The majority of children in the U.S. are cared for at least part-time by a non-relative on a regular basis before they enter kindergarten. The most common type of childcare used for very young children is family day care in a home, and the use of center day care increases with age of the child. Much of the care in these out-of home settings is of poor quality, and research has demonstrated that childcare quality is related to the child's cognitive and language outcomes. Young children from low-income families and of minority ethnic status may be more likely to experience childcare of lower quality than other children. Thus, many children in the U.S., particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, are cared for in settings that do not promote optimal cognitive and language development. In addition, some research suggests that the effects of childcare quality may be stronger for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our primary goal is to explore the relations among family factors, childcare quality, and cognitive outcomes. The proposed research is a collateral study to an ongoing longitudinal project funded by the National Science Foundation's Children's Research Initiative. This project, the Durham Child Health and Development Study (DCHDS) examines multiple levels of influence on communication and cognitive outcomes from infancy through age 3 years. The DCHDS will assess family processes and children's language and cognitive outcomes in a sample that includes 60 low-income African-American families, 40 middle-income African-American families, 60 low-income Euro-American families, and 40 middle-income Euro-American Families. In the proposed research, the quality of the out-of-home childcare settings experienced by the children in the DCHDS will be assessed from the age of 18 months through 3 years to examine: 1) the association between childcare quality and language and cognitive outcomes, and the moderating effects of family income and ethnicity on this relationship; 2) whether family processes associated with language stimulation in the home interact with childcare quality to influence children's language and cognitive outcomes; and 3) whether a discrepancy between parents' and childcare providers' authoritarian child-rearing beliefs is associated with lower language and cognitive outcomes. ? ?
