Andersson (1989)

119 Swedish children from their first year up to the age of 8 years

Ages 3 and 4 years at start of study

Cognitive measures

Social competence

1. Children entering day care at an early age performed significantly better on cognitive tests and received more positive ratings from their teachers in terms of school achievement and social-personal attributes than did children entering day care at later ages and those in home care.

2. The author hypothesizes that two factors contribute to these positive results: Sweden's policy of providing for parents to stay home with children for the first 6 months of their lives, and the generally high quality of Swedish day care.

Burchinal, Roberts, Nabors, & Bryant  (1996)

79 African American children attending centers in 2 small adjacent southeast cities 

69% of families were under 185% of federal poverty

68% headed by a single parent

Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development

Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales

Infant/Toddler Environmental Rating Scale

Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale

HOME for Infants

1. Child care quality was positively correlated with  cognitive development, language development, and communication skills.

2. Process measures of quality of care independently related to the infant's cognitive development.

3. Infant:adult ratio independently related to the infant's overall communication skills.

Caughy, DiPietro, & Strobino (1994)

867 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (464 boys)

47% non-Black/non-Hispanic; 34% Black; 19% Hispanic

Ages 5 to 6 years

HOME Scale (shortened version)

Peabody Individual Achievement Test

1. Children from "impoverished home environments" who attended day care during the first 3 years of life scored higher on reading recognition tests and math tests.

2. The effects on reading scores were greatest for children who began day care before the age of 1.

3. The effects on math scores were greatest for children in center care.

Dunn (1993)

60 children in 30 classrooms in 24 centers 

90% White, 10% African American

Middle SES 

77% two-parent families 

Ages 3 to 5 years

Observational assessment, staff interviews, and questionnaires to measure classroom quality

Direct assessment, teacher ratings, and child achievement tests to measure child outcomes

1. Children attending classrooms with higher overall quality and whose caregivers had a child-related college major and less experience in the center scored higher on a test of intelligence.

2. Child:staff ratio and group size did not predict children's social and cognitive development.

Howes, Smith, & Galinsky (1995)

880 children in 150 centers

Range of SES and urban/rural settings in FL

Ages 10 months to 5 years

Director interviews

Arnett Scale of Caregiver Sensitivity

Howes Involvement Scale

Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale

Infant/Toddler Environmental Rating Scale

Revised Howes Peer Play Scale

Howes Object Play Scale

Adaptive Language Inventory

Preschool behavior questionnaire

1. Gains in intellectual and emotional development continued to improve from 1994.

2. Children were more actively engaged and spent more time learning than they did in 1992 and 1994.

3. Teachers were overall more responsive.  Teacher sensitivity and classroom quality did not increase or decrease.

Peisner-Feinberg & Burchinal (1997)

(Part of Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study)

828 children in CA, CT, CO, and NC (52% boys)

One-third ethnic minorities

Two-thirds two-parent families

Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale

Early Childhood Observation Form

Adult Involvement Scale

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised

Attitudes/Perceptions of Competence

Student-Teacher Relationship Scale

1. There is a positive relation between child care quality and children's cognitive and socioemotional outcomes.

2. Stronger positive effects of child care outcomes were observed for children from more at-risk backgrounds.

3. There was no evidence that children from more advantaged families were buffered from the effects of poor-quality care.

Peisner-Feinberg, Clifford, Culkin, Howes, & Kagan (1999)

By second grade, 418 children from the original Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study

51% boys

30% children of color

Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale

Caregiver Interaction Scale

UCLA Early Childhood Observation Form

Adult Involvement Scale

Instructional Environment Observation Scale (Second Grade)

Student-Teacher Relationship Scale

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised

Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-Revised

Inventory of Classroom Behavior

Teacher Assessment of Social Behavior

Parent surveys

1. Children in higher-quality child care centers performed better on measures of cognitive skills and social skills.

2. Quality of care continued to affect development at least through kindergarten and, for many, through second grade.

3. Children who were at-risk were more sensitive to the negative effects of poor-quality care and received more benefits from high-quality care.  These benefits were sustained through second grade.

4. The quality of the classroom affects cognitive skills, and teacher-child relationship influences social skills.

5. Children who attended higher-quality child care had better cognitive and social skills in second grade, even after taking into account kindergarten and second-grade classroom experiences.

6. Children who experienced more positive classroom climates in child care had better relationships with peers in second grade.

Vandell & Corasaniti (1990)

236 predominantly middle-class 8-year-olds

84% White, 8% Black, 3% Asian American

72% two-parent families

State with minimal child care standards

Retrospective parental recollections

Teacher ratings of social, emotional, and academic functioning

Classroom sociometric ratings

Children's self-ratings

Academic grades

Conduct grades

Standardized test scores

1. Children with more extensive child care experiences since infancy were rated as having poorer peer relationships, work habits, and emotional health.

2. Extensive infant care was associated with poorer academic and conduct report card grades and lower standardized test scores.

Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips (1989)

(National Child Care Staffing Study)

227 day care centers

High, middle, and low SES families 

1,309 teachers/staff were interviewed, and 260 children were assessed

Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale and Infant/Toddler Environmental Rating Scale

Scale of Staff Sensitivity

Child Assessments of Waters and Deane Attachment Q-set and the Howes Peer Play Scale

Feagans and Farran Adaptive Language Inventory

Peabody Picture Vocabulary

1. Child care staff education and work environments affect quality of services children receive.

2. Children in lower-quality centers were less competent in language and social development.