Limited research has compared parents' perceptions of the benefits of the early intervention (EI) program across states. This study explored whether parents' perceptions of the EI program's benefits differed significantly based on two of the program's primary components: the lead agency's profile and the service delivery model. In addition, the researcher evaluated families' responses to individual items on the Family Outcome Survey-Revised (FOS-R) and provided insights into the findings. The researcher implemented a causal-comparative research design to compare parents' responses to Section B of the FOS-R. As a result of the purposive sampling technique, the researcher obtained data that had been collected by six states, and 3,945 cases were included in the final data set for analysis. The results indicated that, in general, parents have positive perceptions of the EI program's benefits. However, significant differences were detected in parents' responses across lead agencies, suggesting that lead agencies' governing departments influence parents' experiences with the program. Similarly, the comparisons drawn across service delivery models identified significant differences in parents' perceptions of the EI program's benefits. To create a system that provides similar benefits and opportunities for families across states, stakeholders and policymakers consider the results of this study to identify the factors that produce differences in parents' experiences from state to state.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd2020-2304 |
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| Creators | Weiszhaupt, Krisztina |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- |
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