Time in Early Childhood Education and Care and language competence in Norwegian four-year-old girls and boys

Abstract

There is considerable evidence that high-quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is associated with children's language competence. Yet, studies in contexts of universal access to quality-regulated ECEC are rarer, exacerbating concerns over selection bias endemic to non-experimental work on the topic. Extending the cumulative knowledge on this topic, we tested a dose-response hypothesis, examining associations between time spent in ECEC during the child's first four years, and language competences in four-year-old girls and boys, in a context with universal access to quality regulated center care. A sample (N = 1157) from a Norwegian longitudinal study was utilized with propensity weights accounting for selection. Following this adjustment, there was a tendency for a dose-response relation between years that children attended ECEC and their language competence at four years, but only for boys. Implications of ECEC in the contemporary context of gender differences in achievement and life chances are discussed.