NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Phase III, 2000-2004 [United States]

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the influence ofvariations in early childcare histories on the psychologicaldevelopment of infants and toddlers from a variety of familybackgrounds. This general objective was addressed through aprospective, longitudinal study of the experiences of 1,364 children andtheir families, which took into account thecomplex interactions among child characteristics and thoseof the human and physical environments in whichthe children were reared.Research GoalsThe specific research aims were as follows:Examining the relationship between infants' childcarearrangements (defined in terms of hours, type, quality, andstability of care and the age at which the child entered care)and children's concurrent and long-term development.Specifically, the study investigated the association betweenchildren's experiences in childcare and their social, emotional,language, and cognitive development. The social-emotionalassessments included measures of attachment, independence,compliance, behavior problems, prosocial and antisocial behavior,and general competence in interacting with peers. Cognitive variablesinclude general developmental level and problem solving skills. Languageassessments incorporated measures of children's expressive and receptive communicative competence.; Examining whether the social ecology of the homemoderates the effects of childcare, i.e., whether childrenfrom different home environments are differentially affected bysimilar childcare experiences. The study examined themoderating effects of parents' values and attitudes,psychological adjustment and mental health, stress and socialsupport, child-rearing practices, time use, interactions with thechild, the marital relationship, and family demographics.; Examining whether individual differences among childrenmoderate the effects of infant care on child development. Thestudy examined the moderating effects of such childcharacteristics as age, sex, health, birth order, andtemperament.; Identify demographic and family characteristicsassociated with families' childcare decisions. The study examined whetherspecific childcare arrangements are related tothe parents' social class, marital status, psychologicaladjustment and personality, child-rearing values and attitudes,parenting practices, stress, social support, maritalrelationship, and the availability of childcare in the community.; Provide a natural history of infant care in the1990s, and help establish a baseline of data pertaining to thekinds of care being used by families. Whereas other nationaldatabases, such as those provided by the United States Census Bureau, providestatic estimates of the number of children in different types ofchildcare, this network study supplements that knowledgewith longitudinal data on successive enrollments into day care atvarious ages, patterns of arrangements used concurrently and overtime, and the stability of arrangements during the first threeyears of life. One of the most valuable aspects of thecollaborative study is the opportunity it provides to obtain amore complete and accurate picture of patterns of infant careused by families today. Census surveys use only gross categoriesof care (e.g., center vs. in-home). In this study, more fine-grainedinformation regarding the types of centers and home-carefacilities was gathered.; Examine the consequences for families of maternalemployment and childcare choices. Family relationships,parental mental health, family stress, and so on, are not justinputs to child development or moderators of childcare effects,they are also outcomes. High-quality childcare may alleviatefamily stress and enhance parental adjustment. Low-quality childcare may add to the stress parents experience. Although the mainfocus in the study was on the effect of childcare on the child, thestudy also examined the effect of childcare on the family.; Identify demographic characteristics of childcareassociated with childcare quality. Of interest to policy makersis another aspect of the study, the investigation of thoseregulatory characteristics that predict care of higher quality.These characteristics included the level and type of caregivertraining, the size of the childcare group, the auspices of thechildcare program (public/private, profit/nonprofit,independent/chain, employer-sponsored/church-based), whether thefacility was licensed or unlicensed, the level of payment andfees, and whether the caregiver was a relative of the family.; Data File Organization504 data files were compiled for this study and are organized into 4 main groups:Analytical Data Sets (ADS) -- The raw data were examined and composites defined by small groups of individual principal investigators according to the demographic, family, childcare, and child outcome content of the data. The psychometric and distributional qualities of the variables along with site differences were examined. A set of variables that was psychometrically and distributionally acceptable to be used in analytic analyses was designed to test the study hypotheses. These data files comprise Parts 1-49 of the study data material.; Supplemental Data Sets -- New and revised analysis variables as well as across-time mean scores and primary composites were produced as a supplement to the original Analytical Data Sets. These data files comprise Parts 50-55 of the study data material.; Raw Census-Related Data Sets -- Files were produced using geocoded addresses for survey respondents to match block group level data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses for investigators to create additional measures of interest from the geocoded addresses. These data files comprise Parts 56-58 of the study data material.; Raw Data Sets -- The raw data were made available and comprise Parts 59-505 of the study data material.; Training WorkshopA three-day summer training workshop on the SECCYD was put on by NICHD at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010. The binder from that workshop, which includes the Powerpoint slides used during presentations, are freely available to the public as part of the study documentation.