Child Care

Child Care and Developmental Outcomes 4

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 02:14 AM

A limitation with both of these reports is that children were studied only to age 3. Thus, it cannot be ascertained if early effects are harbingers of later differences or if these effects dissipate by the time that children enter grade school.

As additional findings from these ongoing investigations become available, they can be used to identify conditions under which early child care quality differences are maintained or dissipate.

In the meantime, the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study has information that is relevant to this issue (Peisner-Feinberg et al., 1999). Started in 1993, observations were conducted in child care centers located in four states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, and North Carolina—that varied in licensing standards. Centers were evenly distributed in each state into nonprofit and for-profit programs. Within the eligible programs, 509 preschool classrooms and 224 infant/toddler classrooms were studied. Process quality was rated using the ECERS or ITERS, the Caregiver Interaction Scale (Arnett, 1989), and the Teacher Involvement Scale (Howes and Stewart, 1987). Quality indicators were combined into a single process quality composite.

A subsample of children was followed through 2 years of child care and the first 3 years of formal schooling (kindergarten through second grade). Children were assessed for receptive language skills, reading ability, and math skills. Child care and school teachers rated the children’s cognitive/attention skills, sociability, and problem behaviors each year. Longitudinal hierarchical linear models examined relations between the child care quality composite collected at age 4 (Time 1) and children’s developmental outcomes through grade 2. In all analyses, selection factors (maternal education, child’s gender and ethnicity) were controlled statistically.

Children who were enrolled in higher-quality child care classrooms as preschoolers were found to have better receptive language skills. Effect sizes for receptive language were moderate for the preschool period (.60 and .51 for the 2 years preceding school entry), more modest in kindergarten (.30), and not significant in second grade. Child care quality also was related to children’s math skills. Children who were enrolled in higher-quality child care had better math skills prior to school entry and during kindergarten and second grade, with modest effect sizes across the years (.20–.29). The relation was stronger for children whose mothers had less education. In further analyses that controlled for the quality of the elementary school classroom, the relations between child care quality and children’s math skills were maintained. It is notable that a similar finding was obtained in research conducted in Sweden. Broberg et al. (1997) found that process quality assessed using the Belsky and Walker checklist at 16, 28, and 40 months predicted better math skills at age 8, even after controlling for child and family factors.

Other research has considered longer-term associations between child care quality and children’s social-emotional outcomes. Howes (1990) focused on one particular aspect of process quality, child care socialization practices, in relation to children’s subsequent developmental outcomes. Caregivers’ involvement and investment in child compliance were measured during naturalistic observations in the child care setting. Having a more involved and invested caregiver during the first 3 years was associated with kindergarten teachers’ reports that the children had fewer behavior problems and better verbal IQs.

Alternative Views. As shown in Table 3, some investigators have not found relations between child care quality and later developmental outcomes. For example, Chin-Quee and Scarr (1994) did not find evidence of long-term effects in a longitudinal follow-up of the Bermuda study. In the initial study, concurrent associations were reported between process quality as measured by the ECERS and child developmental outcomes (McCartney, 1984; Phillips et al., 1987). In the follow-up study, teachers rated social competence (peer relations and cooperative behavior) and academic achievement for 97 of the original sample of 166, when children were in grades 1 and 2 (Time 2) and grades 3 and 4 (Time 3). Associations between the quality indicators during the preschool years and competence at school were tested with hierarchical regressions in which parental values, age of entry into care, and total amount of child care before school entry were controlled. Neither the global quality score nor the specific measures of caregiver language predicted children’s social competence and academic achievement at Time 2 or Time 3.

A longitudinal follow-up of children who participated in the Three-State Study also failed to detect long-term effects (Deater-Deckard, Pinkerton, and Scarr, 1996). In this project, assessments of child care quality were first obtained in 363 classrooms located in 120 centers in three states (Georgia, Virginia, Massachusetts) when 718 study children were infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Process quality ratings were obtained by pulling items pertaining to teacher-child interaction from the ECERS and ITERS and the Assessment Profile (a process measure scored for presence or absence of specific items). Four years later, follow-up assessments were conducted for 141 of the original sample. Multiple regressions controlled for child (child adjustment at Time 1, age at Time 2, child gender) and family characteristics (SES, a composite of parenting stress and low emotional support, maternal endorsement of harsh discipline practices). The child care quality measure was a composite of the ITERS/ECERS, the Assessment Profile that measures physical facilities, caregiver training and education, and caregiver wages. In these analyses, the child care quality composite score at Time 1 did not predict changes in children’s behavior problems or social withdrawal at Time 2.

Although Scarr (1998) has argued that these studies demonstrate that child care quality has little or no long-term impact on children’s development, the findings must be interpreted with caution. Both studies are based on the assumption that a quality assessment obtained at one point in time is an adequate and accurate representation of child care quality. Single assessments might be sufficient if care arrangements and quality are stable; however, a single observation is not adequate if care is unstable or changing. In the Bermuda sample, Chin-Quee and Scarr (1994) reported that half the children experienced one, two, or three arrangements during the intervening period, and half experienced more than three arrangement changes. In the Three-State study, no information about child care quality in the intervening four years was collected. In both studies, it is difficult to interpret the meaning of the null findings in light of no information about child care quality across early childhood. Stronger, more valid tests of the effects of child care quality need to take into account cumulative quality and the pattern of quality over time.

The lack of long-term relations in the Three State Study may also reflect limitations in the assessment of process quality. Only moderate interobserver agreement was reported across the three research sites—.58 for the ECERS and .55 for the ITERS (McCartney et al., 1997). Lower relations between process quality and child outcomes would be expected when process quality scores are less reliable.

Longer-Term Associations between Structural and Caregiver Characteristics and Child Outcomes
Other studies have considered relations between structural and caregiver characteristics in relation to children’s subsequent developmental outcomes (see Table 3). Howes (1988), for example, examined structural and caregiver characteristics at 3 years in relation to children’s first-grade adjustment. Quality in 81 centers was defined in terms of five areas: teacher training, child:adult ratio, group size, a planned curriculum, and space. Higher-quality care met recognized standards in all five areas; medium-quality care met standards on three or four dimensions, and low-quality care met three or fewer standards. During the intervening period, the 87 children attended the same university lab school, meaning that they experienced classes with the same or similar structural and caregiver characteristics.

In analyses that controlled for maternal work status, family structure, and maternal education, Howes found that children who had attended higher-quality child care programs prior to enrollment in the university school had fewer behavior problems and better work habits as compared to children who had attended lower quality programs. Additionally, boys who had attended higher-quality centers received better first-grade teacher ratings of academic performance compared to other boys.

Using a different sample of 80 children who were enrolled in center-based care, Howes (1990) examined relations between a structural quality composite (child:adult ratio, caregiver training, caregiver stability) measured at 18, 24, 30, and 36 months, and children’s kindergarten adjustment. High-quality care was defined as ratios of 4:1 or less for children who were < 2 years and 7:1 for children > 2 years, caregivers with 12 units of college-level child development courses, and no more than two different primary caregivers in the prior year. Low-quality care was defined as ratios of 6:1 or higher for children who were 2 years or less and ratios of 10:1 for children who were older than 2 years, caregivers with no formal child development training, and more than two primary caregivers in the prior year.

See also Child Care 632 1 - 2