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Early child care and illness among preschoolers

Jennifer March Augustine1, Robert L Crosnoe, Rachel Gordon

  • 11University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.

Journal of Health and Social Behavior
|August 20, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Children in center-based care get sick more often, with higher peer exposure linked to illness, especially for children of less educated mothers. Illness can lead parents to change childcare arrangements.

Area of Science:

  • Child Development
  • Pediatric Health
  • Sociology of Family

Background:

  • Young American children frequently attend nonparental care settings.
  • These settings are linked to childhood illness experiences.
  • Understanding this link is crucial for policy and theoretical considerations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between nonparental childcare and childhood illnesses.
  • To explore socioeconomic variations in this association.
  • To examine the implications for parental childcare arrangement decisions.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a fixed-effects design within structural equation modeling.
  • Analyzed data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n=1,364).

Main Results:

  • Children in center-based care experienced more frequent illnesses.
  • Greater peer exposure in primary care settings correlated with illness, particularly for children of less educated mothers.
  • Children in multiple care arrangements did not show increased illness, but illness led to reduced peer exposure as parents altered care.

Conclusions:

  • Childcare settings influence childhood illness frequency and peer exposure.
  • Socioeconomic factors, like maternal education, moderate the relationship between peer exposure and illness.
  • Illness can be a catalyst for changes in childcare arrangements, potentially impacting peer exposure.

Keywords:
child carechild healthfamilypreschoolerssocioeconomic inequality

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