2021-2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs (2021-2022 Study), United States (ICPSR 38950)

Version Date: Jan 13, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38950.v1

Version V1

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Alternate Title

FACES 2022, 2021-2022 Study

Summary

The 2021-2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs (2021-2022 study), builds on the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), which has been a source of national information about Head Start programs and participants since 1997. The motivation and goals of the Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey Programs (the 2021-2022 study) came from a need that arose as the COVID-19 pandemic continued into another year of affecting Head Start families' and staff's lives.

The 2021-2022 study included two components. Firstly, the Program, Staff, and Family Study, was conducted in 60 programs, and included the collection of parent surveys and Teacher Child Reports (TCRs) in fall 2021 and spring 2022, as well as a teacher survey in fall 2021. Secondly, the Program and Staff Study, conducted in the 60 programs participating in the Program, Staff, and Family Study plus an additional 120 programs, included the collection of program director, center director, and teacher surveys in spring 2022.

The 2021-2022 study aimed to describe the national population of Head Start programs, centers, teachers, classrooms, and children during the 2021-2022 program year. However, the Data Producers were unable to fully meet this goal because of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationally representative sample of Head Start programs was selected. However, fewer of the programs participated than expected. Probability samples of centers, teachers, and children within the participating programs were selected. Weights are available for analysis to account for the probability that children and their teachers, centers, and programs were selected for the study. This lessens the risk of bias due to study non-participation and survey nonresponse; and provide results that represent, to the extent possible, all programs, centers, teachers, classrooms, and children in Head Start. The responding sample may not fully represent the population due to higher-than-expected non-response that may not have been adequately addressed with weighting adjustments.

Despite these limitations, the 2021-2022 study sample design supports many analyses for programs and teachers, as well as children. The data from the programs in the Program, Staff, and Family Study can address questions about the children and parents who participate in the program, including about children's development across one year in the Head Start program for both newly entering children and those returning for a second year. The study also supports research questions related to subgroups of interest, such as families with low income and specific racial/ethnic groups, as well as policy issues that emerge during the study. In addition, the research questions investigate the characteristics of Head Start programs, centers, and teachers, and the classrooms they teach. Users can use the same data to answer questions about the relationships between program and classroom characteristics and child and family well-being. The data from the larger sample of programs in the Program and Staff Study are most useful for answering questions about Head Start programs, classrooms, teachers, and program and center directors.

Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. 2021-2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs (2021-2022 Study), United States. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-01-13. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38950.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, the FACES 2021-2022 data are restricted from general dissemination. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2021-08-01 -- 2022-07-31 (2021-2022 Head Start Program Year)

Date of Collection

2021-08-01 -- 2022-07-31 (Fall 2021 and Spring 2022)

Data Collection Notes

  1. Project Officers: The 2021-2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs would like to acknowledge Nina Philipsen, Laura Hoard, and Alysia Blandon's roles as the ACF Project Officers.

    Project Director: Sara Bernstein, Ph.D. (Mathematica)

    Principal Investigators: Louisa Tarullo, Ph.D. and Nikki Aikens, Ph.D. (Mathematica)

    Acknowledgment: Juarez and Associates, Inc. assisted in recruiting programs for the 2021-2022 Study.

  2. Reports based on this data collection are available at the Administration for Children and Families website.
  3. For additional information on the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) study, please visit the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation website.

  4. Please see section VI.A.7 (page 98) of the User's Manual for detailed instructions on merging data from different 2021-2022 study files.

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Study Purpose

The 2021-2022 study aims to describe:

  • Children and families who participate in Head Start--families' resources and needs, parent's mental well-being, and children's cognitive and social-emotional skills;
  • Changes or trends in those characteristics over time, including since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • Factors or characteristics that might explain differences in children's skills and development and family experiences;
  • Characteristics and mental well-being of Head Start teachers;
  • Staff recruitment and retention, including staff compensation and benefits; and
  • Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on program operations and emergency preparedness.

    • Study Design

    For the 2021-2022 study the Data Producers started with the participating program sample from FACES 2019. Then programs were removed that subsequently became ineligible (lost funding or stopped providing services). Next, the list was freshened in the summer of 2021 to give a small number of newer programs, those that began providing services after initial program selection, a chance of selection. This process allowed the selected sample to be representative of all Head Start programs in the 2021-2022 program year. To be eligible for the study, a program had to:

  • Include at least one center-based classroom,
  • Be located in one of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia,
  • Provide services directly to children ages 3 to 5, and
  • Not be in imminent danger of losing its grantee status.
    •

    Programs under the American Indian and Alaska Native program (Region XI) or Migrant and Seasonal Worker program (Region XII) were not eligible. Probability samples of centers were selected within each program, classrooms within each center, and children within each classroom. Teachers associated with selected classrooms were included in the study, as were parents associated with selected children. (Child sampling is only applicable for the programs that participated in the Program, Staff, and Family Study.)

    Sample

    The 2021-2022 Study used a multistage sample design with up to four stages:

    • Head Start programs, with programs defined as grantees or delegate agencies providing direct services in Head Start Regions 1 to 10;
    • Centers within programs;
    • Teachers within centers;
    • Children taught by each teacher (for the Program, Staff, and Family Study only).

    The 2021-2022 Study used a design that involved sampling with probability proportional to size in the first two stages (program and center) followed by sampling equal numbers of teachers within centers and children taught by each teacher with equal probability. The goal was to give each teacher and child, respectively, an approximately equal chance of selection into the sample.

    For the Program, Staff, and Family Study, 60 programs were selected and recruited, followed by two centers per program, and two teachers per center. Because of the pairing necessary at the classroom level to achieve the desired number of children in the 2021-2022 Study, the resulting sample had 114 centers and 236 teachers (representing 209 teacher sampling units due to pairing). Twelve children taught by each teacher were initially selected in an attempt to yield 10 with parental consent, for a total of 2,090 children across all programs in the fall of 2021. However, in December 2021, we released all non-selected children into the sample as backups as the number of returned parental consents from the original selected sample was lower than expected.

    An additional 116 programs were selected and recruited in the spring of 2022 as part of the Program and Staff Study. Two centers were selected from each of the programs, resulting in 224 additional centers selected and participating in the Program and Staff Study. From these centers, 396 additional teachers were selected.

    Please refer to section II.A of the User's Manual for more information on the 2021-2022 Study samples.

    Time Method

    Longitudinal, Cross-sectional

    Universe

    Head Start programs listed on the Head Start Program Information Report (PIR).

    Unit(s) of Observation

    Individual, Classroom, Center / Program

    Data Type(s)

    Mode of Data Collection

    Description of Variables

    DS1: Spring 2022 Center / Program-Level Data

  • 340 cases and 1,010 variables
  • Uses surveys from Appendix D.11 (program director) and D.12 (center director)
  • Major sections asked include: staffing and recruitment, staff education and training, staff mental health, curriculum and assessment, and systems / resources
    •

    DS2: Fall 2021 - Spring 2022 Classroom / Teacher-Level Data

  • 651 cases and 658 variables;
  • Uses surveys from Appendix D.6 (fall) and D.10 (spring)
  • Major sections asked include: classroom activities, teacher experiences, teacher emotions and feelings, and background information
    •

    DS3: Fall 2021 - Spring 2022 Child-Level Data

  • 1,945 cases and 1,143 variables
  • Uses surveys from Appendix D.4 and D.8 (parent - fall and spring respectively) / D.5 and D.9 (teacher child report - fall and spring respectively)
  • Major (parent) sections asked include: household composition, household routines, routines, relationship with child, background on mother and father, income and housing, family health, child care, and community services and connections
  • Major (teacher) sections asked include: child's learning skills, classroom conduct, approaches to learning, and child's health, developmental conditions, and concerns
    •

    Each data file contains sections of variables for survey administration, complex sampling and weight variables, and composite variables.

    Response Rates

    Center / Director Level-Data

    • Program Director: 70 percent (Spring 2022)
    • Center Director: 75 percent (Spring 2022)

    Classroom / Teacher Level-Data

    • Fall 2021: 81 percent
    • Spring 2022: 57 percent

    Child Level-Data

    • Fall 2021: 65 percent
    • Spring 2022: 68 percent

    Non-response bias analyses were conducted, which found indicators of remaining bias after weighting for program participation and combined response to the parent survey and teacher child report (TCR) in the fall of 2021, as well as for program director survey response and combined response to the teacher, program director, and center director surveys in the spring of 2022. Please consult section IV.J of the User's Manual for more details on response rates. Additional information about non-response bias can be found in section VI of the User's Manual and Appendix I for the full non-response bias analysis report.

    Presence of Common Scales

    • Personal Maturity Scale (selected items)
    • Social Skills Rating System (selected items)
    • Behavior Problems Index (selected items)
    • Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 Approaches to Learning
    • Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression (CES-D) (short 12-item form)
    • General Anxiety Scale - 7 (selected items)
    • Approaches to Learning Scale
    • Teacher Beliefs Scale

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    Original Release Date

    2025-01-13

    Version History

    2025-01-13 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

    • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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    Weight

    Fall 2021 cross-sectional teacher and child weights and spring 2022 cross-sectional program, center, teacher, class, and child weights were created. In addition, child and teacher longitudinal (fall and spring of program year) weights were created.

    • Program-level weights adjust for the probability of program selection and response at the program level; and Center-level weights adjust for the probability of center selection and center-level response;
    • Teacher-level weights adjust for the probability of classroom selection and classroom-level response; and Classroom-level weights adjust the teacher weights for number of classrooms taught by the teacher; and
    • Child-level weights adjust for the probability of child selection and child-level response (accounting for parental consent as well as attrition from fall to spring).

    The program-level weights are for analyses at the program level, including the program director survey, and are a component of weights in all subsequent stages of sampling. In addition, the center-level weights, which should be used for any analyses at the center level, including center director surveys, are a component of the teacher- and child-level weights.

    The teacher-level weights are for analyses of the teacher survey at the teacher level and are a component of the child-level weights. Given that some teachers teach two classrooms, two weights were calculated for the teacher survey: one at the teacher level and another at the classroom level.

    The child-level weights that build on the program-, center-, and teacher-level weights are for analyzing data on child outcomes (teacher ratings) both alone and together with data from the parent survey.

    Please see sections B and C of Chapter VI in the User's Manual for detailed information about the analysis weights provided.

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    Notes

    • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

    • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

    CFDA logo

    This study is maintained and distributed by the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData). CFData hosts datasets about young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them. CFData is supported by Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), an office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.