Research that Benefits Children and Families – Option 1

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care (SECC) is an ambitious longitudinal study initiated by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). A team of 32 researchers has provided different perspectives on the topic of child care. They studied about the relationship between child care and children’s development. They follow a diverse group of more than one thousand children and families, in ten cities across the country, from children’s birth in 1991 through their adolescence.

Children’s development and their experiences in home and in child care settings have been measured through a wide range of tests at frequent intervals throughout the study. Factors such as child’s age at entry into care, quantity of care, stability of care, such as provider’s education and training, adult-to-child ratio, group size, safety and health issues, have also been included.

The large number of children and the sophisticated method use in the study has confirmed the importance of quality in child care. In particular, it has validated the findings of many other studies that quality of child care is important, both in that high quality can enhance development and poor quality can be harmful to young children. Higher quality of care, especially positive care giving, is related to higher developmental scores (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000b). Quality of child care continues to exert influence. The quality of care is related to children’s functioning later in school (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network & Duncan, 2003b). Positive care giving was more likely to occur when child-to-adult ratios and group sizes were smaller, caregivers were more educated , held more child-centered beliefs about child rearing, and had more experience in child care, and environments were safer and more stimulating (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000a). Such findings reaffirm many other studies.

On the other hand, they also found that the more time children spend in child care, the more problem behaviors, for instance, aggression, disobedience and conflict with adults, occur (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003a). NICHD continues to collect and analyze information about the relationship of young children’s development and their experiences today. With this study, we gain greater understanding the importance of our role as caregivers and teachers and the importance of those early experiences (http://www.nichd.nih.gov).

Reference:

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2000a). Characteristics and quality of child care for toddlers and preschoolers. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 116-135.   

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2000b). The relation of child care to cognitive and language development. Child Development, 71, 960-980.

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2003a). Does amount of time spent in child care predict socioemotional adjustment during the transition to kindergarten? Child Development, 74, 976-1005.