ED415030 PS026146
Title: Are They in Any Real Danger? What Research Does--and Doesn't--Tell
Us about Child Care Quality and Children's Well-Being. Child Care
Research and Policy Papers.
Author(s): Love, John M.; Schochet, Peter Z.; Meckstroth, Alicia L.
Author Affiliation: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Plainsboro,
NJ.(BBB25042)
Pages: 95
Publication Date: May 1996
Sponsoring Agency: Rockefeller Foundation, New York, NY. (BBB00165)
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.
Language: English
Document Type: Information Analysis (070)
Geographic Source: U.S.; New Jersey
Journal Announcement: RIEMAY1998
Recent research
suggests that quality of experience in child care centers and family
child care homes in the United States is mediocre. The research
literature over the past 20 years indicates how variations in quality
of care in center-based and family child care affect children's
development. Higher levels of quality across a wide range of child
care settings are associated with enhanced social skills, reduced
behavior problems, increased cooperation, and improved language
in children. There appear to be no detrimental effects of infants'
attachment relations with their mothers as long as mothers provide
adequate attention to infants at home. Longitudinal studies have
found that some benefits in the social and cognitive domains persist
into elementary school. The dimensions of quality most strongly
related to child well-being include structural features of the child
care setting such as lower child-staff ratios and smaller group
sizes and caregiver-child dynamics, especially the caregiver's sensitivity
and responsiveness in interactions with children. Structural features
of child care settings provide the foundation for higher-quality
dynamics, justifying increased costs that smaller ratios and group
sizes entail. The research base for these findings includes studies
using experimental and nonexperimental designs. Stronger designs
and analytic techniques are needed to understand the contribution
of child care quality and family characteristics on children's development.
Not enough is currently known to guide policy by specifying the
point at which lower levels of quality are clearly detrimental to
children. Defining thresholds of quality along its critical dimensions
is the next research challenge. (Contains approximately 75 references.)
(KB)
Descriptors: Caregiver Child Relationship; Child Development; *Children;
*Day Care; Early Childhood Education; *Family Day Care; *Infants;
Parent Child Relationship; Research Needs; State of the Art Reviews;
Well Being
Identifiers: Day Care Quality
