The Quality of Early Child Care and Children’s Development Essay Example for Free

The Quality of premature peasant C be and Childrens Development EssayABSTRACTThe past half-century proverb dramatic changes in families that neutered the daily experiences of many young squirtren. As more mothers of young chelaren entered the labor force, increasing numbers of young kidskinren spent substantial hours in various child- tutelage settings. These changes gave hike to a large body of research on the feign of the quality of previous(predicate) child misgiving on childrens reading. However, a full arrest of the role of the quality of early child accusation requires consideration of the interplay among child care, family, workplace, and society. This article places what we know about the quality of early child care and childrens ontogenesis in this larger bionomical context, and suggests directions for future research and practice.The past half-century saw dramatic changes in families that altered the daily experiences of many young children. In 1970, only 24% of mothers with a young child (birth through age 3) were in the labor force by 2000, this figure had risen to 57%. This emergence in paternal troth was accompanied by changes in childrens daily experiences. By 2000, 80% of children under the age of 6 were in slightly form of nonparental care, spending an average of 40 hours a week in such care ( depicted object interrogation Council and Institute of Medicine, 2003). Research on childrens experiences saw a parallel change that was equally dramatic.Early research in the field foc characterd primarily on the question of whether child care (or maternal employment) per se was good or bad for children current research asks questions about the relation among childrens development and variations in the quality and quantity of child care that they experience.The field too now recognizes varying types of child care, including center-based care, licensed or regulated home-based care by nonrelatives (family-childcare homes), and ot her home-based care, such as care by relatives or in-home sitters. There have been methodological advances as well. Early research was more likely to field of honor small samples and examine correlations between child care and childrens outcomes at a single point in time current research is more likely to involve large samples at multiple sites, to use experimental or quasi-experimental designs, and to follow participants over time.Perhaps the well-nigh central advance in child-care research has been theoretical. Early research tended to study the effects of child care in isolation from other significant aspects of childrens lives. Current research is more likely to be grounded in ecological establishments theory, which considers childrens development in the context of the child-care system as well as the family system, and recognizes the links between these systems and the larger society.In this article, I focus on one segment of current research on early child carethe links b etween the quality of child care and childrens developmentdrawing on ecological systems theory to provide an overview of recent advances and to suggest directions for future research.ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORY AND EARLY CHILD CAREEcological systems theory places child development in an ecological perspective, in which an individuals experience is nested within interconnected systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1989). Microsystems, such as families or child-care settings, are characterized by face-to-face connections among individuals.Mesosystems consist of two or more microsystems and the linkages or processes that combine or connect them. These mesosystems exist within the larger context of the exosystem, those settings in which the child does not directly participate yet that influence the lives of parents and other adults in the childs world, such as a parents workplace, educational institutions that train child-care teachers and providers, and government agencies that set regulations for c hild-care facilities or establish welfare-reform policies.The mesosystems and exosystems operate within the context of a macrosystem of societal and cultural beliefs and practices. Note that these systems are not static, but whitethorn change over time. The Mesosystem of Family Child Care Children inhabit both families and child-care microsystems, and these systems are linked. Parents select particular types of child care, of varying quality, for children of different agesand these decisions vary with family structure, parental characteristics, geographical location, and other factors. Singer, Fuller, Keiley, and Wolf (1998) argued that child-care researchers must consider these excerpt effects if they are to accurately model the impact of child care on childrens development over time.1 Through their selection of particular child-care arrangements, parents have an indirect impact on their childrens development (in addition to their direct impact within the family system). But this linkage between the family system and child-care system operates in both directions The child-care system can alike influence the family system. For example, Ahnert, Rickert, and Lamb (2000) described a particular mesosystem characterized by shared care in this mesosystem, mothers adapted their interactions with their toddlers in response to the toddlers experiences in child care.The ExosystemThe family child-care mesosystem operates within the larger context of the exosystem of parental employmentone of the primary functions of child care is to enable parents, particularly mothers, to work outside the home. Historically, the child-care system has developed in response to characteristics of parents employment. For instance, the current child-care system includes child-care centers, which tend to have operating hours that match those of parents who are working weekdays, as well as family-child-care homes and kith-and-kin care, which are more likely to meet the needs of parents who a re working evenings, weekends, or variable hours. However, in industries that operate around the clock, particularly those with highly skilled workers such as hospitals, we are more likely to suck up on-site child-care centers, sick-child care,2 and other accommodations to parents employment needs.Another important aspect of the exosystem is government policies and regulations that affect both the demand for child care (such as welfare-reform efforts that require low-income mothers to set about employment) and the affordability of child care. Although the United States provides nearly child-care subsidies for families, many low- and moderate-income families do not have effective chafe to subsidies.3 Given the links between the quality of care and the cost of care, it is not surprising that children in low-income families who are not in the higher(prenominal)-quality, government-subsidized programs tend to accept lower-quality child care than children in middle-income families ( cf. Phillips, Voran, Kisker, Howes, Whitebook, 1994). In this way, the exosystem of government policies and regulations provides an important context for the operation of the family child-care mesosystem.THE QUALITY OF EARLY CHILD CARE AND CHILDRENS DEVELOPMENTUsing ecological systems theory as a framework, I crop now to the question of the relation between the quality of early child care and childrens development. I begin with a discussion of the concept of quality, and because move on to an overview of what researchers currently know about the role of the quality of early child care in childrens lives.What Is Quality?The underlying given of all definitions of quality is that a high quality early-child-care setting is one that supports optimal learning and development. However, quality has been measured in a variety of slipway across different studies. Measures of child-care quality can be categorized as either structural or process indicators. Structural characteristics incl ude the child faculty ratio (the number of children per teacher or provider), the group size (number of children in the setting), and the education and specialized training of teachers, providers, or directors. The features of structural quality can be regulated, and most states set minimum standards for at least some aspects of structural quality, at least in center-based care. Studies that assess structural quality are most useful in evaluating the impact of features that can be regulated.Although insureing the links between structural indicators of quality and childrens development is important, we also need to understand the mechanisms by which structural quality affects childrens development, which requires examining what actually happens in the early-care setting (i.e., the process).How do adults and children interact? What materials are available for the children, and how do adults support childrens use of those materials? Process quality refers to the nature of the care tha t children experiencethe warmth, sensitivity, and responsiveness of the caregivers the emotional tone of the setting the activities available to children the developmental appropriateness of activities and the learning opportunities available to children. opposed the features of structural quality, process quality is not subject to state or local regulations, and it is harder to measure.One of the more commonly employ measures, the Early Childhood purlieuRating Scale (ECERS Harms, Clifford, Cryer, 1998), assesses multiple aspects of process quality. Such multidimensional process measures tell us much more about the quality of care that children receive than do structural measures alone. StructuralIndicators of Quality and Childrens DevelopmentWhat do we know about the links between the structural indicators of quality in early child care and childrens development? The research to date has ground that better ratios (fewer children per adult) and more education or training for te achers are associated with higher language, cognitive, and kindly skills of the children cared for (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2003). However, many of the studies that have examined structural indicators have employed small samples (fewer than 100 children) or have not considered selection effects in their analyses, so studies that do not have these limitations are of particular importance.In an interesting study that assessed the links between structural quality, process quality, and childrens outcomes, the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2002) found that the relation between caregiver training and child-staff ratio, on the one hand, and childrens cognitive and social competence, on the other hand, was mediated by process quality that is, higher levels of caregiver training and lower ratios of children to adults in child-care settings were associated with higher levels of process quality, which were, in turn, associated with childrens great cogn itive and social competence.Process Quality and Childrens DevelopmentAmong studies published in the past 15 years, those that employed an ecological model4 consistently found that higher process quality is to greater language and cognitive competence, fewer behavior problems, and more social skills, particularly when multidimensional measures of quality, such as the ECERS, are used or quality is assessed at more than one point in time.For example, the Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes Study (Peisner-Feinberg, Burchinal, Clifford, 2001) found that higher process quality in preschool classrooms predicted fewer behavior problems 1 year later, and predicted higher language and math scores in kindergarten and second grade, although the magnitude of these associations declined over time. This same study also found a link between the child-care and family systems, such that the association between child-care quality and childrens school performance was moderated by mothers education specif ically, the association was stronger for children whose mothers had less(prenominal) education.BEYOND SELECTION EFFECTSI began this article with a discussion of the importance of considering childrens development from an ecological systems perspective, which considers the family child-care mesosystem as a context for childrens development. Many studies of child care now consider the role of selection effects by statistically controlling for family characteristics. However, other linkages within the mesosystem must also be considered if one is to adequately understand the role of child-care quality in childrens development.For instance, aspects of the family system, such as the mothers education or depression, parenting practices, and family income, may have independent effects on childrens development. In fact, in a study of 1,100 children, the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2001) found that although the quality of early child care consistently predicted socio-emotional a nd cognitive-linguistic outcomes during the first 3 years of life, family factors were more consistent predictors of childrens development than quality of child care, or any other child-care factors examined.Research on the family child-care mesosystem is familiar territory for many psychologists. However, Bronfenbrenners ecological systems theory calls trouble to other influences on childrens developmentthe exosystem of parental employment and government policy and the macrosystem of societal beliefs about the desirability of maternal employment and the desired outcomes for children. For example, there is a complex interplay between parental employment, government policy, child care, and childrens development for low-income families.Government policy and the macrosystem of societal beliefs promote employment for low-income parents. However, low-income parents tend to have less education and fewer marketable skills compared with other parents, and are likely to be employed in sect ors of the labor market where jobs are part-time or contingent (temporary), allow little tractability for managing family demands, and offer few benefits. Work schedules are also likely to include hours outside of the typical Monday-through-Friday daytimes when childcare centers normally operate. Although government subsidies are available to some low-income families, most do not receive subsidies.As a result, children from low-income families are likely to be placed in lower-cost and lower-quality center care or unceremonious care that is itself often of lower quality (cf. Henly Lyons, 2000). Viewing this choice as a selection effect leads one to interpret it as parental preferencebut an ecological perspective suggests a different interpretation Regardless of their individual preferences, low-income families choices are constrained by the operation of the exosystem of the workplace and government policy. forthcoming DIRECTIONSCurrent state-of-the-art research has provided clear evidence that the quality of early child care matters to childrens development. Children who attend higher-quality child-care settings have greater language and cognitive competence and greater social competence than children who receive lower-quality child care. However, several studies have documented the prevalence of mediocre or inadequate child care in the United States (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2003, pp. 5354).In addition, the high-quality care that does exist is not equitably distributedlower-income children are less likely than higher-income children to have access to it. The next step is to answer the question How can we best raise the quality of early child care for all children? Ecological systems theory draws our attention to the importance of placing this question in the context of family processes, parental employment, governmental policies, and societal beliefs and goals when developing theoretical models and models for practice. We must i ntegrate our societal goals of supporting healthy families, scotch self-sufficiency, and womens employment with our goals of supporting healthy development and school readiness for children, if we expect to advance research and practice in the area of early-child-care quality and childrens development.Recommended ReadingLamb, M.E. (1998). Nonparental child care Context, quality, correlates. InW. Damon, I.E. Sigel, K.A. Renninger (Eds.), Handbook of childpsychology Vol. 4. Child psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 73134).New York John Wiley Sons.National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Committee on Integratingthe Science of Early Childhood Development, Board on Children,Youth, and Families. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods The scienceof early child development (J.P. Shonkoff D.A. Phillips, Eds.). Washington,DC National Academy Press.National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Division of Behavioraland Social Sciences and Education, Board on Children, Yo uth, andFamilies, Committee on Family and Work Policies. (2003). (See References)Phillips, D.A., Voran, M.N., Kisker, E., Howes, C., Whitebook, M. (1994).(See References)REFERENCESAhnert, L., Rickert, H., Lamb, M.E. (2000). Shared caregiving Comparisonsbetween home and child care settings. Developmental Psychology, 36,339351.Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989). Ecological systems theory. Annals of Child Development,6, 187249.Harms, T., Clifford, R.M., Cryer, D. (1998). Early Childhood EnvironmentRating Scale Revised edition. New York Teachers College Press.Henly, J.R., Lyons, S. (2000). The dialog of child care and employmentdemands among low-income parents. Journal of Social Issues, 56,683706.National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Division of Behavioraland Social Sciences and Education, Board on Children, Youth, andFamilies, Committee on Family and Work Policies. (2003). Workingfamilies and growing kids Caring for children and adolescents (E.Volume 13Number 4 167Nancy L. M arshallSmolensky J.A. Gootman, Eds.). Washington, DC National AcademiesPress. Retrieved August 14, 2003, from http//www.nap.edu/openbook/0309087031/html/R1.htmlNICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2001). Nonmaternal careand family factors in early development An overview of the NICHDStudy of Early Child Care. Applied Developmental Psychology, 22,457492.NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2002). Child-care structureprocess outcome Direct and indirect effects of child-care quality onyoung childrens development. Psychological Science, 13, 199206.Peisner-Feinberg, E.S., Burchinal, M.R., Clifford, R.M. (2001). The relationof preschool child-care quality to childrens cognitive and social developmentaltrajectories through second grade. Child Development, 72,15341553.Phillips, D.A., Voran, M.N., Kisker, E., Howes, C., Whitebook, M. (1994).Child care for children in poverty Opportunity or inequity? Child Development,65, 472492.Singer, J.D., Fuller, B., Keiley, M.K., Wolf, A. ( 1998). Early child-care selectionVariation by geographic location, maternal characteristics, andfamily structure. Developmental Psychology, 34, 11291144.