Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
UCL Institute of Health Equity, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, London, UK.
Int J Equity Health. 2017 May 25;16(1):87. doi: 10.1186/s12939-017-0584-0.
Early childhood is a critical stage of development. Inequalities in experiences affect children's wellbeing and determine their development. Early years interventions focusing on children and their parents may help address inequalities during this critical period. Understanding the experiences and perceptions of parents receiving early years programmes and staff providing these may help service development and delivery. The objective of this study was to describe staff and parents' accounts of how early childhood programmes in different European country contexts improved child development.
Five early years programmes were selected using pre-set criteria out of ten proposed ones. Twenty-five individual interviews and six focus groups were carried out with staff running interventions and with users, children and their families in different EU countries. Investigations of the studies were carried out using qualitative research methods. Data were collected by collaborating partner institutions included in the project.
Participants described programmes which aimed to provide activities to stimulate children's learning through structured play and which provided support and assistance for parents. In these, parents were actively involved in activities. Parents and staff referred to establishing long-term trust based relationships as a key element for programmes to improve parents' self-esteem and reduce their stress levels which in turn helped improve their children's development.
Programmes described by staff as being successful, delivered services tailored to parents and their children. Adapting to and understanding the families' circumstances and involving parents was seen by staff as important. Staff also described establishing trust based relationships as a key enabler in programme delivery; their perceptions were that parents should be empowered to develop their own capacities thus strengthening their abilities to assist in their children's learning, which had a positive effect on children.
儿童早期是发展的关键阶段。经历的不平等会影响儿童的幸福感，并决定他们的发展。关注儿童及其父母的早期干预措施可能有助于在这个关键时期解决不平等问题。了解接受早期教育计划的家长和提供这些计划的工作人员的经验和看法，有助于服务的发展和提供。本研究的目的是描述工作人员和家长对不同欧洲国家背景下的儿童早期计划如何改善儿童发展的看法。
根据预先设定的标准，从提出的十个计划中选择了五个早期计划。在不同的欧盟国家，与负责干预措施的工作人员和使用者、儿童及其家庭进行了 25 次个别访谈和 6 次焦点小组讨论。使用定性研究方法对研究进行了调查。数据由项目合作机构收集。
参与者描述了旨在通过结构化游戏为儿童提供刺激学习的活动，并为家长提供支持和帮助的计划。在这些计划中，家长积极参与活动。家长和工作人员提到建立长期信任关系是计划提高家长自尊心和降低压力水平的关键因素，这反过来有助于改善儿童的发展。
工作人员认为成功的计划提供了针对家长及其子女的量身定制的服务。工作人员还描述了适应和理解家庭情况并让家长参与其中的重要性。工作人员还将建立基于信任的关系视为计划交付的关键促成因素；他们认为，应该赋予家长发展自身能力的权力，从而增强他们在孩子学习方面的能力，这对孩子有积极的影响。
