Do Effects of Early Child Care Extend to Age 15 Years? Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

Sample

• N: 1,364
• Subject Ages: Birth to 4.5 years and 15 years
• Location: United States, 10 locations
• SES: 21% had incomes no greater than 200% of the poverty level
• Eligibility: Children at birth through age 4 1/2, to be followed up with as adolescents

Hypotheses

1. Non-relative child care during the first 4 1/2 years of life predicts academic achievement and behaviors adjustment at age 15.
2. Links between early child care and adolescent outcomes are moderated by child gender or familial risk.

Variables Measured, Instruments Used

• Child care characteristics - telephone and in-home interviews at three-month intervals until 36 months and four-month intervals until 4.5 years.
• Quality of care - the ORCE at intervals of 6, 15, 24, 36 and 54 months.
• Adolescent functioning -
  • cognitive academic achievement: the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised
  • risk-taking: audio computer-assisted self-interview
  • impulsivity: eight-item questionnaire taken from the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory
  • externalizing problems: youth self report
• Maternal, child, family, and school controls -
  • maternal education, child gender, child race and ethnicity, the proportion of epochs throughout the 4 1/2 years that the mother reported a husband or partner was present, family income, maternal Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised, maternal psychological adjustment, NEO Personality Inventory, maternal depressive symptoms: Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale,   early-parenting quality
• Child functioning in early and middle childhood -
  • cognitive academic achievement: WJ-R Letter-Word Identification & Broad Reading, applied problems and picture vocabulary
  • externalizing behaviors: the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991b) completed by teachers

Design—Longitudinal