During the first five years of life, a child’s brain undergoes rapid development and growth. Therefore, exposure to stress and trauma during the formative period of early childhood can have long-term negative consequences for children’s development. An important public health initiative is ensuring that parents possess both the resources and capabilities needed to provide a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for their children. Understanding how to effectively support families and communities through a two-generational or a whole-family approach to early intervention is important for promoting healthy development during early childhood. This integrated dissertation aims to understand the relation between parental protective factors, parental stress, and children’s social emotional and cognitive school readiness. Furthermore, it delves into understanding the intergenerational mechanisms of trauma transmission from parent to child, avenues for healing, and the pivotal role schools can play in supporting families during the early childhood developmental period.
Understanding which parental protective factors are most influential to decreasing parental stress and improving children’s social emotional and cognitive school readiness is vital to support families in the transition to formal schooling. Utilizing a risk and resilience framework, Study 1 aims to investigate the relation between parental protective factors, perceived parental stress, and children’s school readiness. Through moderation analyses, this study examined the role of perceived parental stress as a moderating variable between overall parental protective factors and children’s school readiness. Although parental stress was not found to moderate the relation between overall protective factors and children’s school readiness, insights emerged regarding the predictive power of individual protective factors. Results indicated that certain protective factors (i.e., parental resilience, social connections, and social emotional competence of children) significantly negatively predicted parental perceived stress. Parental resilience, social emotional competence of children, parental education, and children’s ethnicity were found to be a significant predictors of school readiness. Findings underscore the importance of family-centered approaches in early childhood education during the transition to formal schooling and further illuminate the multifaceted nature of factors that influence children’s readiness for school.
The importance of understanding malleable protective factors to influence school readiness is even more pronounced when considering the broader context of early childhood trauma and its intergenerational effects. Early childhood trauma is a public health concern with adverse consequences that impact children, families, and society. Caregivers are foundational to children’s healthy development; thus, it is important to understand how parents’ childhood adversity increases their children’s risk of experiencing trauma. Study 2 fills an important gap in the literature by providing a phenomenological description of the intergenerational mechanisms of trauma from parent to child, protective factors that supported parents’ healing practices, and the ways in which schools can support caregivers who have a significant history of adverse childhood experiences. Findings revealed that parents had difficulties with emotion regulation. Parents also described specific barriers they faced in breaking the intergenerational cycle of trauma and also provided insights into the protective factors that were helpful for their healing. Results inform ways in which schools and early childhood education systems can support young children and families. Recommendations include the establishment of schools as resource hubs, school-based mental health services, implementation of preventative measures, and enhancement of caregiver-school relationships to foster safety and trust.
