Modeling the relationships between practitioner capacity-building practices and the behavior and development of young children with disabilities and delays

The manner in which family-centered capacity-building practices and parenting efficacy beliefs were directly and indirectly related to parent-child interactions and child behavior and development was investigated using meta-analytic structural equation modeling. The participants were 6507 caregivers of young children with identified disabilities and developmental delays in 13 studies. Results showed that capacity-building practices were directly related to parenting efficacy beliefs and indirectly related to parent-child interaction mediated by belief appraisals; parenting efficacy beliefs were directly related to parent-child interactions and indirectly related to child social competence mediated by parenting practices; and parent-child interactions were directly related to both child behavior and child development. Results also indicated these relationships were not moderated by parents’ education, severity of child disability, or frequency of practitioner-parent contacts. Implications for investigating the influences of social and family systems intervention practices on parent, family, and child outcomes of early childhood intervention are described.