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3.0 Head Start Children
3.1 Overview
This chapter describes the Head Start children who were participants in the study. Information was collected through the parent interviews. The screening of respondents at the start of each interview required that each respondent be the person most responsible for the target child’s care – that is, a primary caregiver. Because over 90% of the respondents to the interviews were mothers or fathers, respondents will be referred to in this report as ‘parents.’
3.2 Children’s Demographics
The sample of children was evenly balanced between boys (50.3%) and girls (49.7%). As shown in Exhibit 3-1, the percentages of boys and girls varied only slightly within the subgroups of 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. The children primarily fell into three ethnic groups: African American (28.8%), White (30.7%), and Hispanic (27.6%). Across the 3- and 4-year-old subgroups, the proportion of Whites was very consistent, while African Americans were the group most likely to be represented among the 3-year-olds. Children in the Hispanic group made up a larger proportion of the 4-year-old group than the 3-year-old group.
| Weighted Percentages | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| All (n = 3,120 ) |
Age 3 (n = 1,129) |
Age 4 (n = 1,991) |
|
| Gender | |||
| Boys | 50.4 | 48.7 | 51.2 |
| Girls | 49.6 | 51.4 | 48.8 |
| Ethnicity | |||
| African American | 28.8 | 34.7 | 26.1 |
| White | 30.7 | 29.0 | 31.4 |
| Hispanic/Latino | 27.6 | 22.5 | 30.0 |
| Native American | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.7 |
| Asian/ Pacific Islander | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Othera | 8.7 | 8.7 | 8.6 |
| a‘Other’ generally refers to children who were identified as belonging to multiple ethnic groups.(back) |
The distribution of gender did not vary by urbanicity, and varied only slightly across the geographic regions. The distribution of ethnicity was explored within the urban/rural and geographic classifications. It is shown in Exhibit 3-2 that the two largest proportions of the urban group were African Americans (34.2%) and Hispanics (35.4%). While Whites were less than one fifth (17.9%) of the urban group, they represented more than one half (56.6%) of the rural group. African Americans (17.9%) and Hispanics (12.0%) represented much smaller proportions of the rural group.
| Weighted Percentages | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urbanicity | Geographic Region | |||||
| Urban (n = 999) |
Rural (n = 2,122) |
Northeast (n = 432) |
South (n = 1,316) |
Midwest (n = 778) |
West (n = 594) |
|
| Gender | ||||||
| Boys | 50.6 | 50.0 | 44.9 | 51.6 | 51.3 | 51.3 |
| Girls | 49.4 | 50.0 | 55.1 | 48.4 | 48.8 | 48.7 |
| Ethnicity | ||||||
| African American | 34.2 | 17.9 | 31.5 | 38.4 | 29.6 | 8.9 |
| White | 17.9 | 56.6 | 28.0 | 24.3 | 50.4 | 23.2 |
| Hispanic | 35.4 | 12.0 | 26.9 | 26.6 | 9.0 | 49.5 |
| Native American | 1.2 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 3.3 |
| Asian/ Pacific Islander | 1.8 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 2.2 |
| Othera | 8.3 | 9.4 | 9.4 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 11.7 |
| a‘Other’ generally refers to children who were identified as belonging to multiple ethnic groups.(back) |
3.3 Children’s Health Status and Reported Disabilities
Parents reported on the health status of their children using a scale of excellent to poor. Almost three quarters of the parents reporting that their children’s health was either excellent (42.8%) or very good (29.3%). Exhibit 3-3 displays the range of parents’ responses regarding their children’s health.
 |
| [D] |
One factor that has implications for child health is birthweight. Parents were asked to report the weight of their children at birth, and based on this weight children were classified as normal, low birthweight, or very low birthweight. Exhibit 3-4 shows that 90.0% of the children were considered to be normal birthweight. Most of the remaining children (8.2%) were classified as low birthweight, while relatively few children (2.0%) were very low birthweight. The ethnic composition of the three birthweight groups indicates that Whites made up a relatively small proportion of the very low birthweight group, while Hispanics made up the largest proportion of the very low birthweight group. African Americans made up a higher proportion of the two low birthweight groups (about 35%) than the normal weight group (27.9%).
| Weighted Percentages | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Low | Very Low | |
| All families | 90.0 | 8.2 | 2.0 |
| White | 31.3 | 28.8 | 14.9 |
| African American | 27.9 | 35.7 | 35.8 |
| Hispanic | 27.8 | 26.9 | 38.1 |
| Native American | 2.1 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
| Asian/ Pacific Islander | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.9 |
| Othera | 8.9 | 6.7 | 8.3 |
| a‘Other’ generally refers to children who were identified as belonging to multiple ethnic groups.(back) |
In considering the distribution of the different birthweight categories within ethnic groups (Exhibit 3-5), the groups with the largest proportion of very low birthweight children were Hispanics (2.5%) and African Americans (2.3%). Over 80% of all the ethnic groups were classified as normal birthweight. The exception was the Asian/Pacific Islander group, which, while predominantly of normal weight (61.7%), also had the largest percentage of children with unreported birthweights.
| Weighted Percentages | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All (n =3,120) |
White (n = 859 ) |
African American (n = 1,137) |
Hispanic (n = 760) |
Native American (n = 57) |
Asian/ Pacific Islander (n = 32 ) |
Othera
(n = 250) |
|
| Normal >2500gms |
85.8 | 87.5 | 83.1 | 86.2 | 93.5 | 61.7 | 88.6 |
Low 2500gms
and >1500gms |
7.6 | 7.2 | 9.5 | 7.4 | 1.8 | 6.8 | 5.9 |
| Very Low ( 1500gms)
|
1.8 | 0.9 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 1.8 |
| a‘Other’ generally refers to children who were identified as belonging to multiple ethnic groups.(back) |
With Head Start’s documented interest in serving children with disabilities, it is important to understand the prevalence of disabilities within the Head Start population. When asked to report whether or not their children had a disability, almost one fifth of the parents responded that a disability was present (19.1% in fall 1997, 18.2% in spring 1998). In Exhibit 3-6, the parent report numbers are contrasted with the national Head Start numbers reported in the 1997-1998 PIR. The percentage of all Head Start children with a disability, as indicated in the PIR, is 13.0%, less than was noted in the parent report. This difference in the reported percentages is most likely due to the fact that the PIR required the reported disability to be professionally diagnosed, while parents interviewed for FACES were not asked to verify that the reported disability was professionally diagnosed.
The disability most commonly reported by parents and in the PIR was speech and language impairment. The PIR reported this problem for just under one tenth (9.3%) of the Head Start children, while speech or language impairments were noted by 13.9% of the parents in fall 1997 and 13.6% of the parents in spring 1998. No other category of disability was reported for more than 2.5% of the children, and most disabilities, listed in Exhibit 3-6, were reported for less than 1% of the sample. Approximately 5% of the children (5.5% in fall 1997, 4.2% in spring 1998) were reported to experience multiple disabilities. A more complete discussion of families with children who have disabilities can be found in Chapter 8.
| Weighted Percentages | Unweighted Percentages | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 1997 (N = 2,983) |
Spring 1998 (N = 2,688) |
PIR 1997-1998 (N =793,809) |
|
| Total Disabled | 19.1 | 18.2 | 13.0 |
| Types of Disabilities | |||
| Learning disabled | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.3 |
| Mental retardation | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Speech or language impairment | 13.9 | 13.6 | 9.3 |
| Speech impairment | 11.8 | 12.1 | --- |
| Language impairment | 3.5 | 2.8 | --- |
| Emotional/behavioral disorder | 2.4 | 2.2 | 0.7 |
| Hearing impairment including deafness | 1.4 | 1.3 | 0.2 |
| Deafness | 0.3 | 0.4 | --- |
| Other hearing disorder | 1.2 | 1.0 | --- |
| Visual impairment including blindness | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| Blindness | 0.0 | 0.0 | --- |
| Other visual impairment | 0.7 | 0.7 | --- |
| Orthopedic impairment | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Health impairment | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
| Autism | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Traumatic brain injury | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Other developmental delay | 0.7 | 0.7 | --- |
| Other reported disability | 3.5 | 2.7 | --- |
| Children with multiple disabilities | 5.5 | 4.2 | --- |
| aReports from the Head Start PIR reflect children with professionally diagnosed disabilities.(back) |
3.4 Children’s Behavior and Academic Skills
In the fall of 1997, parents were asked to rate their children in several different areas, including child behavior and pre-reading skills. As shown in Exhibit 3-7, children generally received high scores on the Social Skills and Positive Approach to Learning Scale and low scores on the Behavior Problem Index (and subscales). The Emergent Literacy Scale showed a moderate range of scores for the Head Start children.
| Characteristic | Fall 1997 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | SE | Median | Scale Range | |
| Social Skills and Positive Approach to Learning Scale1 | 12.0 | 0.05 | 12.0 | 0-14 |
| Behavior Problem Index2 | 6.2 | 0.10 | 0-24 | |
| Aggression subscale3 | 3.0 | 0.04 | 3.0 | 0-8 |
| Hyperactive subscale4 | 1.8 | 0.04 | 2.0 | 0-6 |
| Withdrawn subscale5 | 1.3 | 0.04 | 1.0 | 0-10 |
| Emergent Literacy Scale6 | 2.1 | 0.01 | 2.0 | 0-5 |
| aReported
statistics are based on the weighted sample. Unweighted N = 2,983.(back)
aReported means are based on the weighted sample.(back) |
With regards to gender and ethnic differences, Exhibit 3-8 shows that girls were rated slightly higher on the positive social behaviors and emergent literacy than boys, while the boys received slightly higher reports of behavior problems than girls. Scores on both scales varied little across ethnic groups except that Hispanics were rated slightly higher on problem behaviors and slightly lower on emergent literacy. For a more complete discussion of children’s literacy see the FACES Technical Report II.
| Characteristic | Fall 1997 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | Gender | Ethnicity | |||||
| Boys | Girls | White | African American |
Hispanic/ Latino |
Other | ||
| Unweighted N | 2,983 | 1,510 | 1,473 | 826 | 1,050 | 752 | 331 |
| Social Skills
and Positive Approach to Learning Scale |
12.0 | 11.8 | 12.3 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 12.1 | 12.1 |
| Behavior Problem Index | 6.2 | 6.6 | 5.7 | 6.1 | 6.0 | 6.6 | 5.8 |
| Aggression subscale | 3.0 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 2.8 |
| Hyperactive subscale | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 1.7 |
| Withdrawn subscale | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
| Emergent Literacy Scale | 2.1 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 1.8 | 2.4 |
3.5 Summary
Chapter 3 provides descriptions of the Head Start children. The following is a summary of the key findings.
-
The sample of children was evenly balanced between boys and girls and was comprised mostly of three ethnic groups: African American (28.8%), White (30.7%), and Hispanic (27.6%)
-
The reported health status of the children was good, with almost three quarters of the parents reporting that their children’s health status was either excellent or very good.
-
Almost all of the children were classified as normal birthweight. White children made up a relatively small proportion of the very low birthweight, while Hispanics made up the largest proportion of the very low birthweight group. African American children were a higher proportion of the low and very low birthweight groups.
-
Almost one fifth of the parents reported that their children had a disability; however, parents were not asked to verify that the reported disability was professionally diagnosed. The most commonly reported disability was a speech or language impairment.
-
Based on parent reports, children generally received high scores on the Social Skills and Positive Approach to Learning Scale and low scores on the Behavior Problem Index (and subscales). Girls were rated slightly higher than boys on the Social Skills and Positive Approach to Learning Scale, while boys scored higher than girls on the Problem Behavior Index.
1A summary score of 7 parent-reported behavior items rated on a 3-point scale ranging from “not true” to “very true or often true.” Scores ranged from 0-14, with higher scores representing more positive behavior.(back)
2An adaptation of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (Total Problem Behavior Index). Each of 12 behavior items, based on parent report, is rated on a 3-point scale ranging from “not true” to “very true or often true.” Summary scores ranged from 0-24, with higher scores representing more frequent or severe negative behavior.(back)
3A subscale of the Total Problem Behavior Index, each of four items is rated on a 3-point scale ranging from “not true” to “very true or often true.” Items include parents’ reports of whether child hits and fights with other children, has temper tantrums, doesn’t get along with others, and is disobedient at home. Subscale scores ranged from 0-8.(back)
4A subscale of the Total Problem Behavior Index, each of three items is rated on a 3-point scale ranging from “not true” to “very true or often true.” Items include parents’ reports of whether child can’t pay attention for long, is very restless, and is nervous, high-strung, or tense. Subscale scores ranged from 0-6.(back)
5A subscale of the Total Problem Behavior Index, each of five items is rated on a 3-point scale ranging from “not true” to “very true or often true.” Items include whether child is unhappy, worries, feels worthless, has difficulty making changes, or acts too young. Subscale scores ranged from 0-8.(back)
6A summary score of 5 parent-reported child skills including whether child can identify all of the primary colors, recognize most or all letters of the alphabet, count to twenty or higher, write rather than scribble, and write own name. Scores ranged from 0-5.(back)
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