Correlates of Community Participation among Families Transitioning from Part C Early Intervention Services

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that best discriminated among families based on their level of community participation when transitioning from Part C early intervention services. Data were drawn from 2,003 families enrolled in the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study and who completed a 40-minute computerized telephone interview. Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was used to examine correlates of full and limited community participation among these families from variables representing child, family, and service factors. Two classification trees were developed that suggest difficulty in managing behavior is a significant barrier to community participation and is associated with degree of social support. Based on this association, occupational therapists could elicit information from caregivers about their strategies to manage problematic behavior during community events to identify whether families experience participation restriction. Future studies should examine whether problematic behavior restricts young children's participation in activities other than community events.