NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development: Phase IV, 2005-2007 [United States]

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the influence of variations in early childcare histories on the psychological development of infants and toddlers from a variety of family backgrounds. This general objective was addressed through a prospective, longitudinal study of the experiences of 1,364 children and their families, which took into account the complex interactions among child characteristics and those of the human and physical environments in which the children were reared. Research Goals The specific research aims were as follows: Examining the relationship between infants' childcare arrangements (defined in terms of hours, type, quality, and stability 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 between children's experiences in childcare and their social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. The social-emotional assessments included measures of attachment, independence, compliance, behavior problems, prosocial and antisocial behavior, and general competence in interacting with peers. Cognitive variables include general developmental level and problem solving skills. Language assessments incorporated measures of children's expressive and receptive communicative competence. Examining whether the social ecology of the home moderates the effects of childcare, i.e., whether children from different home environments are differentially affected by similar childcare experiences. The study examined the moderating effects of parents' values and attitudes, psychological adjustment and mental health, stress and social support, child-rearing practices, time use, interactions with the child, the marital relationship, and family demographics. Examining whether individual differences among children moderate the effects of infant care on child development. The study examined the moderating effects of such child characteristics as age, sex, health, birth order, and temperament. Identify demographic and family characteristics associated with families' childcare decisions. The study examined whether specific childcare arrangements are related to the parents' social class, marital status, psychological adjustment and personality, child-rearing values and attitudes, parenting practices, stress, social support, marital relationship, and the availability of childcare in the community. Provide a natural history of infant care in the 1990s, and help establish a baseline of data pertaining to the kinds of care being used by families. Whereas other national databases, such as those provided by the United States Census Bureau, provide static estimates of the number of children in different types of childcare, this network study supplements that knowledge with longitudinal data on successive enrollments into day care at various ages, patterns of arrangements used concurrently and over time, and the stability of arrangements during the first three years of life. One of the most valuable aspects of the collaborative study is the opportunity it provides to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of patterns of infant care used by families today. Census surveys use only gross categories of care (e.g., center vs. in-home). In this study, more fine-grained information regarding the types of centers and home-care facilities was gathered. Examine the consequences for families of maternal employment and childcare choices. Family relationships, parental mental health, family stress, and so on, are not just inputs to child development or moderators of childcare effects, they are also outcomes. High-quality childcare may alleviate family stress and enhance parental adjustment. Low-quality childcare may add to the stress parents experience. Although the main focus in the study was on the effect of childcare on the child, the study also examined the effect of childcare on the family. Identify demographic characteristics of childcare associated with childcare quality. Of interest to policy makers is another aspect of the study, the investigation of those regulatory characteristics that predict care of higher quality. These characteristics included the level and type of caregiver training, the size of the childcare group, the auspices of the childcare program (public/private, profit/nonprofit, independent/chain, em

本研究的总体目标在于审视早期儿童保育历史在不同家庭背景下的婴幼儿心理发展的影响。此一研究宗旨通过一项前瞻性、纵向研究1364名儿童及其家庭的经验来实现，该研究综合考虑了儿童特征与抚养儿童的人类及物理环境之间复杂的相互作用。研究目标具体研究目标如下：探究儿童保育安排（包括保育时间、类型、质量、稳定性以及儿童开始保育的年龄）与儿童当前及长期发展之间的关系。具体而言，研究调查了儿童在保育环境中的经历与其社交、情感、语言和认知发展的关联。社会情感评估包括依恋、独立性、顺从性、行为问题、亲社会和反社会行为以及与同龄人互动的总体能力等方面的衡量。认知变量包括一般发展水平和问题解决技能。语言评估纳入了衡量儿童表达性和接受性沟通能力的指标。探究家庭社会生态是否调节了保育的影响，即不同家庭环境中的儿童是否受到类似保育经历的差异化影响。研究考察了父母价值观和态度、心理调适和心理健康、压力和社会支持、育儿实践、时间利用、与儿童的互动、婚姻关系以及家庭人口统计学等因素的调节作用。探究儿童个体差异是否调节了婴儿保育对儿童发展的影响。研究考察了年龄、性别、健康状况、出生顺序和气质等儿童特征的调节作用。识别与家庭保育决策相关的人口统计学和家庭特征。研究考察了特定的保育安排是否与父母的社会阶级、婚姻状况、心理调适和人格、育儿价值观和态度、育儿实践、压力、社会支持、婚姻关系以及社区保育的可用性相关。提供20世纪90年代婴儿保育的自然史，并帮助建立有关家庭使用保育类型的数据基线。尽管其他国家数据库，如美国人口普查局提供的数据，提供了不同类型保育的儿童数量静态估计，但本网络研究通过纵向数据补充了这方面的知识，包括不同年龄段儿童日托的连续登记、同时和随时间变化的安排模式以及生命头三年的安排稳定性。协作研究的最有价值之处在于，它提供了获取更全面、更准确的家庭当前使用的婴儿保育模式的全景图的机会。普查调查仅使用粗略的保育类别（例如，中心对家庭）。在本研究中，收集了关于中心类型和家庭护理设施类型的更细致信息。考察母亲就业和保育选择对家庭的影响。家庭关系、父母心理健康、家庭压力等不仅是儿童发展的输入或保育效应的调节因素，也是结果。高质量的保育可以缓解家庭压力并提高父母的调适。低质量的保育可能会增加父母所经历的压力。尽管研究的主要焦点是保育对儿童的影响，但研究也考察了保育对家庭的影响。识别与保育质量相关的保育人口统计学特征。对政策制定者而言，研究的一个方面是调查预测高质量保育的监管特征。这些特征包括护理人员的培训水平和类型、保育小组的大小、保育项目的赞助（公立/私立、盈利/非盈利、独立/连锁）以及...