# Integrated model for promoting parenting and early school readiness in pediatrics: Follow-up and getting ready for scale

> **NIH NIH R01** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $70,358

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The parent project (R01HD076390; PI’s: Morris, Shaw, Mendelsohn) is designed to examine the
Smart Beginnings (SB) model, a 0-3 year program that addresses barriers improving child school
readiness for low-income families via parenting interventions through: 1) utilization of pediatric
primary care as a universal platform to facilitate population-level engagement and scalability; 2)
provision of a tiered preventive intervention through universal primary prevention (Video Interaction
Project [VIP], delivered through health care) integrated with a selective, targeted secondary
intervention (Family Check-Up [FCU], delivered through strategic home visiting). The parent grant
examines the impact of the integrated model in a RCT of 400 families, with treatment offered from 0
to 3 years and follow-up assessments of prosocial and problem behavior continuing at child ages 4
and 6. The parent-child relationship during early childhood (i.e., birth to 5) is commonly identified as a
critical target of intervention for socioeconomically disadvantaged children and is the primary
intervention target of the Smart Beginnings model. However, when assessing the consequences of
parenting and dyadic parent-child qualities on children’s short- and long-term development, parenting
constructs are typically assessed at single timepoints. This operationalization of parenting neglects to
acknowledge that parenting behavior and qualities of the parent-child dyad likely evolve as children
realize developmental milestones (e.g., walking, talking, increased desire for autonomy) and familial
contexts shift (e.g., loss of employment, birth of a new child, COVID-19 pandemic)—experiences that
are thought to increasingly impact low-income and racially/ethnically diverse families. The degree to
which parenting remains stable or changes across early childhood has been found to differentially
predict later child functioning among some samples. However, this body of work is scant and has
rarely explored patterns of change and stability in parenting and dyadic characteristics—and the
implications of these patterns on children’s development—among low-income, racially and ethnically
diverse samples. As a logical extension of the parent project, we propose to use this diversity
supplement to allow a promising minority predoctoral student to assess the contributions of
longitudinal stability in parenting (e.g., cognitive stimulation, positive regard, negative regard) and
dyadic parent-child qualities (e.g., joint attention, affective mutuality) across early childhood on
children’s school-age functioning, test whether participation in the Smart Beginnings intervention and
racial/ethnic identity moderate these associations, and gain expertise in observational methods for
parent-child interaction during early childhood, longitudinal modeling, and preventive interventions to
promote low-income, ethnically/racially diverse young children’s school readiness.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10622157
- **Project number:** 3R01HD076390-09S2
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ALAN L. MENDELSOHN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $70,358
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2014-06-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10622157

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10622157, Integrated model for promoting parenting and early school readiness in pediatrics: Follow-up and getting ready for scale (3R01HD076390-09S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10622157. Licensed CC0.

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