Depending on the kindness of strangers: current national data initiatives and developmental research

This article provides a brief review of current large-scale, longitudinal data collection initiatives focusing on children. These studies will be available for secondary data analyses in the twenty-first century. In addition to child outcome data, process-oriented information is being collected on child-parent interactions, quality of child care, elementary school teacher reports and classroom observations, accessibility and use of health, educational and social services, parental mental health, family violence, fathering, parental residence patterns, income and income sources, child support, employment patterns, and community characteristics. Several of these studies are randomized trials of the efficacy of early childhood intervention services and housing mobility programs. The usefulness of these efforts for exploring policy-relevant issues (child support enforcement, work requirements for welfare recipients, antipoverty strategies, housing subsidies and relocation, availability of child care, child-care subsidies) are discussed.