Africa Knowledge Hub for Children

OtherOpenAlex - Early Childhood8 Oct 2026

Exploring the Lived Experiences of Parent-Educators in Pursuit of Stability and Growth in the Early Education Workforce

Early childhood educators who are also parents represent an important yet understudied population within workforce development research. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the lived experiences of early childhood educators who are also parents as they navigated workforce development programs, parenting responsibilities, and organizational practices in pursuit of career advancement and economic stability. Guided by work-family border theory (Clark, 2000) and ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the study examined how parenting responsibilities shaped engagement in workforce development opportunities and influenced professional trajectories over time. Twenty-two early childhood educators who were also parents participated in virtual semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Narrative data were analyzed using Polkinghorne’s (1995) narrative analysis framework, resulting in eight emergent themes organized around two research questions. Findings revealed that workforce development served as both a pathway to career advancement and a source of professional affirmation, while organizational and leadership support played a significant role in shaping participants’ professional experiences. Participants demonstrated persistence and adaptability in pursuing professional growth and described economic stability as closely connected to family well-being. Parenthood was found to reshape professional perspectives, create competing demands, and influence participation in workforce development opportunities. Support systems, boundary setting, and redefining success emerged as important factors in sustaining professional engagement. Findings suggest that workforce development systems, organizational practices, and compensation initiatives should more intentionally address the realities of working parent-educators to better support career advancement, economic stability, and long-term workforce retention within early childhood education.

Britney N. Patrick

USRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex8 Oct 2026

Dual ecological-cultural pathways of sociocultural environment and resting state functional connectivity among Hispanic adolescents in the ABCD Study

Hispanic Americans face persistent health disparities rooted in complex sociocultural and bioecodevelopmental dynamics. Identifying early neurodevelopmental trajectories that confer risk or resilience during adolescence is critical for developing targeted health equity interventions. Grounded in the NIMHD Research Framework and bioecodevelopmental theory, data from 12- to 14-year-old Hispanic adolescents in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study were analyzed (n=236). Partial least squares correlation (PLSC) was used to evaluate multivariate associations between sociocultural measures, spanning individual, family, and community levels, and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) networks. Post hoc linear mixed-effects models examined how derived sociocultural-rsFC patterns predicted measures of physical and mental health, linking bioecodevelopmental patterns to adolescent well-being. PLSC revealed dual community- and family-level neural pathways of biological embedding, diverging from traditional nested bioecodevelopmental assumptions. The community pathway linked child opportunity and neighborhood disadvantage to connectivity across Cingulo-Opercular, Default, Dorsal Attention, Visual Networks. This community-rsFC profile was associated with lower respiratory functioning, reflecting an allostatic load marker of environmental stress. The family pathway linked caregiver ethnic identity and heritage acculturation to Default, Ventral Attention, Sensorimotor-Mouth, and Visual Networks connectivity, suggesting that the family system shapes neural systems underlying social attunement and identity formation. Structural community factors and familial culture impose distinct neurobiological demands on the adolescent connectome among Hispanic youth. Findings highlight respiratory health as a biological marker of environmental adversity and underscore the necessity of structural and culturally sustaining interventions to promote health equity among Hispanic youth.

Angela R. Laird, Chloe Hampson, Micaela Lembo et al.

DevelopmentSurvivalUSRead at source

OtherCrossref2 May 2026

Understanding Refugee Parent-Child Discrepancies in Reporting Socio-Emotional Well-Being

Canada has welcomed over 100,000 Syrian refugees since 2015, many of whom have faced displacement-related challenges that shape their socio-emotional well-being. Refugee children, in particular, are at heightened risk for socio-emotional difficulties due to their developmental sensitivity to adversity, exposure to traumatic events, and resettlement stressors. Assessing children’s socio-emotional well-being often relies on both parent-reports and child self-reports; however, discrepancies between these reports commonly occur, and the factors influencing such discrepancies are not well understood, particularly in displaced populations. The present study examined predictors of parent-child discrepancies in reports of socio-emotional well-being and explored whether such discrepancies were associated with children’s learning outcomes. Participants were Syrian refugee children (N = 55, Mage = 14.42) who were resettled in Canada for an average of six years. Results revealed that children consistently self-reported more socio-emotional problems than their parents reported. Moreover, longer time resettled in Canada predicted greater parent-child discrepancies, suggesting that resettlement-related factors and acculturation influence parent-child discrepancies. However, child self-reports, but not parent-reports, showed limited external validity; while parent-child communication barriers may contribute to discrepancies, differences in how socio-emotional constructs are understood and reported by parents and children are important to consider. These findings underscore the importance of including multiple informants in socio-emotional well-being assessments and carefully considering cultural and contextual factors when designing assessments, specifically given the complex dynamics in displaced families. Future research is important to advance the literature to determine whether assessments of socio-emotional well-being should be adapted for specific populations, as suggested by the present findings.

Andrea De Bartolo, Yuying Huang, Hamza Qayumi et al.

DevelopmentCARead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood5 Oct 2026

Promoting healthy families: a three‐arm randomized controlled trial of Triple P and Circle of Security–Parenting versus treatment‐as‐usual for families with young children (2–6 years)

BACKGROUND: Parenting programs grounded in social learning (SL) and attachment theory are widely implemented, yet few trials have directly compared their effects across multiple parenting domains in community contexts. This study examined the relative effectiveness of an SL-based program (Triple P - Level 4 Group) and an attachment-based program (Circle of Security - Parenting, COS-P) against treatment-as-usual (TAU) when delivered online through community agencies. METHODS: A three-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted across four community organizations in Ontario, Canada. Caregivers of children aged 2-6 years (N = 502) were randomized (1:1:1) to Triple P, COS-P, or TAU. Primary outcomes were child behavioral difficulties (SDQ-Total) and parental overreactivity with post-intervention, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes included parental attributions, parenting stress, and caregiver mental health. Analyses followed an intention-to-treat framework using mixed-effects models (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT04702191). RESULTS: Relative to TAU, Triple P demonstrated significant short-term reductions in emotional symptoms and conduct problems, and immediate improvements in hostile and helpless parenting and anxiety; however, most between-group effects did not persist beyond post-intervention. Effects on total child behavior problems at 12 months were no longer significant after correction for multiple testing. Improvements in parental attributions were sustained at 12 months. COS-P differed from TAU on only one outcome, at one time point. Within-group improvements in child behavior, dysfunctional parenting, and caregiver mood were observed in TAU, with COS-P and Triple P showing similar trends. Exploratory analyses suggested broader benefits for Triple P relative to COS-P. CONCLUSIONS: Triple P demonstrated selective short-term benefits relative to TAU across child behavioral and parenting outcomes, with sustained effects limited to parental attributions. COS-P showed no measurable effects relative to TAU. These findings highlight the importance of behavioral management and self-regulation components and point to the need for further research examining contextual moderators, maintenance strategies, and sustainable delivery approaches, including digital formats.

Andrea González, G. J. Meléndez‐Torres, Divya Joshi et al.

DevelopmentProtectionExperimentalCARead at source

Peer-reviewed articleOpenAlex - Early Childhood6 Oct 2026

Unlocking the Power of Neighborhood Collective Efficacy: Associations with ADHD and Youth Outcomes Among Black and White Adolescents

Abstract This study examined the associations of neighborhood collective efficacy and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) status with psychosocial and academic outcomes among Black and White adolescents. Using a sample of 2,178 adolescents (ages 14–19; 73.0% Black, 27.0% White) from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we investigated how adolescent- and caregiver-reported neighborhood collective efficacy, and its interactions with racial group and ADHD status, were associated with wellbeing and school-related outcomes. Adolescent- and caregiver-reported neighborhood collective efficacy were weakly correlated, suggesting the importance of examining both perspectives. Significant racial group × ADHD interactions emerged in relation to engagement and happiness: ADHD was associated with lower engagement and higher happiness among White adolescents, but these associations were not observed among Black adolescents. In both caregiver- and adolescent-reported models, significant racial group × neighborhood collective efficacy interactions were observed for perseverance, such that higher neighborhood collective efficacy was associated with greater perseverance among White adolescents, but not among Black adolescents. ADHD was also associated with greater trouble in school. Neither racial group nor informant’s rating of neighborhood collective efficacy was significantly associated with school suspensions, and no significant interactions emerged for suspension outcomes. Among Black and White adolescents in the present sample, these findings suggest that associations between neighborhood context, ADHD status, and psychosocial and academic outcomes differed across groups, underscoring the importance of considering social and cultural context when developing interventions to support Black youth.

Cathrin D. Green, Elizabeth S. M. Chan, Sydney E. Padgett et al.

DevelopmentUSRead at source

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A pedagogia de projetos na Educação Infantil: um relato de experiência do projeto A vida dos dinossauros

Exploring the Lived Experiences of Parent-Educators in Pursuit of Stability and Growth in the Early Education Workforce

Criminal dismemberments: Victim, suspect, and incident attributes of decapitation‐only and dismemberment homicides

Dual ecological-cultural pathways of sociocultural environment and resting state functional connectivity among Hispanic adolescents in the ABCD Study

Understanding Refugee Parent-Child Discrepancies in Reporting Socio-Emotional Well-Being

The Impact of Tobacco-Free School Laws on Student and Staff Smoking Behavior

Poor Nurturing Care as a Risk Factor for Homelessness: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

Promoting healthy families: a three‐arm randomized controlled trial of Triple P and Circle of Security–Parenting versus treatment‐as‐usual for families with young children (2–6 years)

Unlocking the Power of Neighborhood Collective Efficacy: Associations with ADHD and Youth Outcomes Among Black and White Adolescents

Social‐Emotional Outcomes of Preschool Participation: Are There Associations in Kindergarten and Fourth Grade?

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