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Children’s Early Child Care and Their Mothers’ Later Involvement With Schools
Author(s) -
Crosnoe Robert,
Augustine Jennifer March,
Huston Aletha C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01726.x
Subject(s) - developmental psychology , psychology , child care , child development , academic achievement , academic skills , medicine , pediatrics , mathematics education
Theory and policy highlight the role of child care in preparing children for the transition into school. Approaching this issue in a different way, this study investigated whether children’s care experiences before this transition promoted their mothers’ school involvement after it, with the hypothesized mechanism for this link being the cultivation of children’s social and academic skills. Analyses of 1,352 children (1 month–6 years) and parents in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development revealed that mothers were more involved at their children’s schools when children had prior histories of high‐quality nonparental care. This pattern, which was fairly stable across levels of maternal education and employment, was mediated by children’s academic skills and home environments.