CAREER: Supporting Healthy Development of Infants in Contexts of Poverty and Homelessness

Villanova University, Villanova PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will investigate developmental processes of risk and resilience among infants whose families are homeless and have very low income. The project will contribute to the limited knowledge of well-being of homeless infants. Infants are overrepresented among children experiencing homelessness but underrepresented in the research literature. Furthermore, the project will expand basic understanding of the risks associated with homelessness compared to risks of poverty more generally, and it will inform efforts on the part of service providers and policymakers to support healthy development of infants and families through parenting programs. The project will involve the design and evaluation of a child development curriculum for family housing providers. This curriculum will be delivered by graduate students, enhancing the students' education while simultaneously enhancing knowledge of developmental science among service providers who interact daily with young children and families experiencing homelessness. Research participants will include infants and their parents who are staying in emergency homeless shelters or who are housed in similar neighborhoods with very low incomes. Families from shelters will be randomly assigned either to a brief parenting intervention or to care-as-usual. Researchers will assess and compare the well-being of children and parents in terms of infant development, parent functioning, and quality of the parent-child relationship at three time-points over eight months to observe change in functioning over time and in relation to participation in the parenting intervention. The researchers hypothesize that families experiencing homelessness will have more difficulties than very low-income, housed families, but that nurturing parent-child relationships will predict better adjustment over time in both groups. Furthermore, researchers expect to see improvements in infant well-being, parent functioning, and parent-child relationships among families who receive the parenting intervention while staying in shelters.