentally. These suggestions include
providing an environment specifically tailored to address the
child's specific challenge, using therapists and other experts to
assist staff, and referring children to Child Find for possible
services for developmental delays. Other approaches involve
working with families on parenting skills, helping families

access community resources, and working closely with
therapists in the home. However, sometimes even these
approaches do not work, and children experience abuse.
When this occurs, staff members of early care and education
programs have a responsibility to report suspected child abuse
(see Spotlight: Mandated Reporting of Suspicions of Abuse).
Abuse of children under 18 years of age is termed child
maltreatment. It is the outcome of an unhealthy environment,
usually in the home. There are four forms of child maltreatment:
neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse
(Thompson & Wyatt, 1999). Neglect includes instances in which
caregivers (parents or others who care for the children) fail to
provide food, clothing, shelter, health care, affection, or adult
supervision. Physical abuse occurs when caregivers
intentionally engage in physical harm to children; punishments
that cause bruises or injuries are also considered physical abuse.
Sexual abuse involves acts in which adults seek sexual
gratification from children through acts such as genital contact
and pornographic photography. Finally, emotional abuse occurs
when children are constantly ignored, put down, rejected, or
subjected to substance abuse (including alcohol and criminal
activities) (Thompson & Wyatt, 1999).
SPOTLIGHT:
Some Signs of Maltreatment in Children, Age 2–10 Years Old
Repeated injuries, especially broken bones
Violent and sexual themes dominating fantasy play
Slow physical growth, especially accompanied by a lack of
appetite
Ongoing physical complaints, such as genital pain and
stomachaches
Slow overall physical and cognitive development
Hostility toward other children; bullying of smaller children
Hypervigilance—cringing, startling easily, impulsive behaviors

Frequent absences from the early care and education program or
school; many changes of address and of caregivers
(Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick, 2005)
There are many reasons that adults abuse children, including
their own. Adults who maltreat children often suffer from
serious psychological problems, such as low self-esteem and
aggressive and impulsive behaviors (Thompson & Wyatt, 1999).
Some adults have serious substance abuse problems, and many
have poor social behaviors and inadequate parenting skills.
Poverty, domestic violence, and other environmental stressors
are additional risk factors (Fergusson, Boden, & Horwood,
2008). Lastly, some of these parents have overly high
expectations of their children, and they use harsh physical
punishment when expectations are not met (English, 1998).
These expectations may be the result of parenting style
(Baumrind, 1967) or simply not understanding appropriate child
development stages and behaviors. Children who are most likely
to be abused are very young children (infants and toddlers),
children with various developmental disabilities, and other
challenging children (English, 1998; Thompson & Wyatt, 1999).
Some children are exposed to more than one form of abuse.
Children can suffer long-term consequences from abuse,
including brain retardation, stunted physical growth, poor
emotional and social development, behavioral problems, and
poor school achievement (Fergusson et al., 2008; Finkelhor &
Hashima, 2001). When children are exposed to more forms of
abuse, they often experience higher levels of stress and negative
consequences (Fergusson et al., 2008).
Almost 20% of child abuse victims are placed into foster care
(U.S. HHS, 2004). Children who are removed from their homes
and placed in foster care do not always receive the services they
need. Teachers and other caregivers in the early care and
education programs should provide comfort, security,
nurturance, patience, and love for these children. These children

need lots of opportunities to play, engage in art and music
activities, read books about children in foster care, and talk
about their unique situation. A parent whose child has been
taken will be extremely upset, and may blame the program for
the child's removal; new foster parents will experience
adjustment stress and anxiety, and foster parents in general have
unique challenges and experiences.
SPOTLIGHT:
Mandated Reporting of Suspicions of Abuse
Professionals who work with children and families are required
by law to report their suspicion of abuse to authorities (U.S.
HHS, 2008). These professionals include health care providers,
teachers, child care providers, social workers, and police
officers. Failure to report carries a legal penalty, but states
provide immunity from civil liability (Crosson-Tower, 2003).
The identity of the reporter is kept anonymous.
When a report is received by a child protection agency, it is
forwarded for further investigation by the local agency (U.S.
HHS, 2008). About 24% of these reports are substantiated, and
as a result children can be removed from the home. However, a
balance between child protection and family preservation is a
central concern of child protection agencies (Roberts, 2002).
Early care and education teachers, administrators, and providers
need to understand that the law requires reporting the suspicion
of abuse; it is up to the local authority to substantiate it.
Further, with the ever-more cultural diversity of families we
serve, providers and teachers need to be careful not to simply
report cultural differences in raising children, but rather
suspicions of abuse and neglect as defined by the law
(Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). Periodic training of staff by child
protective services helps reduce potential problems. Parents
must also be advised of the law requiring staff to report

suspicion of abuse, and parents from cultures that approve of
physical punishment must be told that their approach may
conflict with the law.
10.3 Six Family Scenarios
In this section, we provide six different family scenarios. In
each family, there is at least one child under the age of 5 years
old. This child—and possibly other young children in the
family— attends an early care and education program. These six
scenarios provide a glimpse of the wonderful diversity of
families served by early care and education programs and an
example of the diversity of early care and education programs
that serve these families (Neugebauer, 2008). All young
families experience various forms of stress, and these six
families are no exception. Each family profiled here is
attempting to provide for the unique needs of their children as
best they know how.
As we look at each family, it is important to remember that a
family's structure—one parent, two parents, extended family,
teen parents, grandparents, and so on—does not directly
indicate whether the family is successful or under stress. What
does indicate a family's resilience and level of stress is the way
the family achieves its basic family functions—how the family
is meeting the basic needs of their children as they develop and
learn. We present these families not as a way to show a model
or ideal family, or to provide problems that we will then solve,
but rather to help the reader examine a variety of families and
their relationships with the early care and education program.
After each scenario, a brief discussion is provided regarding
ways the early care and education program and family can work
together to address some of the challenges.
Aasiya's Family
Aasiya is the daughter of a new immigrant family from Somalia.
She is 3 years old and attends a local community child care
center. One of the reasons her parents selected the program is

because several of the teachers are also Somali and thus
understand the family's language, religion, and customs.
Aasiya's mother works part time in the center, while also caring
for the family's baby. Her father drives a cab for a local
company.
Aasiya's family is Muslim, and they practice Islam. They follow
the rules of their faith very strictly, including fasting, prayer,
the clothes the women and girls wear, and their food choices.
The child care program understands the requirements of their
religion and customs and tries hard to accommodate the family
and other Somali families. They also understand the different
expectations for boys and girls in the Somali culture and the
importance of very clear gender roles for the mother, father,
grandmother, and female teachers.
However, there is conflict in the center between the Somali
families and staff and the American families and staff. The
American families want their children to focus on literacy skills
and activities that will prepare them for successful entry into
the local public school kindergarten program. The American
staff members also believe that the Somali children should
focus on getting ready for entry into the public schools, and
because they are not American and do not know English very
well, the staff members believe learning English is very
important. These American teachers and caregivers are upset
that the Somali staff talk to the children in the Somali language
and that they miss days from the program for fasting and other
religious activities.
What the Program and Family Can Do
Aasiya's mother and grandmother decide to talk to the director
of the program (a non-Muslim) about this conflict. They feel the
American staff members are not sensitive to their cultural
wishes and that some of the Somali staff members feel
intimidated because they lack Western education. The director
has decided to invite a leader from the local Somali community

to provide training to the staff about the Somali culture and
Islam religion and about the critical importance of both of these
aspects of life for Somali families. He will also assure the
American staff (and parents who choose to attend) that the
Somali community is committed to becoming good Americans,
but that they are also deeply committed to maintaining
important aspects of their cultures, especially how they raise
their children. Aasiya's mother and grandmother, at the request
of the director, will also talk about the child-rearing customs
and values that they practice at home.
Additionally, a representative from the local public school
district will meet with all the families in the program to discuss
kindergarten entry requirements, school expectations, and
programs within the public school designed to support new
immigrant families, including those from Somalia. The head of
the district's multicultural programs will also attend and discuss
the various efforts being made by the district to work closely
with families and children who have recently come to the
United States. At the end of the session, a program to allow
potential kindergarten students and their families, including
Aasiya's mother, grandmother, aunt, and father, to visit the
school will be described, and schedules will be set up for future
visits.
The child care center has also scheduled regular parent picnics
after school so parents can socialize together with other parents
from the program, share cultural foods, and enjoy each other's
company, to reduce friction between the two groups.
Maia's Family
Maia is 4 years old. She attends a French international school,
where she is learning French. The school provides before-and-
after care, so her parents can work full time.
Maia's mother is African American, and her father is white. Her

mother is a teacher at a local public school, while her father
works for the city. Maia has a 1-year-old baby brother who is
cared for by her grandparents and who attends a family child
care home part time. Maia enjoys the school's early childhood
program, called école maternelle. She loves art and learning the
French language. Her parents enjoy the school picnics and other
social activities, because the school attracts French-speaking
families from Hong Kong, Canada, Madagascar, and France who
live and work in the city, as well as local American families
who want their children to learn French. The school is staffed
by teachers from France and the United States. Its curriculum
meets the requirements of the French government and the local
school district.
However, Maia's family has had to address confusion on the
part of the teachers, other children, and parents about Maia's
identity. Some children ask Maia, "What are you anyway? Your
mother is black and your father is white?" The French teachers
are not familiar with African-American history and culture, and
when Maia told her American music teacher that she is biracial,
the teacher replied, "No, you are black, because your mother is
black." Also, when the school required the family to fill out
forms to collect data on their children for the local school
district and the state, the principal expected Maia's parents to
select the black racial box for Maia's identity. The parents
choose two or more races and then filled in Black and White.
Maia's mother provided training to all the staff about
multiracial people in the United States and about how the
multicultural movement has provided interracial families with
the opportunity to raise their children as truly multiracial (Root,
1996). She provided the school library with a list of books
about interracial families, and both of Maia's parents met with
the American teacher to inform her that they were raising Maia
and her brother as biracial—both black and white. Maia's
parents have also worked with Maia to give her words and

phrases that she can use with other children and adults who are
confused by her appearance and the fact that she has a white
father and black mother.
Maia and her parents know that Maia's racial identity will be an
issue throughout her school life, at least if they stay in the
United States. But they feel it is their responsibility to educate
teachers and others about the growing number of interracial
families and multiracial children in early care and education
programs and schools. They have also told the school that they
wish for Maia's official identity on school forms to be "two or
more races."
Ephram's Family
Ephram lives with his two parents and grandmother, along with
an older sister. He is 2 years old. The family recently emigrated
from Eastern Russia. They live in the Jewish part of town, and
Ephram attends the Jewish Community Center's early childhood
program. His sister, who is 8 years old, attends a local Jewish
elementary school. Ephram's family is struggling with being
new in this country. They do not know the language, customs,
foods, how to move around the city, and how to access local
services. Ephram's mother teaches in the early childhood
program; his father is taking English lessons at the Jewish
Community Center and working with a counselor at the center
to find employment. Not only must Ephram's parents care for
their two young children, but they also must provide for the
needs of their elderly mother, who is very lonely and who has
some critical medical issues that need to be addressed.
Finances are a big worry for this family. The Jewish community
in the city sponsored their immigration from Russia, but they
are struggling to make ends meet. Both the school and early
childhood center require tuition.

Luckily, the Jewish early childhood program is part of a larger,
active Jewish Community Center. The center includes a variety
of services for seniors, and a food bank and other programs for
families in need. Through some of these programs, Ephram's
grandmother is beginning to make some friends and has become
involved in traditional cultural activities and traditions familiar
to her from her native Russia. The parents are also quickly
learning about American customs and discovering how to access
important resources for their mother and children, beyond the
Jewish community. Ephram's mother has also discovered that
the parent board of the Jewish early childhood program is very
helpful to the family. Some of its members are teachers, others
work with social services in the city, and several members are
psychologists whose practice includes working with seniors.
Jesus' Family
Jesus is the 3-year-old son of single mother Amy. When Jesus
was born, Amy was a teen mother finishing her high school
diploma. Luckily, the high school Amy attended had a program
for infants of teen parents run by the local community college.
Now, Amy attends that same community college, and is
studying to become a nurse.
Jesus spends half of the day at a Head Start program that he just
started. The other half of the day he attends the campus early
childhood program at the community college where Amy
studies. Jesus' father was deported back to Mexico, and Jesus'
grandparents on his father's side still live in Mexico.
Since he was born, Jesus has struggled to meet developmental
benchmarks. When he was in the Early Head Start program, the
program had him tested, and he is now diagnosed with ADHD
and possibly Asperger's syndrome (a form of autism). Now,
Child Find wants Amy to move him to the public school's
special education preschool program to receive services for his
ADHD and Asperger's. But Amy has had a positive experience
working with Head Start; Jesus likes the program and his peers,

and Amy enjoys the fact that she can visit her son between
classes at the community college. Amy believes that Head Start
can provide the direct services that Jesus needs, but Child Find
believes the district can do a better job of providing these
services in its preschool.
Amy also wants Jesus to develop knowledge and pride in his
Hispanic heritage. Because he has no contact with his father and
father's family, Amy is trying to find other solutions to expose
him to his culture and language.
The Head Start Jesus attends serves many Hispanic families,
allowing Jesus the opportunity to learn about his culture from
peers and other families. The program has also begun to
institute a bilingual language program, so Jesus is learning
Spanish. Amy has asked the campus early childhood program to
provide more multicultural programs, materials, and activities,
and teachers at the program are attending a multicultural class
provided by the community college.
Addressing Jesus' developmental delays is proving to be more
difficult. The local district still wants him to move into the
special education program. However, Amy is working closely
with the disability manager of Jesus' Head Start to provide the
services he needs in the program; the manager and director of
the campus child care program are also working together to
determine ways the campus program can meet Jesus' needs. The
director of the program believes that it is important for her staff
to learn how to work with children with developmental delays.
Ester's Family
Ken and Ellen are grandparents raising two of their
grandchildren, Michael and Ester. Michael is 8 years old and
attends the neighborhood elementary school. Ester, his sister, is
2, and she attends the employee child care program where Ken

works. Initially, the program would not accept Ester, because
Ken is not her biological father. But after they worked with the
HR department of the company, Ester was accepted.
Ken and Ellen are looking after their grandchildren because
their son is in jail for selling drugs, and the children's mother
has been declared by the courts to be unfit to raise two young
children, due to a severe drug problem. The court assigned Ken
and Ellen to raise the two children. Ken works at a good
company, and Ellen is a retired schoolteacher. Ken and Ellen
had planned by this time in their lives to retire and to travel.
Although they had planned to visit Europe and explore towns
and villages from which their families originated, Ken now must
continue to work for an income and to be able to have free child
care for Ester. Ellen does not have the energy to care for Ester
full time at home.
Neither Ken nor Ellen ever imagined this situation. They are not
sure what the future holds, as both of them are getting older and
both have challenging health issues. Their daughter-in-law, the
children's mother, is still in the picture, but she has not been
able to overcome her drug addiction. Her visits are extremely
disruptive for the children. The children have also struggled to
understand this situation, and Michael especially has had
trouble with Ken. Michael was very close to his father, and they
would play sports together. Ken is not able to be as physically
active. Ken and Ellen have worked with a counselor to try to
address some of Michael's issues, including his struggles at
school. They think they might also include Ester when she is a
little older.
Ken and Ellen also find it difficult to get involved in parent
activities at the employee child care program and at their
grandson's school. All the other parents talk about their
emerging careers and discuss the latest parenting and
technology fads. They feel very out of place and think the

caregivers and teachers in both settings are rather
uncomfortable with them.
The center has decided to create a grandparent group (there are
several grandparents actively involved with their children).
While the other grandparents are not the sole providers for their
children, they do have some of the same issues and interests as
Ken and Ellen do. So far, this group has invited a person from
the city to come to the center and talk about city services for
grandparents; they are also developing a list of children's books
with positive scenarios of grandparents, which they will give to
the teachers. Future activities may include a fundraiser to
purchase books, a training session for staff about ways to
include grandparents in the curriculum and activities, and visits
to the local community college to talk to early childhood classes
about ways to include grandparents in programs. Ken and Ellen
have also begun the process of getting special education
services for their grandson in the local public school.
Sarah's Family
Sarah attends a program run by the Lutheran church her family
attends on Sundays. Sarah, age 3, attends the program every
morning. In the afternoon, she is cared for at home by her
father, who also cares for her 1-year-old brother. He is a stay-
at-home father. Sarah's mother is a pediatrician at the local
university training hospital. The Lutheran early childhood
program describes Sarah's family as high maintenance. Her
mother is always telling the staff what to do, not only with
Sarah but also with all of the children. She is particularly
focused on healthy nutrition, hygiene, and health issues.
Because she is also very involved with the church, she often
complains about the early childhood program to the church
hierarchy. Needless to say, this causes tension in the program,
and the staff members need to be very careful not to take out
their frustrations on Sarah and her father.

Sarah's father also struggles with being a stay-at-home father.
He loves his children and enjoys seeing them grow and develop,
and he is taking a child development class in the evenings at the
local community college to understand the development of
young children. But he often sees his old buddies with high-
status careers and feels very uncomfortable when they all get
together to discuss their lives, interests, and challenges. He also
believes the female director and her staff do not treat him
seriously, always waiting for his wife to communicate issues of
concern about Sarah.
There are two general issues that need to be addressed: (1)
Sarah's mother's interference in program activities, and (2) her
father's feeling of inadequacy. The former issue needs to be
addressed by the head of the early childhood program and the
church meeting together with Sarah's mother to establish
boundaries between the program, church, and families. Possibly
Sarah's mother could become officially involved by joining the
parent board that oversees the early childhood program, thus
clarifying her role.
Sarah's father might want to work with his community college
early childhood department to develop a training program about
fathers in early care and education programs. He could then
present the training module to Sarah's program. Additionally, he
could work with one of Sarah's teachers to find children's books
that provide positive stories about stay-at-home fathers caring
for their children. Finally, he might explore a hobby or vocation
that he can pursue with his male buddies when he is not caring
for his children.
Common Issues for All Families
All six families discussed in these scenarios are earnestly trying
to meet the basic needs of their children. Further, the programs

are working with (or will work with) these families to provide
for the needs of their children. To this end, the families provide
varying degrees of the following attributes of resilient families:
Commitment
Attachment to each other
Individual independence and group independence
Ability to give and receive nurturing
Ability to get needs met
Coping skills
Methods to build self-esteem in their children
Effective communication
Ability to pass on culture, goals, and values (Gonzalez-Mena,
2009)
However, each family experiences many of the typical stressors
of families with young children, including poverty, children
with developmental delays, problems with substance abuse,
grandparents raising children, lack of extended family support,
communication difficulties, new immigrant status, and cultural
conflicts between the family and program. In the next section,
we describe some additional ways early care and education
programs can address some of these issues.
10.4 How Early Care and Education Programs Address Family
Stress
In Chapter 1, we discussed at length ways early care and
education programs can help families meet some of the basic
family functions we have discussed in this chapter. According
to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, families and
early care and education programs must work together to
maximize the growth and learning of the child (Bronfenbrenner,
1979).
In this section, we will look at specific ways the early care and
education program can support families and thus reduce family
stress. Specifically, early care and education programs need to
find ways to help young families address the family functions

described at the beginning of this chapter (see Helping Children
Develop: The Five Family Functions). Programs can help
families with all of the functional areas, from providing the
necessities their children need (e.g., nutrition, parenting skills,
and access to community resources) to encouraging learning
(e.g., ideas for reading to children at home and using low-cost
community resources such as libraries and free days at the
museum). Food banks, community gardens, low-cost emergency
care, health clinics, additional child care services, mental health
counseling (for either the children or adults in the family), and
services for children with possible developmental delays can all
be found through contacts at the early care and education
program.
HELPING CHILDREN DEVELOP:
The Five Family Functions
These are the functions all families provide for their children:
Provide basic necessities
Encourage learning
Develop self-esteem
Nurture peer relationships
Maintain harmony and stability
Targeted Programs
Certain early care and education programs are designed to
address the specific needs of targeted children and families.
These include programs such as Head Start, which serves low-
income 3- to 5-year-olds and focuses on preparing children for
school success; the Hope Center in Denver, Colorado, which
caters to African-American gifted preschoolers; and the
Renaissance Center in Lakewood, Colorado, which is designed
for young children in homeless families (Wardle, 2009). There
are also many home-based models, in which teachers and other
providers work directly with children and parents in the home.
The Portage model is one such approach (Shearer & Shearer,
2005); the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool

Youngsters (HIPPY) is another. Both of these programs target
parents with limited skills and confidence in their ability to
prepare their children for successful school entry. Often these
parents lack success in formal education, are poor, and may
have limited English proficiency (HIPPY USA, 2012). Head
Start also provides a home-based model.
Many states provide free preschool programs for low-income
children, and some provide programs for children with specific
developmental delays, such as learning disabilities, ADHD,
blindness, and autism. However, the federal government does
not allow for children with disabilities to be segregated, instead
requiring them to be mainstreamed in programs with students
without developmental delays (U.S. Department of Education,
2004). Other early care and education programs teach English to
non-English-speaking children or a foreign language to English-
speaking children.
Direct Services
Many early care and education programs provide direct services
to their families. The kinds of direct services that are provided
depend on the early care and education program and the families
they serve. Sometimes these are simply ongoing offerings, such
as parenting classes, English-language classes, and how to
contact agencies that help families access food banks and other
community services. Other offerings are created, ad hoc, when
enough families express an interest and require a service or
activity. Classes on including men in the lives of children,
cultural diversity, growing your own food, budgeting,
developing low-cost nutritional meals, and job training are all
examples of these kinds of direct services provided by early
care and education programs.
Accessing Services within a Network
Many early care and education programs are part of a broader
network of programs and agencies. An early care and education

program within a large Jewish community center will be able to
connect parents to services that meet specific family needs.
Many Head Start programs are a part of much larger service
networks. For example, in many cities, Catholic Charities runs
Head Start programs as well as a vast array of other programs
that struggling families can use. And early childhood programs
run by local school districts will have direct access to services
for children with developmental delays, parents who need to
earn a GED, and adults who do not speak English.
Resource Referral
Staff in early care and education programs become experts
regarding community agencies that serve families in a variety of
capacities, from drug counseling, family therapy, job placement
and training to medical referrals for children with severe
medical issues, food banks, and relief for high heat bills. These
early care and education staff members are wonderful resources
for families to use to meet the unique needs of their children,
parents, and extended family members.
Many community agencies that serve families with young
children make it a point to disseminate information at local
early care and education centers. The state's department of
health will provide information about immunization schedules,
current health risks, and general health concerns. Mental health
associations will let families know about their services; training
and employment agencies provide information to parents and
other family members, and drug counseling organizations
provide information, contacts, and referrals. Early care and
education programs that serve unique populations, such as new
immigrant families, families who have recently adopted children
from other countries, children with developmental delays, or
homeless families, will be targeted by community agencies that
serve these populations.
Transition to K-12 Schools

All children and families that use an early care and education
program will later use a local school—a public school, religious
program, or private school. Sometimes the transition is
seamless: from Catholic preschool to the local Catholic
elementary school, or from the district preschool program to the
local K-12 school. But often the transition is difficult,
especially for families under particular kinds of stress. Parents
of a child diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's syndrome will
need to work diligently to make sure their child can smoothly
transition from the early childhood program to the local public
school. Early care and education programs must work together
to make these transitions as stress-free as possible. One way
that early care and education programs reduce family stress is
for all of the programs, including local schools and their Child
Find agencies, to work together for the good of young children
and their families.
Advocacy
Even if an early care and education program is not immediately
able to meet the needs of a family, or to refer the family to
other community agencies, they become advocates for families.
In this capacity, staff know how to seek out information, are
tenacious in advocating for families, and have their own
professional networks that they can often use to find solutions
to specific problems presented by families they serve.
Sometimes, other families in the center know of needed services
or are involved in providing such services and, at other times,
college connections and state-funded training programs can be
used to collect important information.
Additionally, early care and education programs and parents can
work together to change legislation, advocate for needed
family-friendly services, and educate groups that service young
children and their families.
10.5 Quality Efforts Designed to Make Sure Programs Support
Families

We have just discussed a variety of ways that early care and
education programs support families and attempt to reduce some
of the stress families experience in meeting the needs of their
young children. There are also formal instruments that have
been expressly designed to assist programs to improve the
quality of their services for children and families. These
instruments evaluate many quality indicators of a program, from
health and safety requirements, curricula, and classroom
materials, to specific services designed to maximize
partnerships with the families they serve. As we have seen in
our discussions of family functions, quality indicators such as
treating parents as partners and communicating with parents
clearly address issues important to families. Everything that the
early care and education program does has a direct impact on
the family's sense of security, faith in the program, and belief
that the program has the best intentions to meet the needs of
their children in everything they do. These quality indicators
assist programs in meeting this important goal (Sanders &
Howes, 2013).
Several different instruments are used to evaluate the quality of
early care and education programs. They include environment
rating scales, program accreditation, and program-specific
evaluations (e.g., the Head Start Program Performance
Standards). Individual programs use these instruments to
improve the overall quality of their programs (Sanders &
Howes, 2013). All of these quality improvement instruments
require program-wide activities in which everyone in the
program must be involved (NAEYC, 2012). And some
assessments, such as the Head Start's self-evaluation, also
require direct parent involvement (U.S. HHS, 1999). Thus it is
critical that all staff in any program, be it a Head Start program,
public preschool program, private program, or not-for-profit
center, understand the purpose of program assessments, become
familiar with specific instruments, and appreciate the need to
work closely with parents when the evaluation occurs. These

quality improvement systems are now being used by states and
funding sources to determine program quality, as a ladder
toward improvement (Sanders & Howes, 2013); therefore all
teachers and caregivers need to become familiar with various
evaluation and assessment approaches.
Environment Rating Scales
Thelma Harms, Richard Clifford, and Debbie Cryer have
developed and validated a series of environment rating scales,
published through the Frank Graham Child Development
Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The
various rating scales are the Family Day Care Rating Scale
(FDCRS, rev. ed.; Harms & Clifford, 1989), Infant/Toddlers
Environment Rating Scale (ITERS; Harms, Cryer, & Clifford,
1990), School-Age Care Environment Rating Scale (SACERS;
Harms, Clifford, & White, 1996), and Early Childhood
Environment Rating Scale (ECERS, rev. ed.; Harms, Clifford, &
Cryer, 2005).
The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, published in
1980 and revised in 1998 (ECERS-Revised), is designed for
children 2½ to 5 years old. The subscales for the Early
Childhood Environment Rating Scale are the following:
Space and Furnishings
Personal Care Routines
Language-Reasoning
Activities
Interaction
Program Structure
Parents and Staff
Each of these subscales is then broken down into additional
items (see Table 10.1). For each of these items, a seven-point
scale is created, which goes from inadequate (1), through
minimal (3), to good (5), and then excellent (7). Thus, every
item can be scored from 1 to 7 (a zero score is used when there
is a lack of evidence to demonstrate that an item is addressed).

Then the score for each of the subscales is totaled. For example,
Space and Furnishings has a maximum of 56 points (Harms,
Clifford, & Cryer, 2005).
Scoring of the ECERS-R is conducted by observing a classroom
or group of children at one time for a block of at least 3 hours,
using scoring sheets provided by the instrument. Averages of
item scores are determined by summing the score for each item
of the subscale and then dividing by the number of item scores.
The scoring sheet also allows the observer to record details
about each item, such as the number of child-size chairs, and to
provide a tally of diversity materials by race, gender, culture,
age, and disability. The observer is encouraged to write notes
on the score sheet. All the subscales are scored the exact same
way.
Table 10.1: Overview of the subscales and items of the ECERS-
R
Space and Furnishings
1. Indoor space
2. Furniture for routine care, play, and learning
3. Furnishings for relaxation and comfort
4. Room arrangement for play
5. Space for privacy
6. Child-related display
7. Space for gross motor play
8. Gross motor equipment
Personal Care Routines
9. Greeting/departing
10. Meals/snacks
11. Nap/rest
12. Toileting/diapering
13. Health practices
14. Safety practices
Language-Reasoning
15. Books and pictures

16. Encourage children to communicate
17. Using language to develop reasoning skills
18. Informal use of language
Activities
19. Fine motor
20. Art
21. Music/movement
22. Blocks
23. Sand/water
24. Dramatic play
25. Nature/science
26. Math/number
27. Use of TV, video, or computers
28. Promoting acceptance of diversity
Interaction
29. Supervision of gross motor activities
30. General supervision of children (other than gross motor)
31. Discipline
32. Staff-child interactions
33. Interactions among children
Program Structure
34. Schedule
35. Free play
36. Group time
37. Provisions for children with disabilities
Parents and Staff
38. Provisions for parents
39. Provisions for personal needs of staff
40. Provisions for professional needs of staff
41. Staff interaction and cooperation
42. Supervision and evaluation of staff
43. Opportunities for professional growth
Program Accreditation
Program accreditation is a voluntary process used by early care
and education programs to improve quality. Pre-developed

quality indicators, based on early care and education best
practices, are used both to assist the individual program in
implementing a variety of processes to improve and to provide
parents, funders, and other community members a standardized
indication of a program's quality (Sanders & Howes, 2013).
Because all staff members in any early care and education
program have the most direct impact on the quality of the
program, and because quality improvements last only if they are
fully embraced by all staff, it is critical that anyone involved in
working with young children understands the importance of
accreditation procedures. Further, program accreditation is
becoming a high stakes method that states and other funding
sources use to improve program quality and fund program
improvement (Sanders & Howes, 2013). Accreditation
procedures include those developed for family child care homes,
Montessori programs, and various religious programs. Here we
will examine the accreditation process used by the National
Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
This will provide students with a prototype of quality
assessment systems that they will likely encounter.
Each of the accreditation protocols focuses on indicators of
quality, and these indicators isolate specific processes, such as
child-adult interactions and staff-parent interactions, rather than
addressing the kinds of outcomes and standards public schools
measure through high stakes assessments. There is an obvious
overlap between the environment rating scales discussed in the
previous section and program accreditation, with the
environment rating scales matching some accreditation
components. But program accreditation is generally broader
than the environment rating scales, including other indicators of
quality, such as curriculum and child-adult ratios.
Standards of Accreditation
The NAEYC accreditation booklet (used by those conducting
the accreditation of a program) states that "the criteria listed in

this book represent the current consensus of the early childhood
profession regarding the definition of a high quality program for
young children" (NAEYC, 2005, p. ix). Many of the quality
indicators are universally accepted health and safety rules, some
of which are required by each state's early childhood licensing
body, including standards for supervision, storage of records,
and sterilization of toys and other materials.
Other standards, such as child-staff ratios and standards of
curriculum and teaching interactions, differ from program to
program and are based on an organization's specific
philosophical orientation. The philosophical basis of the
NAEYC accreditation standards are developmentally
appropriate practice (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Research
suggests that the process of accreditation increases program
quality; accredited programs provide high-quality care and
education to young children and families; and teachers and
caregivers in accredited programs are more knowledgeable
about child development and best practices than are those in
programs that are not accredited (Sanders & Howes, 2013).
As we briefly explore the various components of these
accreditation processes, it is critical to remember that the heart
of any quality early care and education program is the staff. Not
only do the teachers and caregivers create and maintain the
environment, implement the curriculum, plan learning
experiences, individualize instruction, and manage the
classroom, but they are also responsible for the critically
important growth and development of children's self-regulation
and social and emotional development (McClelland, Acock, &
Morrison, 2006; Hyson, 2008). Further, teachers and caregivers
are responsible for creating a warm and rich partnership with
families (NAEYC, 2005). However, as we have discussed
throughout this book, early childhood teachers and caregivers
are often poorly paid, with few benefits (Neugebauer, 2008).

NAEYC Accreditation Indicators
The accreditation indicators used for the NAEYC accreditation
process were originally developed in 1985 and have undergone
several revisions since (see Spotlight: The Categories
Addressed by NAEYC Accreditation).
SPOTLIGHT:
The Categories Addressed by NAEYC Accreditation
Interactions among staff and children
Curriculum
Staff-parent interactions
Administration
Staffing
Physical environment
Health and safety
Nutrition and safety
Evaluation
(NAEYC, 2012)
Under each of these headings are indicators that determine how
well a standard is met. For example, under the category
interactions among staff and children, item A-1, is,
Staff interact frequently with children. Staff express respect for
and affection toward children by smiling, touching, holding, and
speaking to children at their eye level throughout the day,
particularly at arrival and departure, and when diapering or
feeding very young children. Staff actively seek meaningful
conversations with children. (NAEYC, 2005, p. 15)
Three gradations, not met, partially met, and fully met, are used
by the evaluator to assess each item.
Accreditation Procedure
The NAEYC accreditation process has three levels:

Self-study. An individual early care and education program uses
the accreditation materials to evaluate its own program. The
team works on making changes to items not met in the program.
The results of this self-assessment are then sent to the
Commission of Accreditation in Washington, D.C.
Validation. An evaluator or team of evaluators (depending on
the size of the program) visits the program and conducts its own
assessment, comparing their observations with the program's
own self-assessment.
Commission decision. The Commission of Accreditation,
empowered by NAEYC, examines both documents and then
makes a determination based on the findings (NAEYC, 2012).
This decision is then communicated to the program.
Program-Specific Evaluations
Head Start and Early Head Start, the U.S. Department of
Defense early care and education programs, and some national
religious early childhood programs all have developed their own
comprehensive national approaches to evaluate their programs.
One advantage of this approach is that sponsoring organizations
can tailor quality evaluations to match the program's values and
philosophy and highlight unique aspects of their early care and
education approach. The federal Head Start and Early Head
Start programs use a process called the PRISM Evaluation
System, which is conducted on all local programs every three
years.
Performance Standards
Head Start performance standards outline overall program
standards to be met in each component area of the local program
(U.S. HHS, 1999). These component areas include family
partnerships, community partnerships, nutrition, health and
safety, mental health, and education and early childhood
development. The performance standards in each component
area enable this vast, comprehensive federal early childhood
program to provide flexibility to meet local needs, while also

maintaining quality control. For example, under the education
and child development component, programs are expected to use
a well-developed curriculum that meets the unique needs of the
children and families in the community served by the program.
One program may have a significant number of Spanish-
speaking families that requires a bilingual curriculum (and
English classes for parents); another program may need to work
closely with the immigrant Hmong community, exploring ways
to include Hmong culture, traditions, art, and language into the
curriculum. A third program might include a very strong
nutrition component to attack a growing problem of diabetes
and obesity in the community (Wardle, 2009).
PRISM Evaluation System
The Head Start evaluation has two parts: a self-evaluation
conducted by parents and community members, and a federal
onsite team that corroborates the self-assessment while
providing a more authoritative review and documentation.
Today, all local Head Start programs use what is called the
PRISM process (Program Review Instrument for Systems
Monitoring of Head Start and Early Head Start) (U.S. HHS,
2002). This includes a combination of methods to determine
each program's compliance with each of the performance
standards. For example, under community partnerships, the
number and nature of these partnerships must be shown and
efforts made by the local program to increase these partnerships
documented. Results of the PRISM are used to improve the
local program and to satisfy accountability to the federal
government.
Families and Program Quality
All the systems described—environment rating scales, program
accreditation, and program-specific quality systems—have a
specific family component. This component examines how well
the early care and education program works directly in
partnerships with families to meet the education and

development needs of children, and to support parents and other
family members in their sincere efforts to raise healthy, well-
educated children. Evaluation programs require parents to be
involved in the quality improvement process in a number of
ways:
Communication. The program must continually inform parents
of the ways the program is evaluated, what the evaluation means
regarding program quality, and how parents can be involved in
the process.
Direct involvement. Many program evaluation processes, such
as the Head Start PRISM, directly use parents in the self-
evaluation process. This is an invaluable activity, because it
enables parents to have direct input into the quality of their
children's program and also increases their knowledge about
how the program works.
Opportunity to effect change. A central purpose of all program
evaluation is to improve program quality (Sanders & Howes,
2013). Further, all programs can benefit by improving their
ability to work collaboratively and respectfully with the
families of the children they serve. The program evaluation—
whether a rating scale, accreditation process, or program-
specific activity—is a great place for parents to have direct
input into the quality of their children's programs.
Wardle, F. (2013). Collaboration with families and
communities [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/

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