Factors affecting single African American caregivers\u27 compliance and participation in early intervention services

The purpose of this study is to determine the variables that influence single, African American, female caregivers\u27 compliance with Early Intervention (EI) services. Participants included 83 caregivers in a northeastern city of the United States. The caregivers were asked to provide information regarding their current stress level, their social support systems, the severity of their child\u27s disability and demographic information. Three months after data collection, the research obtained compliance information on the number of EI sessions attended by the family. Compliance with EI services was determined to be equal to or greater than 61% attendance for EI therapy sessions. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the data. The results indicated that the independent variables--parenting stress, social support, and severity of child\u27s disability did not predict compliance with EI services among this population of single, African American, female caregivers