DOI: 10.3886/icpsr32262.v1
title: Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC) and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education (CARE), Age 21 Follow Up Study, 1993 - 2003
title: Version 1

description: The Carolina Abecedarian (ABC) Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education (CARE) projects consist of two consecutive longitudinal studies on the effectiveness of early childhood educational intervention for children at high risk for developmental delays and school failure. Combined, the two studies test the hypothesis that child care, home visit, and home school resource interventions can enhance cognitive and academic outcomes for children at risk for school failure due to factors such as poverty, low maternal IQ, or low parental education. These studies provide the only experimental data regarding the efficacy of child care interventions that began during early infancy and lasted until the child entered kindergarten. In addition, the data allow for tests of the efficacy of intervention during the primary grades.
Research hypotheses include: Within this high-risk sample, early cumulative risk will be negatively associated with young adult educational outcomes, employment outcomes, avoidance of teen parenthood, and avoidance of criminal behavior. Early intervention will moderate the effects of risk such that the effects of increased risk would be weaker for those who received the intervention than for those who did not.The early home environment would mediate any found effects for early risk and that early educational intervention would moderate the effects of the early home environment such that the effects of a poor-quality home environment would be weaker for those who received treatment compared to those who did not.
Further information can be found on the Carolina Abecedarian Project Web site.
description: The Carolina Abecedarian (ABC) Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education (CARE) projects consist of two consecutive longitudinal studies on the effectiveness of early childhood educational intervention for children at high risk for developmental delays and school failure. Combined, the two studies test the hypothesis that child care, home visit, and home school resource interventions can enhance cognitive and academic outcomes for children at risk for school failure due to factors such as poverty, low maternal IQ, or low parental education. These studies provide the only experimental data regarding the efficacy of child care interventions that began during early infancy and lasted until the child entered kindergarten. In addition, the data allow for tests of the efficacy of intervention during the primary grades.
description: The Abecedarian Project is a prospective randomized trial with participants from low-income families either participating in the planned "treatment" groups or serving as untreated controls. Essentially, three educational treatments were provided: educational child care from six weeks to school entry, home visit from six weeks to school entry, and home school resource services during the child's first three years of school. They varied in terms of intensity and orientation. The child care treatment was essentially child-centered and offered the most intensive exposure to education. It involved the child receiving child care at the child development center from infancy until entry to kindergarten. The home visit and home school treatments were less intensive and were family-oriented, emphasizing the role of the parent as a change agent in the child's development. All have been followed from birth to young adulthood. The study recruited children born between 1972 and 1977. At entry to school, half of the children within each of the two randomized preschool groups were randomly assigned to receive a home school resource teacher program during the first three years of elementary school. Children recruited for Project CARE (Carolina Approach to Responsive Education), however, were born between 1978 and 1980 and randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: child care plus home visits, home visits only, or control. All Project CARE children assigned to either the child care plus home visit or home visit only groups also received the home school resource teacher treatment during the first three years of elementary school.
description: File 1: Parent Brief Symptom Inventory: Variables assessing the parent's level of stress in response to a variety of social/emotional/physical events.
File 2: Parent Everyday Stressors Index: Variables assessing level of stress associated with common daily problems.
File 3: Parent of a Young Adult Interview: Variables addressing a range of demographic, education/occupation/income, and social factors.
File 4: Parent Scale of Independent Living: Variables assessing the parent's capabilities for independent living.
File 5: Parent Interview - Persons Living with Subject: Variables gather demographic information on people living in the subject's household.
File 6: Parent Risk Taking Survey: Variables measuring risk-taking behaviors of the subject's parent.
File 7: Parent Taylor Life Events Inventory: Variables gathering information of major life events (e.g. educational milestones, marriage and family, employment, and health).
File 8: Parent What I Am Like: Variables gathering information on the parent's perceptions of themselves.
File 9: Subject Adult Nowicki-Strickland: Variables intended to assess the respondent's perception of their level of control over events in their life.
File 10: Subject Brief Symptom Inventory - ABC: Variables assessing the subject's level of stress in response to a variety of social/emotional/physical events.
File 11: Subject Interview - ABC: Variables addressing a range of demographic, education/occupation/income, and social factors.
File 12: Subject Scale of Independent Living: Variables assessing the subject's capabilities for independent living.
File 13: Subject Interview - Persons in Subject's Household: Variables gathering demographic information on people living in the subject's household.
File 14: Subject Phinney Ethnic Identity Interview: Variables intended to asses the subject's conceptualization of their own and their family's ethnic identity.
File 15: Subject Risk Taking Survey - ABC: Variables measuring the subject's risk-taking behaviors.
File 16: Subject Taylor Life Events Inventory: Variables gathering information of major life events (e.g. educational milestones, marriage and family, employment, and health).
File 17: Subject's Woodcock-Johnson: Variables testing intellectual ability, language skills, and academic achievement.
File 18: Subject What I Am Like: Variables gathering information on the subject's perceptions of themselves.
File 19: Subject Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised: Variables measuring the subject's intelligence.
File 20: Subject Brief Symptom Inventory - CARE: Variables assessing the subject's level of stress in response to a variety of social/emotional/physical events.
File 21: Subject Interview - CARE: Variables addressing a range of demographic, education/occupation/income, and social factors.
File 22: Subject Risk Taking Survey - CARE: Variables measuring the subject's risk-taking behaviors.
description: Response Rates: For the project, 104 young adults out of the original 111 infants (93.7 percent) were assessed.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Participants were tested based on four different measurement scales: maternal measures, quality of the family environment, cognitive assessment, and academic achievement. The maternal measures include variables such as marital status, maternal and paternal age, education, and family socioeconomic status. Young adult follow-up sessions included structured interviews, the Hollingshead's Index of Social Status, and the Youth Risk Taking Survey from the Centers for Disease Control. The following is a list of all of the measures used in the study and their sources (if not included in download):Brief Symptom Inventory: http://www.pearsonclinical.com/education/products/100000450/brief-symptom-inventory-bsi-174.htmlEveryday Stressors Index: Hall, L. (1983). Social supports, everyday stressors, and maternal mental health. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Scale of Independent LivingRisk Taking SurveyTaylor Life Events Inventory: an adaptation for low-income families of Sarason's Life Experiences Survey:
Sarason, I., Johnson, J., and Siegel, J. (1978). Assessing the Impact of Life Changes: Development of the Life Experiences Survey.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46(5), 932-946.What I am Like Survey: Harter, S. (Feb 1982). The Perceived Competence Scale for Children Child Development, Vol. 53, No. 1.pp. 87-97.Nowicki-Strickland Scale: Nowicki, S., and Strickland, B.R. A locus of control scale for children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1973.Phinney Ethnic Identity Interview (Subject only): Phinney, J. S. (1992). The multigroup ethnic identity measure a new scale for use with diverse groups. Journal of adolescent research, 7(2), 156-176.Woodcock Johnson tests of Achievement-Reading and Math Scores (Subject only): http://www.riversidepublishing.com/products/wjIIIComplete/index.htmlWechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised: http://www.pearsonclinical.com/psychology/products/100000392/wechsler-adult-intelligence-scalefourth-edition-wais-iv.htmlStructured Interviews
description: Subjects were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups for the original study.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Parent Brief Symptom Inventory
DS2: Parent Everyday Stressors Index
DS3: Parent of a Young Adult Interview
DS4: Parent Scale of Independent Living
DS5: Parent Interview - Persons Living with Subject 
DS6: Parent Risk Taking Survey
DS7: Parent Taylor Life Events Inventory
DS8: Parent What I Am Like
DS9: Subject Adult Nowicki-Strickland
DS10: Subject Brief Symptom Inventory - ABC
DS11: Subject Interview - ABC
DS12: Subject Scale of Independent Living
DS13: Subject Interview - Persons in Subject's Household
DS14: Subject Phinney Ethnic Identity Interview
DS15: Subject Risk Taking Survey - ABC
DS16: Subject Taylor Life Events Inventory
DS17: Subject Woodcock-Johnson
DS18: Subject What I Am Like
DS19: Subject Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised
DS20: Subject Brief Symptom Inventory - CARE
DS21: Subject Interview - CARE
DS22: Subject Risk Taking Survey - CARE
description: Children at risk for school failure due to factors such as parents with less than a high school education, and families with very low incomes who lived in or around a small city in the Southeast United States, born between 1972 and 1977 (ABC), or 1978 and 1980 (CARE). Smallest Geographic Unit: Southeastern United States
description: coded on-site observation; face-to-face interviewThese data are the result of the second phase of the Carolina Abecedarian and CARE data collection efforts. For data and documentation for the first phase please see Carolina Abecedarian Project and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education (CARE), 1972-1992 (ICPSR 4091). These data can be merged with the first phase Abecedarian and CARE data files using the variable 'SUBJECT'.The ABC/CARE data files contain a large amount of character variables. Due to limitations of the program, the Stata files contain these character variables without value labels. Stata users can refer to the codebooks provided in the download for value label information.Some of the measures used in the study will be included via public and restricted download. Other measures are not being released due to copyright restrictions. For these measures, source information is included below in the "Scales" section.