"National estimates indicate that young children account for a significant proportion of people who are unstably housed (Bassuk, DeCandia, Beach & Berman, 2014). Housing instability refers to a range of conditions that includes frequent residential mobility, living doubled-up, and homelessness (Cunningham, Harwood & Hall, 2010). Emerging research has demonstrated that instability during early childhood may affect long-term functioning, especially for children living in poverty (Fowler, Henry, Schoeny, Taylor & Chavira, 2014; Ziol-Guest & McKenna, 2014). Therefore, a primary goal of this secondary data analysis study is to compare the pre-kindergarten outcomes of children who faced housing instability on important academic and behavioral skills. Beyond the effects of early housing instability on children, aspects of the social context, such as parenting practices and quality of care at preschool, can have a beneficial influence on children's academic and social-emotional functioning (e.g., Herbers, Cutuli, Supkoff, Heistad, Chan, Hinz, Masten, 2011). However, parental mental health challenges, particularly depression, are higher among caregivers facing housing instability, which in turn can jeopardize parenting practices that have well noted effects on child functioning (Suglia, Durarte & Sandel, 2011). Despite these risks, positive environments beyond housing, such as high quality Head Start classrooms, can serve as protective factors for children facing housing instability (Herbers et al., 2011; Militois, Sesma, and Masten 1999; Pianta, Howes, Bryant, Clifford, Early & Barbarin, 2005). Therefore, another important aim of this study is to better understand the complex relations between parental depression symptomology, parenting practices, classroom quality at Head Start, and children's functioning, among families who faced housing instability at Head Start entry. Specifically, this study tested differences in a moderated-mediation model that aimed to understand whether classroom quality at Head Start served as a moderator by interacting with parenting in the noted relation between parental depression and child functioning through parenting practices. With the exception of mean level differences in parent engagement (.91 [z = - 2.98]), multiple group structural equation modeling revealed no significant differences between children and families who experienced housing instability during the Head Start years and those who were stably housed. Although evidence that classroom quality mitigated risk was not present, the findings did suggest a differential trend in the relation between classroom quality and children's social-emotional functioning between groups in the non-multiple group analyses. Overall, the results also suggested the important role of parenting approaches during the pre-kindergarten year for all Head Start children. Findings highlight potential unique differences between unstably housed and stably housed children and future directions in research on the role of housing instability during the pre-school years."--Pages ii-iii.
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