Child Care

Child Care and Developmental Outcomes 2

Last Updated Aug 20, 2008 01:36 AM

As is evident is Table 2, some of the available research focuses on relations between process quality measures and child behavior in the child-care setting. Other research considers relations between process quality and child behavior outside of child care.

The former set of studies provide descriptions of children’s immediate reactions to caregiving experiences that are emotionally supportive and cognitively enriching versus experiences that are less supportive and enriching. These studies yield firsthand evidence about children’s reactions to care of varying quality. The latter set of studies considers whether reactions to quality experiences are evident in children’s behavior in other settings.

Process Quality and Children’s Behavior in Child Care. Several investigators have delineated systematic relations between process quality and children’s behavior in the child care setting (see Table 2). For example, controlling for child gender and family socioeconomic status, children appear happier in child care settings where activities are developmentally appropriate and caregivers are more involved (Hestenes, Kontos, and Bryan, 1993). Children show more intense negative affect when their caregivers are less involved with them. Children display closer and more secure attachment relationships with their caregivers when the caregivers are more positive and responsive to the children’s needs (Elicker et al., 1999; Howes et al., 1992; Howes and Smith, 1995).

Associations between caregiver-child interactions and children’s interactions with peers also have been reported (see Table 2). Children who have more positive interactions with their caregivers and more secure relationships with their caregivers appear more prosocial and positively engaged with their classmates (Holloway and Reichart-Erickson, 1988; Howes et al., 1992; Kontos and Wilcox-Herzog, 1997). Children who have opportunities to participate in activities such as art, blocks, and dramatic play demonstrate greater cognitive competence during their free play (Kontos and Wilcox-Herzog, 1997). Taken together, these studies suggest that experiences associated with better quality foster competent performance in the child care setting. By the same token, children are less likely to display competent behavior in child care settings characterized by lower process quality.

Process Quality and Children’s Behavior in Other Settings. The next issue is whether process quality is related to children’s behavior in other settings. Several studies (see Table 2) have found higher quality child care is associated with better performance on standardized language tests, even when family characteristics are controlled (Burchinal et al., 1996; Dunn, Beach, and Kontos, 1994; Goelman, 1988; McCartney, 1984; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, in press-b; Peisner-Feinberg and Burchinal, 1997; Schliecker, White, and Jacobs, 1991). These relations are evident when the process measure is a global score such as the ITERS, ECERS, or FDCRS, and when the process measure focuses more narrowly on caregiver language stimulation. It is notable that associations between process quality and language performance are evident for child care that occurs in both centers and homes.

Children’s performance on standardized cognitive tests also has been linked to concurrent process quality. Infants who attend centers with higher ITERS scores receive better scores on the Bayley Mental Development Inventory than infants in poorer quality centers (Burchinal et al., 1996). Similarly, children who attend centers that have higher ECERS scores receive higher scores on the CBI intelligence scale (Dunn, 1993). The Cost, Quality, and Outcome Study reported that higher ECERS scores were associated with better scores on the reading subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson (Peisner-Feinberg and Burchinal, 1997).

Finally, process quality is related to children’s social and emotional functioning. High-quality care as measured by the ECERS is related to greater child interest and participation, whereas poorer process quality is associated with heightened behavior problems (Hausfather, Tohari, LaRoche, and Engelsmann, 1997; Peisner-Feinberg and Burchinal, 1997). The Bermuda Study (Phillips, McCartney, and Scarr, 1987) found higher ECERS scores to predict both caregiver and parent reports of children’s considerateness and sociability, and caregiver reports of children’s higher intelligence and task orientation and less anxiety.

Although the majority of studies (see Table 2) have reported significant relations between process measures of quality and concurrent child functioning, it should be noted that there are exceptions. Scarr and colleagues did not find relations between process quality and children’s social outcomes (McCartney et al., 1997). Measurement problems may have contributed to the lack of findings. For example, observers were only moderately reliable on the measures of quality, with exact agreement of 55–58 percent between sites on the ITERS/ECERS. Cross-site reliability in the classroom observations of children’s social behavior (a key dependent variable) also was poor to moderate, with kappa coefficients ranging from .40 to .76. The likelihood of detecting associations may have been hampered by unreliable measurements.

Concurrent Associations between Structural and Caregiver Characteristics, and Child Outcomes
There has been a longstanding interest in structural and caregiver characteristics in relation to children’s developmental outcomes, in part because the structural and caregiver characteristics are easier to measure and to monitor than process quality. An early study—the National Day Care Study (Ruopp et al., 1979)—included a clinical trial in which 3- and 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to 29 preschool classrooms with different child:adult ratios and levels of staff education. Two levels of ratio (5.4:1 vs. 7.4:1) were contrasted along with three levels of staff education (B.A., Associate of Arts, or less than an A.A. in early childhood education). Child behaviors were assessed at the beginning of the intervention and 9 months later. Children assigned to classrooms with fewer children obtained greater gains on measures of receptive language, general knowledge, cooperative behavior, and verbal initiations, and exhibited less hostility and conflict in their interactions with others than did children assigned to classrooms with larger numbers of children. Children whose assigned teachers had more education and training achieved greater gains in cooperative behavior, task persistence, and school readiness than children whose teachers had less education and training.

Correlational studies also have reported concurrent associations between child:adult ratio and children’s language, cognitive, and social functioning. Infants who attend centers with smaller child:adult ratios are found to have better receptive and expressive language skills than children who attend centers with larger child:adult ratios (Burchinal et al., 1996; Vernon-Feagans, Emanuel, and Blood, 1997). Lower child:adult ratios also are associated with higher Bayley scores (Burchinal et al., 1996) and with better social knowledge and social behaviors (Holloway and Reichhart-Erickson, 1988).

Teachers’ education and training also are related concurrently to child performance and adjustment. Burchinal et al. (1996) report that infants have better expressive language skills when their caregivers are better educated. Preschoolers’ receptive language skills are higher when caregivers have at least an Associate of Arts degree in a child-related field (Howes, 1997). Children whose caregivers have degrees in child-related fields received higher CBI intelligence scores than children with less-educated caregivers (Dunn, 1993). Caregiver education and training in child care homes are similarly related to children’s performance on standardized cognitive measures (Clarke-Stewart et al., 2000).

See also Child Care 630 1 - 4