The early childhood period has lasting effects on physical and mental health. Most U.S. families rely on daily non-parental care for children under five, highlighting the importance of integrating family preferences with educator practices through reciprocal family engagement (RFE). Systems change initiatives are promising to promote RFE due to the potential to realign early childhood systems (ECS) to meet family preferences and promote positive outcomes/in The i3 we are a village grant: Successes, challenges. However, there is little research on systems-level RFE strategies. We held two focus groups with eight informants involved in RFE activities in an ECS initiative and asked informants about enablers and barriers to systems building RFE. We performed a thematic analysis using a phenomenological approach, and identified three themes: building team cohesion, capacity building and reach, and resources and capital. Our findings suggest that ECS leaders looking to enhance programmatic RFE strategy could employ relational techniques to affirm flexibility in RFE duties, model open communication, appreciate existing skills, and provide opportunities to expand skills. ECS-building may benefit from an RFE approach but should be met with bureaucratic buy-in for RFE to succeed on a structural level.

幼儿期对身心健康有着持久的影响。大多数美国家庭依赖五岁以下儿童的日常非父母照顾，这凸显了通过互惠家庭参与 (RFE) 将家庭偏好与教育实践相结合的重要性。系统变革举措有望促进 RFE，因为它有可能重新调整幼儿系统 (ECS)，以满足家庭偏好并促进积极成果/在 i3 中，我们是乡村赠款：成功，挑战。然而，对于系统级RFE策略的研究却很少。我们召开了两次焦点小组会议，其中有 8 名参与 ECS 计划中的 RFE 活动的线人，并向线人询问了构建 RFE 系统的推动因素和障碍。我们使用现象学方法进行了主题分析，并确定了三个主题：建设团队凝聚力、能力建设和影响力以及资源和资本。我们的研究结果表明，希望加强程序化 RFE 策略的 ECS 领导者可以采用关系技术来确认 RFE 职责的灵活性、建立开放式沟通模型、欣赏现有技能并提供扩展技能的机会。 ECS 建设可能会受益于 RFE 方法，但应该得到官僚机构的支持，RFE 才能在结构层面取得成功。