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Are there long-term effects of early child care?

Jay Belsky1, Deborah Lowe Vandell, Margaret Burchinal

  • 1Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, Birkbeck University of London, UK. j.belsky@bbk.ac.uk

Child Development
|March 27, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Parenting significantly impacts child development more than early child care. However, higher quality early child care is linked to better vocabulary, while more center-based care correlates with externalizing behaviors.

Area of Science:

  • Child Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Early Childhood Education

Background:

  • Child care arrangements are increasingly common for young children.
  • Understanding the long-term effects of early child care on development is crucial.
  • Previous research has yielded mixed findings on the impact of child care.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the effects of early child care experiences on children's functioning.
  • To compare the predictive power of parenting versus child care on development.
  • To investigate the relationship between quality of care and specific developmental outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study following 1,364 children from 4.5 years to 6th grade.
  • Utilized data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development.
  • Assessed child functioning through various measures, including vocabulary and teacher-reported behaviors.

Main Results:

  • Parenting quality was a stronger predictor of child development than early child care.
  • Higher quality early child care was associated with higher vocabulary scores.
  • Increased exposure to center-based child care predicted more teacher-reported externalizing problems.

Conclusions:

  • While parenting is paramount, early child care quality and type can have measurable effects on child development.
  • The cumulative impact of seemingly small child care effects warrants further investigation.
  • Ongoing follow-up is essential to understand the full trajectory of child care influences.

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