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Assignment: CHILD-CARE STRUCTURE

Assignment: CHILD-CARE STRUCTURE

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Please read instructions carefully** This is a prelude to a paper that will be due in 5 weeks.

Topic: Effects of day care on child development

What to do: Choice 3 articles (SEE ATTACHMENT) that you will select for the assignment

Write : Provide a summary of the article using citations and a reference for each of the 3 articles. Write a 1-paragraph summary of each article, explaining what you found most interesting and why.

After each summary, provide the full reference for the article in APA format.

An introduction, conclusion and title page must be included!

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Research Article

VOL. 13, NO. 3, MAY 2002 Copyright © 2002 American Psychological Society 199

CHILD-CARE STRUCTURE

→ PROCESS

→ OUTCOME: Direct and Indirect Effects of Child-Care Quality on Young

Children’s Development

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network

Abstract—With data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we used structural equation modeling to test paths from structural indica- tors of child-care quality, specifically caregiver training and child- staff ratio, through a process indicator to child outcomes. There were three main findings: (a) Quality of maternal caregiving was the stron- gest predictor of cognitive competence, as well as caregivers’ ratings of social competence; (b) quality of nonmaternal caregiving was asso- ciated with cognitive competence and caregivers’ ratings of social competence; and (c) there was a mediated path from both caregiver training and child-staff ratio through quality of nonmaternal caregiv- ing to cognitive competence, as well as to caregivers’ ratings of social competence, that was not accounted for entirely by family variables. These findings provide empirical support for policies that improve state regulations for caregiver training and child-staff ratios.

One of the most robust findings in the early-childhood literature is that good child-care quality is associated with a variety of positive outcomes for young children. Specifically, children in higher-quality child-care programs perform better on measures of social, language, and cognitive development when compared with other children (Clarke-Stewart & Allhusen, in press; Lamb, 1998). Quality is typi- cally measured by both process features, such as caregiving quality, and structural features, such as child-staff ratio. By definition, process variables are assumed to have a direct impact on children’s develop- ment, whereas structural variables are assumed to have an indirect im- pact via process quality (see Friedman & Amadeo, 1999).

Researchers who ask policy questions have focused on structural variables, which are regulable, whereas researchers more interested in early experience have focused on process variables. Findings from the Staffing Study (Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1992) and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (NICHD Early Child Care Research Net- work, NICHD ECCRN, 1999) show that structural variables matter, such that children attending programs where caregivers have more training and where child-staff ratios are smaller perform better across a range of measures. There is also evidence that process variables mat- ter, especially in the case of sensitive and responsive caregiving, which has been associated with better developmental outcomes in most child- care research projects, including the Bermuda Study (McCartney, 1984; Phillips, McCartney, & Scarr, 1987), the Chicago Study (Clarke-Stew- art, Gruber, & Fitzgerald, 1994), the Child Care and Family Study (Kontos, Howes, Shinn, & Galinsky, 1995), the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study (Peisner-Feinberg & Burchinal, 1997), and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (NICHD ECCRN, 1998, 2000b).

Not surprisingly, there is some evidence that structural measures of child-care quality are associated with process measures. Across different types of infant, toddler, and preschool programs, lower

child-staff ratios, smaller group sizes, and more caregiver education and training each predicted better child-caregiver interactions (Fis- cher & Eheart, 1991; Galinsky, Howes, & Kontos, 1995; NICHD ECCRN, 1996, 2000a; Phillips, Mekos, Scarr, McCartney, & Ab- bott-Shim, 2001; Stith & Davis, 1984). The best evidence of a link between structural and process measures of child-care quality comes from Howes, Smith, and Galinsky (1995), who found that the introduction of stricter standards in Florida led to improved quality of caregiving, as well as better child outcomes.

To summarize, studies have documented three types of associa- tions: those between structural and process features of child-care qual- ity, those between structural features of child-care quality and child outcomes, and those between process features of child-care quality and child outcomes. In no investigation to date, however, have these three associations been brought together in a single analytic model. Of particular interest is the often assumed but never tested mediated path from structural features of child-care quality through process features to child outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to test this mediated path using structural equation modeling (SEM).

USING SEM TO TEST MEDIATION

Baron and Kenny (1986) provided the seminal discussion of me- diation with respect to regression. They argued that mediation oc- curs in a model when including a hypothesized mediator reduces the association between a predictor and an outcome. SEM has be- come a preferred analytic approach for testing mediation; for exam- ple, it provides an ecological description of associations among family factors, child-care factors, and child-outcome factors. With SEM, interrelations among factors, both direct and indirect, can be tested. Note that neither regression analysis nor SEM can distin- guish between a “true” indirect path (e.g., the effect on child out- comes due to child-care experiences per se but associated with the family placing their child in that setting) and a “spurious” indirect path (e.g., the effect on child outcomes solely due to more advan- taged families selecting better quality care).