Developmental Trajectories of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Children: Profiles and Predictors

The early development of children in migrant and seasonal farm working (MSFW) families is characterized by both risk and resiliency. Young MSFW children's social emotional and language learning must be considered within a context defined by Latino culture, dual language acquisition, and the challenges associated with migration and agricultural work. Latino children are known to be at risk for poor academic performance and low educational attainment (NCES, 2003), and MSFW children in particular are at increased risk for adverse academic and social outcomes (Kupersmidt & Martin, 1997). An understanding of the early development of MSFW children is needed so that prevention and intervention efforts can be designed to offset risks while capitalizing on the MSFW community's inherent strengths.;The purposes of this study were to identify profiles of language and social emotional growth in preschoolers enrolled in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs and to investigate the relationship between profile membership and family characteristics, mobility, English language development, and enrollment in the East Coast Collaborative for Enhancing Language and Literacy (ECCELL) program. Data were collected from 359 MSHS parent interviews and direct assessments of 234 preschool children administered at three time points during a single growing season. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify distinct classes of children who demonstrated similar trajectories of early language and social-emotional growth, while simultaneously testing associations with demographic, mobility, intervention, and family background variables. Analyses revealed the existence of five distinct growth profiles. As expected, the majority of children belonged to classes characterized by positive social emotional and language growth profiles, and a minority belonged to the "risk" class, which demonstrated little growth over time. Results suggested that male children were less responsive to interventions than were female participants. Additionally, strong evidence was found for the positive impact of early, targeted intervention approaches (i.e., MSHS and the ECCELL family literacy program). Enrollment and higher attendance in these programs were associated with membership in classes whose developmental scores increased more rapidly over time. Limitations and future directions for research with MSFW families are discussed.