This study is to examine the long-term effects of early childhood education on the adult adaptation of persons born into low-income families and to identify factors associated with successful outcomes in their adult lives, particularly in relation to early childhood educational intervention. The proposal is to follow up two samples of individuals enrolled as infants in one of two prospective randomized trials of early childhood education for children at risk for school failure: The Abecedarian Project and Project CARE. The combined samples are 96% African American. For this follow-up, ages of the target persons will range from 28-30; a life stage where they are expected to have completed formal education and be establishing careers and families. Mediators of early childhood effects on adult functioning and the role of risk and protective factors will also be explored. Extant data sets cover the infancy, early childhood, and adolescence of the samples. Participants in both studies have been followed through age 12. For the Abecedarian study only, data were also collected at age 15 and 21 years. Significant educational and academic benefits related to early intervention were still seen for the latter in young adulthood but it was too early in their lives fully to describe the range of adult adaptation they would display. Including the CARE participants in this research on adult competence and adaptation will expand the number of cases enough to permit a more reliable estimate of the long-term effects of intensive early childhood education aswell as the testing of complex predictive models describing long-term development. New data to be collected here will describe adult adaptation in terms of educational levels, vocational success and economic circumstances, and socioemotional adjustment including mental health, psychological well-being, relationships with significant others, parenthood, and constructive life styles. Mediators of treatment effects on adult competence may include early cognitive development, academic progress, childhood behavioral adjustment, prior educational attainment, and the sense of mastery developed. Risk and protective factors may include parental characteristics (e.g., mental health), the quality of the early home environment, family stability in childhood, current stress, perceived social support, and experiences of racism. Procedures will include structured interviews, self-completed psychological scales and inventories, and a public records search.
| Campbell, Frances A; Pungello, Elizabeth P; Burchinal, Margaret et al. (2012) Adult outcomes as a function of an early childhood educational program: an Abecedarian Project follow-up. Dev Psychol 48:1033-43 |
| Pungello, Elizabeth P; Kainz, Kirsten; Burchinal, Margaret et al. (2010) Early educational intervention, early cumulative risk, and the early home environment as predictors of young adult outcomes within a high-risk sample. Child Dev 81:410-26 |
