Researchers at Purdue University are investigating the effectiveness of Early Head Start services, focusing on interpersonal relationships that develop between staff and families within the program. Specifically this project will: (1) assess and describe the relationships that develop between Early Head Start staff, children, and parents; (2) examine staff-family relationships in several Early Head Start service delivery models (center-based, home-based, and community-based child care) and in relation to variations in staff characteristics and family characteristics; and (3) determine if higher quality staff-family relationships are associated with better outcomes for Early Head Start children and parents. The first year of the study will serve as a planning year for the subsequent years' evaluations. During this planning year, researchers will conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with 30 Early Head Start parents, who will be selected to represent diversity in ethnicity, income level, employment, and involvement in the partnering Head Start programs. Goals of this first year are to understand the qualities and influences of the relationships that develop between staff and program participants and to field test parent and child outcome measures. In the second and third project years, researchers will conduct a quantitative, short-term longitudinal study with a sample of at least 100 families from the participating Early Head Start programs. It is estimated that 60 families will be followed for two years while 40 families will be followed for one year. Data from this quantitative study will be used to test a mediational model of projected associations between program, staff, and family variables, staff-family relationship quality, and child and parent outcomes.