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Child Care Quality and Children's Behavioral Adjustment: A Four‐Year Longitudinal Study
Author(s) -
DeaterDeckard Kirby,
Pinkerton Relana,
Scarr Sandra
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01491.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child care , early childhood , longitudinal study , child development , day care center , clinical psychology , day care , pediatrics , medicine , nursing , pathology
Studies of extensive, full‐time child care in infancy and early childhood have shown negative, positive and no effects on children's social‐emotional development. The current study explored the prediction of children's behavioral adjustment 4 years after assessments of daycare center quality (e.g. caregiver‐child interactions, caregiver‐to‐child ratios) and of the home and family environment (e.g. parental stress, discipline). Participants included 141 school‐age children (73 girls) and their employed mothers (91% Euro‐American) who had made use of full‐time child care when the children were toddlers or preschoolers. Home environment factors and earlier behaviors were predictive of individual differences in adjustment 4 years later, particularly for maternal ratings of child behaviors. By contrast, indicators of center quality were generally unrelated to mother and teacher ratings of behavioral adjustment.