Across two different domains, mother-child interaction and children's cognitive and language development, three questions were addressed: 1) Is child care related to qualities of mother-child interaction and the child's cognitive and language development in the first three years of life after considering variable related to both child care use and the outcomes (selection variables) and other family and child characteristics? 2) Does the child care environment interact with the home environment in prediction of these outcomes? and 3) What specific characteristics of child care are related to outcomes in these two domains?

Children were assessed at 6, 15, 24, and 36 months of age. Assessments included observations of the child's child care environment, of the mother and child during a structured interaction, of the child's home environment, and standardized measures of the child's cognitive and language development. The analysis model involved: selection variables (family characteristics related to both child care and outcome), child variables (gender and/or temperament), additional family variables related to the outcome, and child care variables (including both structural and process measures). Hierarchical regressions were used to examine the association between the selected child care variables and the outcomes in the two domains after selection, child, and family variables were controlled.

Results indicted that the selection, child, and family variables, entered before child care variables in our predictive equations, were consistently significant predictors of both mother-child interaction and cognitive and language outcomes. Child care variables consistently made additional significant, though usually smaller, contribution to explaining individual differences in these outcomes. Child care variables, especially positive caregiving and language stimulation, contributed between 1.3% and 3.6% of the variance to early cognitive and language development in the first three years of life. However, all the predictors in the analysis accounted for between 5% and 41% of the variance. Similarly, in prediction of qualities of mother-child interaction, when significant, child care variables accounted for approximately 0.5% to 1% of the variance. However, all the predictors in analyses accounted for between 5% and 25% of the variances. Nonetheless, for both mother-child interaction and cognitive and language outcomes, there were consistent effects of child care variables, especially quality and quantity, after controlling for selection, family, and child characteristics.

Major findings with regard to child care variables included:

Quality of provider-child interaction was related to better cognitive and language scores and to more positive mother-child interactions across the first three years. These effects were generally small, but statistically significant.

Specifically, more positive caregiving, and especially, language stimulation in the child care setting were related to children's better performance on cognitive and language tests when they were 15, 24, and 36 moths of age. More positive caregiving in the child care setting was related to more sensitivity and involvement of mothers observed with their child at 15 and 36 months.

Amount of child care was associated with less sensitive and engaging mother-child interactions across the first three years. Again, these effects were small, but significant. Amount of care was unrelated to the cognitive and language outcomes.

Specifically, more hours of non-maternal care were related to less sensitive play of the mother with the child at 6 and 36 months, more maternal negativity at 15 months, and less child affection toward the mother at 24 and 36 months. These finds seemed to hold particularly for the subgroup of mothers who were not at risk due to poverty or depression.

In summary, although family and child predictors generally contributed a larger proportion of total variance in predicting mother-child interaction and cognitive and language outcomes, child care predictors consistently explained an additional small, significant amount of variance. In other words, what is happening at home and in families appears to influence children's lives, both for those in child care and for those who are not. Still, child care variables provided additional, significant prediction of mother-child interaction and cognitive and language outcomes.

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• Nancy Keefe nkeefe@wellesley.edu
• The Early Childhood Connection, The Center for Research on Women
• Date Created: October 4, 1997
• Last Modified: October 4, 1997
• Expires: October 4, 1998