Parenting Gains in Head Start as a Function of Initial Parenting Skill

The early childhood years serve as a critical developmental period in children's educational careers (Heckman, 2008). Recent estimates, however, suggest that children from disadvantaged backgrounds enter kindergarten up to 22 months behind their more advantaged peers in areas of early academic skills (Bradbury, Corak, Waldfogel, & Washbrook, 2011), and once children fall behind, they often stay behind (Alexander& Entwisle, 1989). Given the income-related disparities in school readiness, early childhood programs are increasingly viewed as a key point of intervention. Although there is compelling evidence to suggest that these programs can facilitate young children's school prospects (Gormley, Phillips, & Dawson, 2005; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013), they target only one of the contexts affected by poverty. Parents remain the most important contributors to children's school success (Belsky et al., 2007), and the intergenerational transmission of inequality is often filtered through intrafamilial dynamics (Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010; Gershoff, Aber, Raver, & Lennon, 2007; Kalil, 2015).Although all parents want their children to succeed academically, parents of greater means are more likely to know how to promote children's school success than are those of lower socioeconomic circumstances (Coleman, 1988; Lareau, 2003). Although there is variability in the quality of parenting in low-income communities, parents who themselves grew up in educationally unsupportive environments may not know how to engage in strategic forms of parenting that support their children's school achievement, or theymay not be aware of the importance of these practices for preparing their children for school (Coleman, 1988; Lareau, 2003). Relatedly, low-income parents may be less able to promote their children's school success if they are less aware of the cultural context of the school environment, which results in incongruent activities across the two core systems of child development (Crosnoe, 2015). Parents of higher economic backgrounds, therefore, are more likely to spend time in different types of enriching activities that (a) mirror school expectations of parents (Crosnoe, 2015) and (b) directly support their children's long-term school success (Gershoffet al., 2007; Kalil, Ryan, & Corey, 2012; Mistry, Biesanz, Taylor, Burchinal, & Cox, 2004).In general, parents shape children's early learning by engaging in supportive behaviors, such as cognitive stimulation (the investment model; Gershoffet al., 2007; Yeung, Linver, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002), and by avoiding more controlling and punitive practices, which are associated with adverse child outcomes (Gershoff, 2002). Poverty and its associated stressors, however, undermine family functioning and mental health, which, in turn, disrupts parents' interactions with children (the family stress model; Conger et al., 2010; Gershoffet al., 2007; Kalil et al., 2012; Mistry et al., 2004). If less advantaged parents improve their parenting behaviors and well-being, then gaps in children's school readiness can be narrowed (Kalil, 2015). For these reasons, there has been growing interest in two-generation strategies that bring together programs and policies by delivering both high-quality early childhood education for children and investments in parents' parenting and well-being (Chase-Lansdale & Brooks-Gunn, 2014).Several theoretical models guide the inclusion of parents as part of early childhood and twogeneration programs, including bioecological theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and social learning theory (Bandura, 1977). The bioecological model posits that development occurs in multiple and often overlapping contexts, including the home and school (microsystems). A key theme of bioecological theory is that development occurs through complex interactions between these different systems (mesosystem). Thus, as children spend more time in early care and education programs, such as Head Start, their parents are also exposed to new sets of behaviors that they can implement at home (observational learning; Bandura, 1977). …