This study is a 3-year longitudinal study to examine how two sequential, county-based interventions that focus on high-risk families with children from birth to 5 years of age-Early Start and Head Start-intervene in the development and stability of pre-violent behaviors among children within an effectiveness research model. The complementary effect of these intervention programs on the development of pre-violent behaviors are examined within the context of background socio-economic, prenatal and birth risk factors, and the family environment. The proposed project will employ a quasiexperimental design and will focus on approximately 400 families with eligible children residing in Butler County, Ohio who are at risk for future developmental delay, child abuse, or neglect. Approximately 260 families with children between 30 and 47 months of age are currently receiving Early Start services. These families will be compared initially to an age- and risk-matched group of families with eligible children who have never been referred to Early Start. This comparison group will be randomly selected from state birth certificate records. The project has both an outcomes component and a database component. Outcomes Component: This component will examine the effect that these interventions and their combination have on reducing pre-violent behaviors among children during their early developmental years. In addition, we will examine the processes that influence the relationships between these interventions and children's behavior within the conceptual framework of the control paradigm. This will permit us to investigate how these interventions mediate the effects of background structural and maternal/prenatal risk factors on children's behavior and how the family environment may, in turn, mediate the effects of the interventions. Database Component: This component will develop a county-wide longitudinal database infrastructure system. This database will allow for both the analysis of multi-level data for this project and the long-term multi-level tracking of these children across other county agencies and institutions during childhood and adolescence. The database will be comprised of service utilization data from Early Start and Head Start, as well as service utilization data from other community social service agencies and secondary administrative data from county institutions (e.g., public school system, juvenile justice) as these children age. The development of this database will provide an excellent opportunity to integrate individual and institutional data for the current research project as well as provide the vehicle to follow this sample across time.
