Date of Award

Spring 2016

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Sponsor

Sharon Carnahan

Committee Member

Alice Davidson

Committee Member

James Zimmerman

Abstract

Adequate early child developmental screenings are often not available in many child care centers despite considerable research that points toward the importance and necessity of such screenings in assuring quality educational and social outcomes for children. A wealth of influences can affect how a child develops, with both negative risk and positive resilience factors playing a key role in determining outcomes. The present study was conducted through chart review of 55 children attending Winter Park Day Nursery (WPDN). We explored the relationships between risk factors, resilience, and outcomes by using measures currently collected by the center, and combining them in new ways. Predicting child outcomes was measured by taking a set of literature-derived risk and resilience factors and exploring how they predicted results of popular developmental screening assessments: the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Devereux Early Child Assessment (DECA). In addition, the study provided the community agency (WPDN) with a comprehensive profile of their constituents. Both ASQ and DECA scores were found to improve as the child developed. Regression analyses revealed that increasing household number and food eligibility, and having a single parent correlated with lower screening test scores. While a larger sample size and a more diverse population are needed to build upon this study, these results yield a preliminary glance at the family populations of WPDN in relationship to developmental outcomes.

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