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The NICHD Study of Early Child Care

The NICHD Study of

Early

Child Care

About the NICHD Study 

of Early Child Care

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care is the most comprehensive child care study conducted to date to determine how 

variations in child care are related to children’s development. In 1991, a team of NICHD-supported researchers enrolled 

1,364 children in the study and have now followed most of them through the first seven years of their lives. Over the past two 

years, the research team has presented its findings on the relationship between child care and children’s development 

through the age of three, and will continue to analyze the information they have gathered from the 10 child care study sites 

across the U.S.

Prepared by Robin Peth-Pierce 

Public Information and 

Communications Branch, NICHD

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Percentage of Women 

in the Workforce, 1975-1995, 

(with children under six years of age)

Child Care in the United States

Child care is becoming a fact of life for 

many American families. As increasing 

numbers of women enter and remain in 

the work force after pregnancy, and more 

are single parents, more families are 

relying on non-maternal care for their 

infants and children. In 1975, 39% of 

mothers with children under six years of 

age worked outside the home; today, 62% 

of mothers do so (Bureau of Labor 

Statistics). Since most of these mothers 

return to work in their child’s first three to 

five months of life, their children spend 

much of their early lives in a variety of 

child care situations.

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NICHD Study of Early Child Care Sites

In the wake of this increasing use of early child care, parents, psychologists, 

and policy makers began questioning the relationship between early child 

care and children’s development, asking fundamental questions about the 

effects of early child care. Some child care experts have argued that child 

care poses risks for infants because healthy development requires care 

giving by a single person. Yet others have said that children may thrive in 

child care — of high quality. Some contend that child care arrangements do 

not affect development — unless the care is of very poor quality.

These differing views about the relationship between early child care and 

children’s development have been argued for many years, but no one team 

or investigator had, until now, examined a large diverse group of children 

prospectively from birth to find out how variations in family characteristics, in 

child characteristics, and in child care characteristics influence 

developmental outcomes in the same children over several years.

Aware of the growing use of child care and the increasing public and 

congressional concern about this issue, the National Institute of Child Health 

and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health, U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services, set out to develop a 

comprehensive, longitudinal study about the relationship between the child 

care experience of children and their development over time. In 1989, the 

NICHD issued a request for applications (RFA), inviting the scientific 

community to participate with NICHD in a multi-site cooperative research 

endeavor, now known as the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. The goal of 

the study: to answer the many questions about the relationship 

between child care experiences and characteristics — and children’s 

developmental outcomes. Child care characteristics include the age of 

entry into care, quantity of care, stability of care, quality of care, and type of 

care; other aspects of child care, such as the provider’s education and 

training, the adult to child ratio, group size, safety and health issues, were 

also included. After a thorough scientific review of the applications, the 

NICHD selected a research team located at universities across the U.S. and 

at the NICHD, together providing multiple perspectives on and interests in 

child care research. This team of researchers worked cooperatively to 

design and implement the study, and in 1991, enrolled a very diverse sample 

of children and their families at 10 locations across the U.S.

Scientific decisions regarding the implementation of the study were made by 

the Steering Committee of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. The 

committee includes the researchers from the data collection sites at the 

universities across the country, the NICHD Scientific Study Coordinator/

researcher, as well as the directors of the data coordinating and analysis 

centers, and is chaired by an independent developmental psychologist, who 

is not one of the study investigators. An ad hoc Advisory Panel was also 

created to review the research plan and implementation.

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care is the most comprehensive child care 

study conducted to date in the U.S. and is characterized by a complex and 

detailed study design which takes into account many variables, including 

characteristics of the child care and the family environment. Researchers 

are assessing children’s development using multiple methods (trained 

observers, interviews, questionnaires and testing) and measuring many 

facets of children’s development (social, emotional, intellectual, language 

development, behavior problems and adjustment, and physical health). 

Finally, researchers are following the children, measuring their development 

at frequent intervals during their first seven years of life.

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Currently, the researchers are analyzing the information they have collected 

to determine the relationship between child care and children’s development, 

taking into account not only the child care environment, but the home and 

family, as well as individual differences among children.

What Questions Will the NICHD Study of Early Child Care

Answer?

A major way this study contributes to our understanding of the relationship 

between child care and children’s development is by moving beyond the 

global questions about whether child care is good — or bad — for 

children. Instead, the study focuses on how the different aspects of care — 

such as quantity and quality — are related to various aspects of childrens 

development. More specifically, researchers are evaluating the relationship 

between child care and children’s cognitive and language development, 

children’s relationship with their mothers, and their self-control, compliance 

and problem behaviors, as well as peer relations and physical health.

The Study will Answer These Questions:

● Which family characteristics 

influence how early children are 

placed in care, how many hours 

they spend in care, how many 

care arrangements they are 

experiencing over time, and the 

quality of care they receive? 

 

● What is the relationship 

between the aspects of child 

care that are possible to 

regulate and the quality of care 

children receive in child care? 

 

● Is the family influence on 

children’s development 

diminished when children are in 

extensive child care — as 

compared to being cared for 

exclusively by their mothers?

● Is the average number of 

hours that children spend in 

child care associated with their 

psychological development or 

their physical health? 

 

● Is the quality of the child care 

experience associated with the 

psychological or health 

development of children? 

 

● Are past experiences in child 

care predictive of later 

psychological or health 

outcomes?

● Is the age of entry into care, the 

number of care arrangements, 

and type of care associated with 

children’s psychological 

development or their physical 

health? 

 

● Is the relationship between child 

care and children’s development 

different for disadvantaged and/

or for minority children? 

 

● Are there certain time periods in 

children’s lives in which child 

care experiences are more 

important for their psychological 

or health development?

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Ethnicity of Children Enrolled

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care, 1991

The Children and Families Enrolled in the Study: Who are 

They?

A total of 1,364 children and their families from diverse economic 

and ethnic backgrounds across the United States were enrolled in 

the study beginning in 1991. Recruited from 10 locations 

throughout the country, the families vary in socioeconomic 

background, race, and family structure. About 76% of the families 

are white of non-Hispanic origin, nearly 13% of families are black, 

6% are of Hispanic origin, 1% are Asian/Pacific Islanders/

American Indians, and 4% are other minorities, mirroring the 

United States population overall. This diversity allows the research 

team to investigate the possibility that children from different ethnic 

backgrounds may be affected in different ways by the different 

characteristics of child care.

In addition to ensuring that the families reflected racial diversity, 

the research team included mothers and their partners with a wide 

variety of educational attainment. About 10% of the mothers had 

less than a 12th grade education, slightly over 20% of the mothers 

had a high school diploma, one-third had some college, 20% had a 

college degree, and 15% had a graduate or professional degree 

(compared with 24%, 30%, 27%, 12% and 6% respectively, in the 

U.S. population).

In terms of socioeconomic status, families in the study had a mean 

income of $37,781, as compared to a mean income of $36,875 for 

families in the U.S. About 20% of the study participants were 

receiving public assistance.

Type of Child Care Used

(6 Months of Age)

Type of Child Care Used 

(36 Months of Age)

What Type of Child Care Was Used

by Study Participants?

In the study, parents — rather than the researchers—-selected the 

type and timing of child care that their children received, and, in 

fact, families were enrolled in the study without regard to their 

plans for child care. Children were placed in a wide variety of child 

care settings: care by fathers, other relatives, in-home care givers, 

child care home providers, and center-based care. These child 

care situations varied, from a formally trained nanny caring for a 

single child to a center-based program with a group of children. 

Close to half of the infants were cared for by a relative when they 

first entered care, but there was a discernible shift towards 

reliance on child care centers and family day care homes during 

the course of, as well as after, the first year of life.

Just as there was no attempt by the study to control or select for 

type of care, there was no attempt to control or select for quality of 

care. Quality was measured in several ways and was highly 

variable, but since there is no study that has assessed quality of 

child care on a national basis, there is no way to judge precisely 

how representative the care in this study is of child care nationally.

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In this study, researchers are asking about 

the unique contribution that child care 

characteristics and experiences make to 

children’s development -- above and beyond 

the contributions made by the family and 

child characteristics.

What Information about Child Care, the Family, and the 

Child did Researchers Consider?

The research team collected and studied many different types of 

information about many characteristics of the children and their 

environment. The researchers assessed the child care characteristics, 

such as the adult to child ratio, the group size, and the child care 

experience of each child, including the quality of care and number of hours 

spent in care, the age of entry into care, as well as the number of different 

child care settings a child entered simultaneously and over time. Family 

characteristics were also assessed, including the family’s economic 

situation, family structure (single parent vs. partnered parent), and 

maternal vocabulary (a proxy for intelligence). Other family variables 

included in the analyses were the mother’s education, her psychological 

adjustment (as measured by a questionnaire) and her child rearing 

attitudes, the quality of mother-child interaction, and the extent to which 

the home environment contributed to the optimal development of children. 

Various aspects of individual children, such as their gender and their 

temperament, were also considered.

In this study, researchers are asking about the unique contribution 

that child care characteristics and experiences make to children’s 

development — above and beyond the contributions made by the 

family and child characteristics. Previous studies have established that, 

in general, the quality of care children get in the family environment is very 

similar to the quality they receive in child care. Therefore, the research 

team focused on determining the added contribution of child care to 

children’s development.

Because the data were analyzed many different ways to answer the many 

different research questions about children’s development, not every 

variable was included in each analysis; for each summary of findings 

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reported below, the list of relevant variables used is noted.

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care:

What Have We Learned?

Using multiple sources of information (parents, child care providers, 

trained observers and testers), the research team collected detailed 

information about the family environment, the child care environment, and 

children’s development, as well as their physical growth and health status 

over their first seven years.

Several articles about the study have been published to date in scientific 

journals, listed in the bibliography (appended), and other findings have 

been presented at scientific meetings and are now being prepared for 

publication. These articles, co-authored by the research team of the 

NICHD Study of Early Child Care, cover a wide range of research 

questions.

The research findings can be categorized into four main categories. The 

first set of descriptive findings paints a picture of the care that children in 

the NICHD study are receiving. This includes a look at the "regulable" 

characteristics of care, like the adult to child ratio, the patterns of care 

used during the first year of life, and child care for children in poverty. 

Other categories include the role of family for children in child care, child 

care and its relationship to children’s development, and child care 

and children’s relationship with their mothers. Within these categories 

are findings related to the extent to which child care experiences are 

associated with different developmental outcomes for low income children, 

as compared to more affluent children, and for minority children, as 

compared to white, non-Hispanic children. There are also comparisons of 

current and past child care experiences as predictors of children’s 

performance or mother-child interaction.

Findings from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care

(Spring 1998)

A Description of Child Care in the NICHD Study

1. The history of child care experiences across the first year of life1

2. Poverty as a predictor of child care experience4

3. Child care characteristics that can be regulated and their relationsip 

to positive care giving experienced by infants3 

The Role of Family

4. The association between family characteristics and age of entry 

into care, the number of care arrangements, and the quantity and 

quality of nonmaternal care3 

5. A comparison of family influences on children in less than 10 hours 

of nonmateranl care with those in more than 30 hours of 

nonmaternal care10

Child Care and the Mother-Child Relationship

6. The association between child care and children's attachment to 

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ther mother when they are 15 months old8

7. The association between child care and mother-child interaction 

over the first three years of life11,12 

Child Care Characteristics and Children's Developmental Outcomes

8. The association between child care and children's compliance, selfcontrol and problem behavior over the first three years of life13

9. The association between child care and children's cognitive and 

language development over the first three years of life14

10. The association between indices of quality of care that can be 

regulated and the social and cognitive development of children in 

the first three years of life9

A Description of Child Care in the NICHD Study

1 The History of Child Care Experiences Across the First Year of 

Life

The number of hours children spent in care varied. On average, each 

child in care received 33 hours of care per week, but his varied with 

ethnicity of the child and the family. White non-Hispanics averaged the 

fewest hours of care and black non-Hispanics the most; white Hispanics 

and others fell in between.

In general, most infants experienced more than one type of child care 

arrangement during the first year. When they first entered care, close to 

half of the infants were cared for either by a father/partner or grandparent, 

just over 20% were placed in a child care home, and only 8% were placed 

in center care. Most infants were placed in care prior to 4 months of age.

Overall, the findings indicate a very high reliance on infant care, with very 

early entry into care. Most infants spent the first year of their lives not in 

center care, but in less formal care arrangements.

2 Does Poverty Predict the Child Care Experience?

Nearly 35 percent of the families and children included in the study were 

living in poverty or near-poverty. Poverty was defined using the income-toneeds ratio, a standard measure of a family's economic situation (U.S. 

Department of Commerce). This is computed by taking the family 

income, exclusive of federal aid, and dividing this by the federal poverty 

threshold for that family (the federal poverty line for a family of four in 1991 

was $13,924). Of the families in the study, 16.7% had an income-to-needs 

ratio below 1.0, and 18.4% had an income to needs ration between 1.0 

and 1.99.

The research team asked if poverty during the child's first year of life was 

a predictor of age of entry into care, type of care experienced, and quantity 

or quality of care used. Families and children in poverty (income-to-needs 

ratio 1.0) were compared to those families and children in near-poverty 

(income-to-needs ration of 1.0-1.99) or more affluent families, to determine 

if poverty determined the characteristics of the child care used.

With regard to the age of entry into care, families who moved in and out of 

poverty — known as transitory poverty — were most likely to place their 

infants in child care very early, before 3 months of age. The research team 

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hypothesized that this early entry into care is due to the fact that extensive 

maternal employment may be required to pull the family out of poverty. 

Infants from families who were consistently poor and receiving public 

assistance over 15 months were less likely to enter care early or to be in 

any care at 15 months of age.

Families living in poverty were less likely to use any child care than other 

families, but if they did, they used just as many hours of care as children 

from other income groups. Children who were not in care by months of 

age had mothers with the lowest level of education and were from the 

largest families. These families also tended to experience persistent 

poverty.

In general, children from families in poverty who were cared for in home 

settings (by a child care home provider or family member) received 

relatively low-quality care. Children from families living in poverty who 

attended center care received better quality care —comparable to the 

center care received by affluent children. Children in near-poverty (income 

to needs ratio between 1.00 —1.99) received lower quality of center care 

than children in poverty, presumably because those in near-poverty do not 

qualify for the subsidized care that those in poverty do.

In sum, partly because in the first year of life most infants are not in center 

care, infants from poor and near-poor families are more likely to receive 

relatively lower quality care.

3 Child Care Characteristics that Comprise High Quality of Care

The research team studied the different child care settings to determine 

those characteristics that contributed to positive care giving, and thus, high 

quality care. Positive care giving is measured by observing and 

documenting the frequency of interaction, and then rating the quality of the 

interaction. The child care settings were also measured both in terms of 

their "regulable" characteristics, or guidelines recommended by 

governments, such as group size, child-adult ratio, and physical 

environment; and of the care giver's characteristics, such as formal 

education, specialized training, child care experience, and beliefs about 

child rearing.

The research team found that child care situations with safer, cleaner, 

more stimulating physical environments and smaller group sizes, lower 

child-adult ratios, and care givers who allowed children to express their 

feelings and took their views into account, also had care givers who were 

observed to provide more sensitive, responsive, and cognitively 

stimulating care -- quality of care that was expected to be associated with 

better developmental outcomes for children.

The Role of the Family

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4 Demographic and Family Characteristics: Do They Predict the 

Type of Care Used?

One of the objectives of the study was to determine the extent to which 

demographic and family variables predict the type of care that is used by 

each family. The research team examined three sets of variables, 

including demographic characteristics (ethnicity, maternal education, 

and family structure), economic characteristics (maternal and 

nonmaternal income) and family quality characteristics (maternal 

attitudes and beliefs and the quality of the home environment) to 

determine their relationship to the age of entry, and type, quantity and 

quality of care.

Family economics accounted primarily for both the amount, the age of 

entry into care and type and quality of care infants received. Families 

more dependent on a mother’s income placed their infants in child care at 

an earlier age, and used more hours of care than families less dependent 

on a mother’s income. Employed mothers who earned the highest 

incomes were most likely to place their infants in early care at 3-5 months, 

and were most likely to use in-home child care for the first 15 months. 

Children from families at the lowest and highest income levels received 

higher quality of care than those in the middle.

Beyond the economic factors (maternal and family income), mothers who 

believed that their children would do well when they were employed chose 

to begin child care in infancy and to use more care. Those who thought 

their employment posed risks to their child, tended to choose informal 

family-based or in-home care; those mothers who thought employment 

posed low risks to their child were more likely to use formal care in child 

care centers or homes.

5 Family Influences on Children in Extensive Child Care and 

Children in Nearly Exclusive Care by their Mother

Another objective of the study was to compare the influence of family on 

children's development for children both in nearly exclusive care by their 

mother (less that 10 hours of child care per week) and children in 

extensive child care (more than 30 hours of child care per week).

Family characteristics, including the family income and the mother's 

education, were strong predictors of children's outcomes -- for both those 

children in nearly exclusive maternal care, and those children in extensive 

child care. These findings suggest that the influence of families on 

children's development is not significantly reduced or changed by 

extensive, nonparental care.

Child Care and the Mother-Child Relationship

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6 The Relationship between Child Care and Mother-Child 

Attachment

The research team examined several child care variables, including the 

amount of care, the age of entry into care, and the type of care, to 

determine how these factors were related to infants’ attachment to their 

mothers. Attachment is the sense of trust the infant has in his or her 

mother.

The research team found that child care in and of itself neither adversely 

affects nor promotes the security of infants’ attachment to their mothers at 

the 15-month-age point. Researchers measured infants’ attachment to 

their mothers using a standard 30-minute procedure of separating and 

reuniting the mother and child.

Certain child care conditions, in combination with certain home 

environments, did increase the probability that infants would be insecurely 

attached to their mothers. Infants who received either poor quality of care, 

more than 10 hours per week of care, or were in more than one child care 

setting in the first 15 months of life, were more likely to be insecurely 

attached, only if their mothers were lower in sensitivity. For example, when 

both the mothers and the child care providers fell in the bottom 25% of the 

sample in terms of providing sensitive care to the child, the likelihood that 

the children would be securely attached was only 45%, in contrast to those 

with more sensitive mothers and care givers, among whom 62% were 

securely attached.

7 Child Care and the Quality of the Mother-Child Interaction

In addition to analyzing children’s attachment to their mothers, the 

research team also studied the relationship between child care and the 

mother-child interaction, or interchanges between the mother and child. 

Maternal behaviors that were studied pertained to mothers’ sensitivity, 

positive involvement and negativity. Children’s behaviors were observed to 

assess their involvement. Researchers analyzed child care quality, 

quantity and family characteristics (maternal education and income) to 

determine their relationship to the mother-child interaction when the 

children were 6, 15, 24, and 36 months of age.

Mother-child interaction was evaluated by videotaping mother and child 

together during play and at home and observing the mother’s behavior 

toward the child to see how attentive, responsive, positively affectionate or 

restrictive the mother was when faced with multiple competing tasks (i.e., 

monitoring child, talking with interviewer).

Researchers found that the quality and amount of child care had a small 

but statistically significant relationship to the quality of the mother-child 

interaction. An increased amount of child care was modestly associated 

with less sensitive and less engaged mother-child interactions. Throughout 

the first three years of the children’s lives, spending more hours in 

nonmaternal care was associated with somewhat less positive behaviors 

of the mother toward the child. Toddlers in longer hours of child care were 

slightly less engaged with their mothers.

The association that was found between the full history of the quantity of 

care and mother-child interaction led the research team to ask if the 

quantity of care in the earlier time periods was associated with subsequent 

qualities of mother-child interaction. The researchers found that more 

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hours of care in the first 6 months of life were associated with lower 

maternal sensitivity and lower child positive engagement at 36 months. 

However, a combination of family and home characteristics, including 

income, maternal education, two parent family status, maternal separation 

anxiety, and maternal depression, predicted the quality of mother-child 

interaction more than the children’s experiences in child care.

Higher quality child care (positive provider-child interaction) modestly 

predicted greater involvement and sensitivity by the mother (at 15 and 36 

months) and greater positive engagement of the child with the mother (at 

36 months). Low-income mothers using full-time higher quality care had 

higher positive involvement at 6 months than low-income mothers not 

using care or those using lower-quality full-time care.

Child Care Characteristics and Children's Developmental 

Outcomes

8 Child Care and Compliance, Self-Control and Problem Behavior

Child care characteristics (quality, quantity, age of entry into care, type 

and stability) and family characteristics were studied to determine how 

they were related to children’s self-control, compliance and problem 

behavior. Researchers found that characteristics of the family--particularly 

the sensitivity of the mother — were stronger predictors of children’s 

behavior than their child care experience.

Researchers determined that such child care characteristics were, at best, 

modest predictors of children’s problem behavioir compliance and selfcontrol. Child care quality was the most consistent predictor of children’s 

behavior. Children in care receiving more sensitive and responsive 

attention had fewer caregiver-reported problems at age two and three.

Although more hours in care during the first two years predicted greater 

caregiverreported problems at age two, these effects disappeared by age 

three. Children who spent more time in group arrangements with more 

than three other children had fewer behavior problems (as reported by the 

caregiver) and were observed to be more cooperative in child care.

Summary Table of Findings, Child Care and Children's Development

Attachment Parent-Child 

Relationships

Cooperation Problem 

Behaviors

Cognitive 

Development 

and School 

Readiness

Language 

Development

Quality + + +

Amount

Type + +

Stability

* Results after taking into account all family and child variables. 

+ Consistent effects Effects under some conditions

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9 Child Care and Children's Cognitive and Language 

Development in the First Three Years of Life

Another main goal of the study was to determine if child care 

characteristics (quality, number of hours in care, type-stability) predict 

children's cognitive and language development, as well as school 

readiness. Children's cognitive development and school readiness were 

measured using standardized tests; language development was assessed 

using standardized tests and maternal reports. Quality child care was 

defined as positive care giving and language stimulation--how often care 

givers spoke to children, asked, and responded to children's questions.

The quality of child care over the first three years of life is consistently but 

modestly associated with children's cognitive and language development. 

The higher the quality of child care (more positive language stimulation 

and interaction between the child and provider), the greater the child's 

language abilities at 15, 24, and 36 months, the better the child's cognitive 

development at age two, and the more school readiness the child showed 

at age three.

However, again, the combination of family income, maternal vocabulary, 

home environment, and maternal cognitive stimulation were stronger 

predictors of children's cognitive development at 15, 24, and 36 months of 

age and of language development at 36 months.

In terms of cognitive and language development, researchers found no 

benefit for children in exclusive care by their mother. Among children in 

care for more than 10 hours per week, those in center care, and to a 

lesser extent, those in child care homes, performed better on cognitive 

and language measures than children in other types of care, when the 

quality of the care giver-child interaction was taken into account. Child 

care experiences did not predict differently the cognitive, language or 

school readiness level of children from varying income groups or ethnic 

backgrounds.

10 Characteristics of Child Care That Can Be Regulated and Child 

Development

Another objective of the study was to determine the relationship between 

the "regulable" aspects of child care centers and children’s development. 

The center care regulable aspects included in the analysis were the childstaff ratio, the group size, teacher training, and the teacher education, as 

recommended by professional organizations of educators, pediatricians 

and public health professionals.

The research team found that most child care center classes did not meet 

all four recommended guidelines for child-staff ratios, group sizes, teacher 

training, and teacher education. Children in centers that met more 

guidelines had better language comprehension and school readiness. 

They also had fewer behavior problems at 24 and 36 months. Children in 

classes that met none of the guidelines fell below average in their 

performance on these tests.

Summary

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Early child care 

experiences for 

children do matter.

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care has enrolled more than 1,300 

children and followed most of them through the first seven years of their 

lives to determine how variations in child care are related to their 

development. Scientific papers to date focus on the children’s first three 

years of life. The child care settings children were placed in were selected 

by their families, based on the availability and affordability of child care in 

their communities; children were not randomly assigned to different types, 

amounts, or quality of care. The families were representative of the U.S. 

population as a whole on many demographic features.

In the NICHD study, and in the families across the nation, the quality of the 

family circumstances and family environment strongly predict care they 

choose for their children. Therefore, the research team focused on 

determining the unique contribution of child care to the development of 

children, over and above the important and well-recognized association 

between family characteristics and circumstances and children’s 

developmental outcomes.

The findings from this study will provide some answers to the many 

questions about child care. We now have a picture of what child care looks 

like for many American families — a snapshot of how often and how early 

children are placed in care, as well as the type of child care arrangements 

many families use today. The researchers have also looked at the 

relationship between family characteristics and children’s development for 

children in extensive child care —and those in nearly exclusive maternal 

care. They have assessed whether family characteristics predict the child 

care experience their infants and toddlers receive. Finally, the researchers 

have examined the child care characteristics and their relationship to 

children’s intellectual development, language development, and school 

readiness, as well as the association between child care characteristics 

and the mother-child relationship.

The research team looked for the added --or subtracted – value of child 

care to children’s development, above and beyond the contribution made 

by the family and individual child characteristics. In general, family 

characteristics and the quality of the mother’s relationship with the child 

were stronger predictors of children’s development than child care factors. 

This held true for families whether their children were in extensive child 

care or cared for primarily by their mothers.

Researchers found that some child care characteristics or experiences do 

contribute, though only slightly, to children’s development, as can be seen 

in the Summary Table of Findings to date (p. 18) from the NICHD Study of 

Early Child Care. The observed effects of child care were generally 

modest in size, but not insignificant.

Higher quality care was found to be related to:

● Better mother-child relationships

● Lower probability of insecure attachment in infants of mothers low 

in sensitivity

● Fewer reports of children’s problem behaviors

● Higher cognitive performance of children in child care

● Higher children’s language ability

● Higher level of school readiness

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The converse is also true. Lower quality care predicted:

● Less harmonious mother-child relationships

● A higher probability of insecure mother-child attachment of mothers 

who are already low in sensitivity to their children

● More problem behaviors, lower cognitive and language ability and 

lower school readiness scores

Higher quantity of care or a history of more hours in child care 

was associated with:

● Less harmonious mother-child interaction

● More reported problem behaviors when the children were two years 

old

● Higher probability of insecure attachment in infants of mothers low 

in sensitivity

Lower quantity of care is associated with:

● Better outcomes for mother-child interaction

● Lower probability of insecure attachment of infants of mothers low 

in sensitivity

● Fewer problem behaviors at 24 months

Center care is associated with better cognitive and language outcomes 

and a higher level of school readiness, as compared to outcomes in other 

settings with comparable quality of care. Group care is associated with 

fewer reports of problem behavior at age three.

Instability of care, as measured by the number of entries into new care 

arrangements, was found to be associated with higher probability of 

insecure attachment in infancy if mothers were not providing sensitive and 

responsive care.

Most of the children in the study are now turning seven years old and are 

in the first grade. Researchers will continue to analyze the data over the 

next several years, releasing additional research findings at professional 

meetings and in scientific journals, to answer some of the remaining 

questions about the relationship between child care and children’s 

development.

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care Investigators and Sites

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care was conducted by behavioral scientists at NICHD and the universities 

listed below:

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Mark Appelbaum 

University of California 

San Diego 

(619) 534-7959 

(619) 534-7190 fax

Jay Belsky 

Pennsylvania State University 

(814) 865-1447 

(814) 863-6207 fax

Cathryn Booth 

University of Washington of Seattle 

(206) 543-8074 

(206) 685-3349 fax

Robert Bradley 

University of Arkansas at Little Rock 

(501) 569-3423 

(501) 569-8503 fax

Celia Brownell 

University of Pittsburgh 

(412) 624-4510 

(412) 624-4428 fax

Peg Burchinal 

University of North Carolina 

at Chapel Hill 

(919) 966-5059 

(919) 962-5771 fax

Bettye CaIdwell 

Arkansas Children’s Hospital 

Department of Pediatrics 

(501) 320-3333 

(501) 320-1552 fax

Susan Campbell 

University of Pittsburgh 

(412) 624-8792 

(412) 624-5407 fax

Alison Clarke-Stewart 

University of California 

(714) 824-7191 

(714) 824-3002 fax

Martha Cox 

University of North Carolina at 

Chapel Hill 

(919) 966-2622 

(919) 966-7532 fax

Sarah L. Friedman 

National Institute of Child Health 

and Human Development 

(301) 496-9849 

(301) 480-7773 fax

Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek 

Temple University 

(215) 204-5243 

(215) 204-5539 fax

Aletha Huston 

University of Texas at Austin 

(512) 471-0753 

(512) 471-5844 fax

Elizabeth Jaeger 

Temple University 

(215) 204-7894 

(215) 204-5539 fax

Bonnie Knoke 

Research Triangle Institute 

(919) 541-7075 

(919) 541-5966 fax

Nancy Marshall 

Wellesley College 

(617) 283-2551 

(617) 283-2504 fax

Kathleen McCartney 

University of New Hampshire 

(603) 862-3168 

(603) 862-4986 fax

Marion O’Brien 

University of Kansas 

(913) 864-4801 

(913) 864-5202 fax

Margaret Tresch Owen 

University of Texas at Dallas 

(972) 883-6876 

(972) 883-2491 fax

Chris Payne 

Western Carolina Center 

(704) 438-6532 

(704) 438-6531 fax

Deborah Phillips 

National Academy of Sciences 

(202) 334-1935 

(202) 334-3768 fax

Robert Pianta 

University of Virginia at 

Charlottesville 

(804) 243-5483 

(804) 243-5480 fax

Susan Spieker 

University of Washington at Seattle 

(206) 543-8453 

(206) 324-7261 fax

Deborah Lowe Vandell 

University of Wisconsin at Madison 

(608) 263-1902 

(608) 263-6448 fax

Marsha Weinraub 

Temple University 

(215) 204-7183 

(215) 204-5539 fax

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Bibliography of Publications and Presentations 

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care

1. "Child Care During the First Year of Life," Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,1997, 43, 340-360. 

 

2. "Characteristics of Infant Child Care: Factors Contributing to Positive Caregiving." Early Childhood Research 

Quarterly, 1996, Volume 11, 269-306. 

 

3. "Familial Factors Associated with Characteristics of Nonmaternal Care for Infants." Journal of Marriage and 

Family, 1997, Volume 59, 389-408. 

 

4. "Poverty and Patterns of Child Care." Consequences of Growing up Poor, New York: Russell-Sage, 1997. 

 

5. "Child Care and Child Development. The NICHD Study of Early Child Care." In S.L. Friedman and H.C. 

Haywood (Eds), Developmental Follow-Up: Concepts, Domains and Methods (pp. 377-396), 1994. 

 

6. "Child Care Debate: Transformed or Distorted? American Psychologist, 1993, 48, 692-693. 

 

7. "Child Care and the Family: An Opportunity to Study Development in Context." Newsletter of the Society for 

Research in Child Development, Spring 1996, 4-7. 

 

8. "Infant Child Care and Attachment Security: Results of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care." Child 

Development, 1997, 68 (5), 860-879. 

 

9. Presentation, "When Child-Care Classrooms Meet Recommended Guidelines for Quality." The National 

Association for the Education of Young People, November, 1998. 

 

10. "Relations Between Family Predictors and Child Outcomes: Are They Weaker for Children in Child Care," 

Developmental Psychology, in press. 

 

11. "Infant Child Care and Qualities of Mother-Infant Interaction at 6 and 15 months," Developmental Psychology, in 

press. 

 

12. "Child Care and Mother-Child Interaction at 24 and 36 Months," Developmental Psychology, submitted for 

publication. 

 

13. "Early Child Care and Self-Control, Compliance and Problem Behavior," Child Development, in press. 

 

14. The Relationship of Child Care to Cognitive and Language Development. Presented at the Society for Research 

in Child Development meeting, April 3-6, 1997, Washington, DC, 1997.

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