Child Care

Child Care and Developmental Outcomes 5

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 11:09 AM

Associations between structural quality in the first 3 years and children’s later preschool and kindergarten adjustment were tested, controlling for a family socialization composite and a family demographic composite.

Children with a history of poor-quality child care during the first 3 years were rated by their preschool teachers as being more difficult and by their kindergarten teachers as being more hostile. The children also engaged in less social pretend play and displayed less positive affect in their preschool classroom.

Recent research from the Otitis Media Study has focused on specific structural and caregiver characteristics in relation to subsequent child developmental outcomes (Burchinal et al., in press). The researchers initially recruited 89 children who were 4 to 9 months of age for a study of the effects of otitis media on children’s development. Children attended 27 centers that varied in quality. Child care quality was assessed annually using the ECERS and ITERS. Children whose child care classrooms met recommended guidelines for child-staff ratios exhibited better receptive language and functional communication skills over time as compared to children whose classrooms did not meet recommended ratio guidelines, controlling for child gender, family poverty, and cognitive stimulation and emotional support in the home. Caregiver education also predicted children’s adjustment, but only for girls: Girls whose caregivers had at least 14 years of education (with or without early childhood training) had better cognitive and receptive language skills over time compared to girls whose caregivers had fewer than 14 years of education, controlling for the family factors.

Blau (1999c) also has examined structural and caregiver characteristics in relation to children’s subsequent developmental outcomes. For these analyses, he used secondary data obtained from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), an ongoing nationally representative study of 12,652 youth begun in 1979. Beginning in 1986, information about children of the female respondents was collected. Mothers also provided information about their children’s primary child care arrangements—the number of children cared for in the group, the number of adult care providers in the arrangement, and whether the main caregiver had specialized training in early childhood education or child development. Blau then averaged these maternal reports of structural and caregiver characteristics through age 2 and for ages 3–5 years. Children completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a measure of receptive language skills, at 3 years or older. Mothers reported on children’s behavior problems at 4 years or older. Children completed math and reading subscales of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) at 5 years or older.

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