Quality Day Care Research Articles

Family and Child Care Influences on Toddler's Compliance

HOWES, CAROLLEE, and OLENICK, MICHAEL. Family and Child Care Influences on Toddler's Compliance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 202-216. Influences and interrelations of family dynamics and of varying quality of child-care on the child's capacity for compliance and self-regulation were examined. 3 family types, all with toddler-age children, were compared: families using high-quality day-care centers, families using low-quality day-care centers, and families not using day-care centers. 89 families were interviewed and observed at home and in a laboratory, and the children were observed in their day-care centers. Families that placed their children in low-quality day-care centers had more complex lives, and at home they were less involved and invested in their children's compliance than were parents who either placed their children in a high-quality day-care center or did not use day-care. Children in high-quality day-care centers were more compliant in day-care and had teachers who were more involved and invested in child compliance than children in low-quality day-care centers. In the laboratory, children who attend high-quality day-care centers were the most likely to self-regulate. Parents with children in high-quality day-care centers were the most invested in child compliance in the laboratory. The stability of children's compliance in the 3 settings increased with age. Multiple regression techniques were used to examine relationships between child care, family, and child and parent behaviors. Different patterns appeared for boys and girls, suggesting that boys may be more sensitive than girls to the effects of day-care quality.

Parent—Child interaction and daycare: Does quality of daycare matter?

A Daycare Quality Assessment Instrument was developed and subsequently usedto select two high-quality and two poor-quality daycare centers. Three- to 5-year-old children from these centers as well as home-care controls were observed in the laboratory interacting with their mothers during three types of episodes: while ignored, while attended to, and while required to do a difficult task. Overall, behavior differed during the various episodes; more importantly, the three groups did not behave equivalently. Children in poor-quality daycare were less compliant with task instructions than were other children. Verbal interaction patterns differed as well, with home-care children carrying on more sustained dialogues, while children attending poor-quality daycare were more likely to have verbal interaction limited to numerous single statements—that is, less dyadic interchange. Children attending good-quality daycare were intermediate. Results were interpreted in terms of children learning patterns of adult interaction at daycare that affect interactions with their mothers.

Effects of Family Support Intervention: A Ten-Year Follow-Up

The delivery to impoverished mothers of a coordinated set of medical and social services, including day-care for their children, had effects that were evident a decade after the intervention ended. Intervention mothers were more likely to be self-supporting, and they had higher educational attainment and smaller family sizes than did control mothers. Intervention children had better school attendance, and boys were less likely to require costly special school services than were corresponding control children. The financial implications of these results were considerable, totaling about $40,000 in extra estimated welfare costs and documented school service costs needed by the 15 control families in the single year in which these follow-up data were gathered. There were no indications that the intervention had lasting effects on the children's IQ scores. The results suggest that family support procedures, including quality day-care, have considerable promise as a general model for intervention programs.

Day care: Promoting collaboration between research and policymaking

An agenda for day care research that is tailored to current policy concerns is presented. Familiar developmental issues related to the quality of day care are recast within a policy perspective. Largely unexamined issues pertaining to the costs and supply of day care, the preventative role of day care services, economic and employment-related effects, links between day care and other settings that comprise children's environments, and alternative approaches to day care such as employer-sponsored care, are also identified. It is argued that these issues extend current conceptualizations of interdisciplinary and ecological research. By way of introduction, an overview of recent sociodemographic trends and changes in federal day care policy is provided. A discussion of emerging policy issues that could profit from input by child development research then serves as background to detailed suggestions for research that can advance the dual goals of informing day care policy-makers and contributing to developmental theory.

Providing high quality child care

The trend toward a growing proportion of American women employed outside the home is clear. One- and two-parent families, often out of economic necessity, are seeking alternative care arrangements for their infants and preschool-aged children. As many are experiencing full-day, alternative child care during part or all of their developmentally crucial first five years, there is a need to focus on the quality of day care. Several recent reviews of center-based day care research have portrayed this experience as a relatively benign influence on the development of young children provided that a high level of quality is maintained (Belsky & Steinberg, 1978; Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Etaugh, 1979). What are the implications of this research for child care providers? If it is true that high quality child care has a benign effect on young children's development, what can child care providers do to ensure quality care?

DAY CARE: 3. SERVING PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. By Donald J. Cohen, M.D., and Ada S. Brandagee. U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Publication No. (OHD) 74-1057, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402

This book is one of a series of handbooks being published by the Office of Child Development to "promote discussion and to improve the quality of day care in the United States," according to an introductory statement by Saul Rosoff, Acting Director, Office of Child Development. It was written by Donald J. Cohen, M.D., psychiatrist and pediatrician at Yale, in collaboration with Ada S. Brandagee, M.A. Dr. Cohen attempts "to provide a broad overview of the day care field, a basic state-of-the-art guidebook for those seriously concerned about preschool day care.