Access to Quality Child Care in Montana: Exploring Parent and Provider Perspectives
An examination of the capacity of Montana's child care system to serve Native American families and rural families of children with disabilities. The study focuses on issues of access, supply, and demand, and seeks to determine whether the availability of child care services is substantially different for Native American children and children with disabilities than for other families. Methodology includes parent and provider surveys as well as on-site assessment of child care programs.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care and Special Needs Children: Challenges for Low-income Families
A study of child care for children with special needs that also examines related issues of welfare reform and coordination with early intervention services at the community level. The research is based on focus groups and in-depth interviews with low income parents of children with special needs in six communities in Maine and Connecticut, as well as interviews with welfare caseworkers, early intervention case managers, child care providers, and low-wage employees, to provide a context for parents' perspectives. Surveys of 189 child care providers and 441 parents of children with special needs in Maine was conducted as well as a secondary analysis of data from a sample of families with children with special needs drawn from the National Survey of America's Families.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Choices of Low-Income Families with Vulnerabilities
This project explores the ways in which low-income, vulnerable families choose child care. The goal is to identify the family characteristics and contextual factors that expand or limit child care choices. The three-year project takes place in several low-income, urban communities participating in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections initiative. The sites are Oakland, Providence, Seattle, and Denver. The focus is on vulnerable families, including families who have children with special needs, parents who are English language learners or immigrants, parents receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and children at risk of maltreatment. The research includes a family study and a community study. The family study includes two rounds of field-based, semi-structured interviews with parents regarding their decision-making processes related to child care. The community study, which takes place between the two rounds of family interviews, includes interviews with key community members regarding the community and policy contexts that affect child care choices. The following research questions are addressed: (1) What factors influence choice of care among low-income working families in a diverse set of urban neighborhoods? How do different families with particular vulnerabilities make child care choices?; (2) How do child care choice processes of parents overall, and particularly families who have special vulnerabilities, interact with several key contextual factors (e.g., job options, local policies and programs)?; and (3) What family characteristics or contextual factors seem to particularly expand or constrain the child care choices of low-income families overall, and the lives of vulnerable families in particular? Which of these seem amenable to policy strategies to support choices for low-income working families, and what should these strategies be?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care during the First Year of School: How Extent, Type, and Quality Relate to Child Well-Being
A systematic examination of the links between extent, type, and quality of child care and children's social-emotional and cognitive well-being, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K). The sample for this study includes approximately 14,000 kindergarteners in the ECLS-K. The research explores the full range of child care options (formal and informal), focusing on sub-groups of children including low-income and subsidy-eligible. This study informs Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) policy regarding school-age child care, including how to design subsidy programs and cost effective quality enhancement strategies that best support school-age child well-being.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Effects in Context: Quality, Stability, and Multiplicity in Nonmaternal Child Care Arrangements from 3 to 6 Years of Age
An assessment of the frequency with which low-income preschoolers (ages 3-6) experience unstable and multiple concurrent child care arrangements, and an examination of the effects of quality, stability, and multiplicity on children's social-emotional adjustment and school readiness. The study uses data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, and aims to help policymakers understand how child care experiences affect the social-emotional adjustment and school readiness of children living in poverty.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Quality: Does Partnering with Head Start Make a Difference?
A three-year investigation of the relationship between Child Care/Head Start partnerships, observed quality, and children's school readiness, conducted in Ohio by the Education Development Center (EDC). The research expands on an existing study to examine: (1) under what conditions child care partnerships with Head Start are related to observed child care classroom quality; (2) whether there is a link between partnerships and children's school readiness; and (3) whether partnerships are associated with observed quality in family child care homes. The study uses data collected on environmental quality and child outcomes, through the use of observational and child assessment instruments, from 67 child care center classrooms, 673 children, and 135 family child care homes, all randomly selected. This research addresses critical questions about the effectiveness of coordination efforts and provides evidence about the outcomes of strategies designed to improve child care quality.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Use in Mexican American Families
An examination of factors that may influence child care practices of Mexican American families, including: community and employment factors; cultural beliefs and caregiving practices; extended family and non-kin networks; family characteristics; and child care characteristics. The study uses an integrative process-oriented model of minority children's development, and follows two cohorts of Mexican American families: a group with one-month old infants (N=80), and a group with 24-month old toddlers (N=80), for three years. This cross-sectional cohort design focuses on three issues: (1) factors associated with parental child care choices; (2) assessment of the features and quality of child care; and (3) factors associated with the effect of child care on family and child outcomes.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Community Variations in Child Care for Working Poor Families: Contributions to Child Development and Parental Employment Opportunities
A description and comparison of the "child care landscapes" in four communities with diverse subsidy policies, employing an integrated design and using existing data, qualitative data, and quantitative data to identify the community-level variables that are most strongly associated with quality of care and child and family outcomes, and to determine the linkages between child care characteristics and parental work outcomes. The first phase includes 500 parent surveys, 30 community informant interviews, 15 parent focus groups and an analysis of existing community data. The second phase includes assessments of 300 children (30 infants/toddlers and 30 preschoolers in each of 5 communities), their parents, and their child care providers, using measures of child care structural quality, process quality, child development, and parent employment.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Early Care Settings and School Readiness of Low-Income Children: Cross-Cutting Lessons from Two Complementary Studies
A project led by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), in conjunction with collaborators from the University of Texas at Austin, examining the relationship between center- and home-based care settings and the development of low income children (primarily children of working parents), aged kindergarten to third grade. The research is based on two unique datasets: (1) a pooled dataset of seven experimental studies of welfare and employment programs--empirical techniques that take advantage of treatment-induced differences in employment, income and child care--that is used to control for child care selection factors; and (2) The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD)--a longitudinal child care study following children from birth--that is used to conduct an analysis of features of different types of care settings and the resulting effects on children's development. This research addresses critical questions about the effects of center- and home-based care settings on multiple domains of low income children's development, paying specific attention to the direction of causality in effects.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Goodness of Fit in Child Care: Examining the Contributions of Child and Caregiver Characteristics to Stress Reactivity
Previous work has repeatedly shown that full-day child care is associated with increased physiological stress for many young children. Efforts to understand this phenomenon have demonstrated that quality of caregiving is important for predicting the proportion of children who exhibit a rising pattern of the stress-sensitive hormone cortisol across the day at child care. Understanding which children find child care particularly stressful and what caregiving behaviors are most important for buffering them from stress is badly needed. The present study specifically examines whether: (1) child temperament and attachment to parents predict cortisol reactivity across the day at child care; (2) secure attachment to child care providers buffers children against the stress reactivity; and (3) child care providers are able to buffer stress reactivity in a structured one-on-one interaction. Sample: 15 Head Start classrooms, 15 non-Head Start and non-university affiliated classrooms, 170 families, with oversample of 50 Mexican-origin families. Measures: Cortisol samples collected from children's saliva across the day, Attachment Q-set, Semi-structured Interaction, Measures of Sensitive and Intrusiveness, Child Behavioral Questionnaire/ Child Behavior Checklist, Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale- Revised, Parent Survey, Center Director Survey.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
The Impact of Childhood Behavior Problems on Child Care and Employment Decision-Making: A Nationally Representative Panel Study
The goal of this study is to examine associations between childhood behavior problems and the stability of child care and employment among working families. Particular attention is paid to autism and childhood behavior problems that may go undiagnosed. The study follows a nationally representative sample of 1500 parents and children ages birth-13, selected from Gallup panel data which includes an oversample of low-income respondents, and a comparison group of parents of children with autism, also selected from Gallup panel data. Both descriptive and multivariate analyses are conducted, and an instrumental variable approach is applied to address possible endogeneity. The expected benefits of this project are to document the influence of behavior problems on child care and employment at the national level, to inform Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) eligibility criteria for children ages birth-13 with undiagnosed developmental and/or behavior problems, and to build research capacity by linking child care research to autism research and develop two nationally representative longitudinal public domain datasets.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Impact of Literacy of Child Care Providers on Child Language
A study documenting the literacy levels of a sample of early care and education providers, examining the relationships among adult literacy level, traditional measures of child care quality, and child language and cognitive outcomes, and analyzing variations in the literacy levels of early care and education providers as it relates to their economic status. The study attempts to replicate the results of a previous study that found provider English literacy to be associated with the quality of the language environment in both child care centers and licensed home-based care in Alameda County, California, using a sample of center and home-based providers whose settings were observed as part of the Child Care and Children's Temperament Study (supplement to the Temperament over Time Study-TOTS).
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Informal Caregiving Among the White Mountain Apache and its Impact on Child Health and Well Being
An ethnographic study of informal kith and kin care among the White Mountain Apaches, and the effects of child care practices on child health, with an exploration of the implications of welfare reform for parent employment and child care. The project has three basic components: (1) patterns of caregiving; (2) the practice of alternative caregiving and health related behaviors; and (3) community attitudes.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Latino American Children and School Readiness: The Role of Early Care Arrangements and Caregiver Language
The number of Latino children in the United States is steadily increasing. This demographic transformation presents several challenges for the United States, one of which is meeting the diverse educational needs of Latino children. This challenge is great; evidence from one national sample of kindergarten students estimates that by kindergarten the Latino-White achievement gaps are as large as 0.77 standard in math and 0.52 standard deviations in reading. Previous research indicates that high quality, center-based child care may help reduce these disparities. This dissertation aims to extend on this literature, using a nationally representative sample of Latino American children, to: (1) investigate selection processes into different care arrangements at 2- and 4-years of age; (2) estimate the impact of these different care arrangements on Latino American children's math, literacy and approaches to learning outcomes in the fall of kindergarten; and (3) examine whether these associations differ by the language spoken in the home, the language spoken by the child's care provider, or match between the two. Research questions include: (1) What factors predict Latino American children's enrollment into different care arrangements at 2-years (center-based care, parental care, or other home-based care) and 4-years (Head Start, pre-kindergarten, other center-based care, parental care, or other home-based care)?; (2) What are the associations between these care arrangements and Latino children's math, literacy, and approaches to learning scores in the fall of kindergarten?; and (3) Are there differential treatment effects depending on the language: (a) of the care provider?; (b) of the home?; (c) the match between home and care provider?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Learning Outcomes for Low-income Children: Child Care Quality and Social Knowledge
An examination of the relationship between child care quality, child social knowledge and competence, and child learning outcomes for low-income preschoolers. The first hypotheses examines whether observed classroom quality relates to child social knowledge and competence. The second hypothesis investigates the relationship between social knowledge and competence and learning outcomes. The study aims to inform child care providers and administrators about strategies to enhance children's development, and to inform policy makers interested in implementing cost-effective strategies that might positively relate to low-income children's pre-academic skills.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Massachusetts Early Care and Education and School Readiness Study
An assessment of the impact of varying hours of early care and education on children's school readiness, and the specific factors in both infant and preschool classrooms that promote school readiness, using two samples: one group of 236 children attending child care centers that have been followed since infancy; and another group of 160 children attending child care centers primarily serving low-income families. The project measures the following school readiness outcomes: (1) language development and communication; (2) cognition and general knowledge, including early math, social and emotional development; (3) approaches to learning; and (4) health and physical development. The study informs policy and program choices about standards for infant and preschool early care and education, the education and training of early care and education professionals, hours of care for young children, and the processes that improve school readiness among young children at risk.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
National Center for Children in Poverty Child Care Research Partnership Wave I
A child care research partnership led by the National Center for Children in Poverty and consisting of 11 partners, including state-level partners in Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey, city-level partners from New York City, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), and Rutgers University. The partnership builds on the knowledge, research base, and practical experience of its many partners to answer questions in four general areas: (1) the nature of low-income child care markets; (2) the effects of welfare and child care policies on child care and children's development; (3) the dynamics and qualities of license-exempt child care; and (4) the relationships between communities' effective demand for and supply of regulated child care.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
National Center for Children in Poverty Child Care Research Partnership: Wave II
A child care research partnership led by the National Center for Children in Poverty and consisting of 11 partners, including state-level partners in Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey, city-level partners from New York City, the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), and Rutgers University. The partnership builds on the knowledge, research base, and practical experience of its many partners to answer questions in four general areas: (1) the nature of low-income child care markets; (2) the effects of welfare and child care policies on child care and children's development; (3) the dynamics and qualities of license-exempt child care; and (4) the relationships between communities' effective demand for and supply of regulated child care.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
New Americans: The Child Care Choices of Parents of English Language Learners (ELL)
Despite the significant benefits quality ECE programs offer to immigrant and refugee children, their rates of enrollment are significantly lower than for comparable children of U.S.-born parents (Matthews & Ewen,2006; Capps, et al, 2005; Brandon, 2002). The early care and education (ECE) system faces challenges in serving the youngest members of these new American families, particularly those who are English Language Learners (ELL). It is important for policymakers and child care providers to better understand the parents' work and child care needs, their cultural beliefs about child rearing and their perceptions about what their children need to get ready for school. ECE providers are keenly aware that the cultural sensitivity with which they care for the children who do enroll in their programs, as well as the degree to which they can successfully engage parents, has a bearing not only on the quality of care they provide but also on the likelihood that other immigrant parents will, through word of mouth, seek enrollment for their own children. Aided by a diverse Advisory Committee, this in-depth, exploratory study was conducted in two cities which reflect the varied experience with immigration across the country: Denver, Colorado, where we focused on Mexican immigrants and Portland, Maine, where we focused on three of the many refugee populations which have settled there: Cambodian, Somali and Sudanese children and families. Findings include an emphasis on exploring the concerns parents have about formal child care, differences in child rearing beliefs that influence decision making and implications for providers when classrooms have multiple cultures and languages spoken among the children with no one culture or language predominating. Research questions include: (1) What factors influence the child care choices of low income immigrant and refugee families of English Language Learners?; (2) How do immigrant and refugee parents' beliefs about child rearing, early education, and quality of care affect their decision to enroll their child and their choice among different care arrangements?; (3) How do broader cultural views (of the immigrant and refugee populations studied and western views) affect parental choice of care and satisfaction with care?; (4) To what extent do the practices of ECE providers and other service providers influence access to and choice of care?; (5) What are the perspectives of child care and other service providers about immigrants' choice of, access to and satisfaction with child care?; and (6) What are the effects of state and local policies on parental choice of, access to and satisfaction with care?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
New Model of School Readiness: A Multi-Faceted, Developmental Approach
A project that employs a series of longitudinal models to examine the importance of a multi-faceted definition of school readiness in the context of out-of-home child care environments. The definition of readiness includes children's development of social competence and executive functioning, and ability to adapt to the transition from child care to school. These competencies are evaluated for links from earlier longitudinal patterns of sensitive caregiving in child care, and examined for their contributions to children's development of academic and behavioral competence in elementary school. The project employs Phase I, II, and III of the data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. Study 1 examines individual differences in developmental trajectories of social competence and executive functioning from 24 months of age through second grade. Study 2 identifies the importance of early child care experiences that may contribute to children's individual differences in development of executive functioning and social competence. Study 3 builds on the first study, including social competence with peers and executive functioning. Study 4 utilizes data from the first three studies to investigate individual and family level risk factors.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Patchworks and Developmental Sequences: Impacts of Multiple Child Care Arrangements on Child Development
This ongoing study addresses examines relations between concurrent, multiple child care arrangements, or arrangement multiplicity, and young children's health. Specifically, a longitudinal, comprehensive dataset is used to relate changes in the number of children's child care arrangements to changes in children's communicable diseases and general health from birth through age 5. The mediating effect of peer exposure and the moderating effects of child gender and family income will be tested. It is expected that increases in the number of child care arrangements will be associated with increases in the incidence of children's communicable diseases and decreases in children's general health, and this relationship will be stronger among boys and those living in lower-income families. The research questions are: (1) Is the experience of multiple, concurrent child care settings related to increases in the incidence of communicable diseases and general health among children from birth through age 5?; (2) Is the relationship between arrangement multiplicity and child health mediated by the total number of children to which the child is exposed?; and (3) Is the relationship between arrangement multiplicity and child health stronger among boys and children from low-income families than among girls and children from higher-income families?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Promoting Educational Well-being of Young Children with Out-of-Home Placement Histories: The Protective Influence of Formal Early Childhood Learning Experiences
A project that seeks to understand: (1) the prevalence of out-of-home placement experiences in a cohort of kindergarten children; and (2) how formal early childhood experiences contribute to resilient outcomes for children in out-of-home placement. The first objective is to examine the prevalence of out-of-home placement experiences for a cohort of kindergarten children in a large, urban public school system. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between out-of-home placement experience and early academic competence. The third objective involves a similar process to investigate the relationship between out-of-home placement experience and academic engagement. The fourth objective is to determine the extent to which formal early childhood experiences contribute to the resilience of children who have been placed in out-of-home care during their first six years of life. This project provides an opportunity for a dialogue between child welfare and education professionals about identifying strategies to promote the educational well-being of children with out-of-home placement experiences, which could stimulate the development of policies that support access to formal early childhood experiences for young children with out-of-home placement experiences.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
The Relationship Between Early Childhood Caregivers' Beliefs About Child-Rearing and Young Children's Development: A Secondary Analysis of Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human development Study of Early Child Care
An examination of the child-rearing beliefs and authoritarian/non-authoritarian values of caregivers (center-based, family child care providers, grandparents, other relatives, and babysitters/nannies) in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (NICHD, 1994). The study furthers an understanding of non-parental caregivers' roles in young children's development. Findings may have social policy implications related to developing effective education and training programs for caregivers.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Role of Tribal Child Care Programs in Serving Children Birth to Five
An investigation of American Indian child care directors' perceptions in two areas: (1) the reservation community's efforts to promote and preserve cultural integrity in the local transmission of cultural values to children, aged birth to five, who are enrolled in tribal child care programs on American Indian reservations; and (2) how statewide quality improvement systems are (or are not) assisting them in their efforts to promote continuity of cultural education and quality child care. The project uses a multiple case study design wherein sixteen American Indian program directors from child care centers in tribal communities are divided into four equal groups defined by leadership experience and tribal affiliation/enrollment. The participants are all members of different tribes, representing sites located in diverse geographic regions, and selected to provide variation among different stages in their professional careers and different kinds and levels of challenge encountered in their work.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Sparking Connections: Oklahoma Tribal Connections
The mission of the Oklahoma Tribal Connection is to strengthen the capacity of families, relative providers, and parents in their role as the first and most important teachers of their young children. Participating tribes include Cherokee Nation, Choctaw Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, the Eastern Shawnee Tribe and the Delaware Tribe of Indians. These five tribes in Oklahoma, along with the Oklahoma Child Care Resource and Referral Association as the lead agency, participate in the second phase of the Families and Work Institute's National research and demonstration project called Sparking Connections which addresses the quality of family, friends, and neighbor care. The Family and Work Institute focus of the evaluation is a strict process evaluation, and the Child Care Bureau evaluation portion of the project is on outcomes. The five goals and objectives of the project are: (1) strengthening relative providers; (2) parent education and support; (3) partnerships; (4) respecting and preserving culture; and (5) positive outcomes for children. The five objectives are met by each tribe in a different capacity, and each tribe utilizes some or all of the following methods: provider training; newsletters; incentives; home visits; network meetings; resource libraries; focus groups; provision of health and safety equipment; provision of education materials; and cultural components. The report details specific strategies on how each tribe implements processes to improve the quality of relative care, and reviews quality improvement outcomes from Cherokee Nation based on focus groups and written surveys.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
