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Inequality in early childhood education and care: What do we know?
Abstract
Although a number of studies have examined ECEC costs, few have taken up the questions of how child care cost burdens reflect and contribute to income inequality. Our review of the literature suggests that, although poor families spend less in absolute dollars on child care than more-affluent families, this is largely due to differences in their use and mode of care. Differences in costs to families are dwarfed by the disparities in incomes, with the result that ECEC expenses impose particularly steep financial costs on low-income families. We estimate that the child care burden increased during the 1985 to 2000 period for all groups except the most highly educated, increasing the inequality in cost burden over time. The literature also suggests that child care costs make an indirect contribution to inequality by depressing maternal employment, particularly among less-skilled and single mothers. Despite large literatures on family structure, family labor supply, income inequality, child care policy, and child care arrangements and costs, very little is known about the interrelationships between these forces. Important questions for future research include: • Did child care burdens become more equal or more unequal as employment increased for married mothers and later for single mothers? • Have child care policies, such as Head Start, child care subsidies, and child care tax credits kept up with increases in maternal employment? And have the changes in policies ameliorated or exacerbated income inequality? • Do families with higher child care burdens choose lower-cost (and presumably lowerquality) child care options? Is maternal employment lower among these families with higher child care burdens, which perhaps contribute indirectly to income inequality?.
... Chile has recently significantly increased the access to early childhood education, with the enrollment rate in early childhood education (for children aged 3-5) increasing from 44% in 2005 to 79% in 2017 (OECD, 2019). However, there are still significant disparities in access to quality early childhood education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, with children from lower-income households being more likely to attend lower-quality schools and having less access to resources such as trained teachers and educational materials (Bainbridge et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2016;Meyers et al., 2004;UNICEF, 2015). The Chilean health system is characterized by a high level of coverage and access to care (Missoni & Solimano, 2010), which has caused significant improvements in the overall health of its population. ...
This paper investigates the impact of socioeconomic (SES) disparities on anthropometrics, receptive vocabulary skills, and socio-emotional skills in Chilean children 31–83 months old (n = 7744). Longitudinal data allow for the estimation of dynamic models of child growth and skill formation while adjusting for mother's schooling and cognitive ability. The results show small length differences at birth with the better-off being shorter, but these differences are reversed during the first 10 months of life, at which age SES disparities in height-for-age z scores (HAZ) favored the better-off. Disparities in receptive vocabulary skills found at 30 months continue until the child is at least 6 years old. For socio-emotional skills, we found SES disparities before 72 months, but not after. Our results indicate that—even after controlling for factors that are not usually considered in the literature, such as mother's cognitive ability and lagged skills—SES remains significantly associated with child development outcomes within a dynamic context.
... Modern conceptualization of psychosocial risk is based on a multi-dimensional, multi-directional and probabilistic understanding of risk and protective factors, therefore with diverse interconnected circumstances explaining the compromise of child well-being and development (Jiménez et al., 2019). Previous research addressing families at psychosocial risk has emphasized these diverse situations end in vulnerability in terms of parenting resources to deal with the challenges of upbringing a child (e.g., Meyers et al., 2004;Sandstrom & Huerta, 2013). It has been proposed that the lack of parenting resources influences parenting behaviors, contributing to the adoption of harsher parenting strategies and less involved parenthood, undermining children's adjustment and well-being (McFarlane, 2010;Newland, 2015;Zhao et al., 2017). ...
The impact of parenting competences on child well-being is well-established. During the last years, parenting support initiatives have increased in several countries, namely in Spain, offering support to promote parents’ childcare resources and competences, particularly for families at psychosocial risk. Recognizing the specificities of different subgroups of families, such as migrant families, allows the development of more tailored and effective interventions in the field of family support. However, there is a gap in the literature about parenting competences in migrant families. This article explores differences and similarities in parenting competences among 492 migrant and non-migrant parents involved in family preservation services in Spain, as well as examines the impact of these competences on children’s well-being. Our findings revealed that migrant and non-migrant vulnerable families face similar needs in terms of parenting competences in domains covered by the existing family support interventions. However, we found a few differences in parenting competences between both populations, as well as in the impact of several parenting competences in children’s well-being. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
... Social support benefits parents with mild depression (Lee et al., 2006), positively correlates with ratings of parental self-efficacy and lowered parental stress (Izzo et al., 2000;Woodman, 2014), and contributes to school readiness and achievement (Greene & Anyon, 2010). Beyond enhancing parents' repertoires and funds of knowledge, most young children, regardless of socio-economic status, spend time in nonparental care (Meyers et al., 2004). We must therefore consider which key partners are accessible to and supportive of diverse family units (Carpenter, 1997;Edwards, 2020). ...
Tailoring support for first and second-generation immigrant families with young children necessitates understanding the extent to which immigrant families initiate access to community resources and perceived support from formal and informal stakeholders in their ecology. As part of an exploratory analysis, we surveyed bilingual, immigrant parents (n = 54) in a mid-Atlantic urban community in the United States. We examined factors that may correlate with seeking child-related advice and/or emotional support. Sixty-one percent of the sample approached at least one formal or informal contact for emotional support or advice in the past year, and willingness to do so was correlated with having a child with a suspected or diagnosed delay or disability. Stronger parent–stakeholder rapport was more likely to be reported with informal supports among younger parents (aged 20–30). Respondents with greater perceived parenting stress and child behavior concerns were more likely to seek out stakeholders and less personalized sources. We discuss noteworthy implications for research and practice.
... No existen evidencias empíricas que muestren una correlación negativa entre el empleo materno y el bienestar del menor con respecto a su desarrollo cognitivo o estado de salud (Hsin y Felfe, 2014). Sin embargo, sí que existen evidencias de que determinados turnos y jornadas de trabajo, determinados modelos de cuidado o un número excesivo de horas en centros educativos durante los primeros años ponen en riesgo el bienestar de la infancia (Gracia y Kalmijn, 2015;Ruhm et al., 2003). ...
Este libro está inspirado en una aparente paradoja del comportamiento humano. Los jóvenes se identifican cada día más con valores igualitarios y, en cambio, cuando conviven en pareja tienden a reproducir un reparto de tareas desigual, que se agudiza con la llegada del primer hijo. Esta contradicción entre ideales y prácticas constituye la esencia de la “utopía real” que aquí se plantea. Es una utopía, porque se necesitan muchos cambios políticos para hacer posible un modelo de familia en el que ambos son empleados y cuidadores en diferentes etapas de su vida, sin que ninguno de los dos se quede atrás o esté penalizado laboralmente por ausentarse temporalmente del mercado de trabajo o por reducir la jornada laboral. Algunas parejas intentan realizar esta utopía en el ámbito familiar, porque se corresponsabilizan de las tareas domésticas y del cuidado, a pesar de las dificultades para conciliar empleo y vida personal. Las políticas familiares pueden ser un instrumento ideal para rebajar la tensión entre ideales y prácticas de las parejas aquí analizadas, aunque, como veremos en esta obra, no son la condición única que podría convertir la utopía en una realidad.
... No existen evidencias empíricas que muestren una correlación negativa entre el empleo materno y el bienestar del menor con respecto a su desarrollo cognitivo o estado de salud (Hsin y Felfe, 2014). Sin embargo, sí que existen evidencias de que determinados turnos y jornadas de trabajo, determinados modelos de cuidado o un número excesivo de horas en centros educativos durante los primeros años ponen en riesgo el bienestar de la infancia (Gracia y Kalmijn, 2015;Ruhm et al., 2003). ...
... Im Anschluss an diese Erklärung darf nicht unterschätzt werden, wie wichtig frühkindliche Erfahrungen für die Zukunft des Einzelnen sind und wie sehr Ungleichheit den Aufbau einer zufriedenstellenden Karriere und einer Gesellschaft mit gleichen Chancen beeinträchtigt. Im Jahr 2002 erklärten Meyers et al. und Magnuson die Bedeutung der frühkindlichen Gleichberechtigung, da sie eine Schlüsselvoraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Schullaufahn sei(Meyers et al., 2003, Magnuson et al., 2004). Die Autoren berichteten von den Langzeitstudien, die auf die Bedeutung der frühkindlichen Bildung für die Mathematikund Lesefähigkeiten hinwiesen. ...
Potential problems of early childhood educators in STEM education
Iliana Mirtschewa
The chapter offers a description of the potential problems of the early childhood educators in STEM education. It is mentioned STEM reveals rich opportunities for children’s development through the integration of knowledge from various fields and through the spillover of experience from the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, but at the same time there are some problems that could call into question the effectiveness of training and repel children from STEM from their early age. Some of the problems arise in practice is the destruction of the unity of STEM. Other arise from the different interpretation of STEM early education. In some cases, teacher centered instruction is given priority, STEM early education is associated with distant and abstract topics for children, in some cases only worksheets and books are used to fill in and perform various math or science related tasks. Putting the emphasis on memorizing "hollow knowledge" does not lead to understanding. On the other hand, in many cases, emphasis is placed on the fun side of STEM, without paying attention to the content side.
Another problem that emerges in STEM education is the interpretation of the role of the teacher in the learning process. On the one hand, emphasis is placed on teacher centered education, which is not very effective. Another extreme is that children do not need a teacher and need to explore the world on their own.
Problems in training are often created by existing standards. Sometimes early childhood educators are pressured to get children ready for school, ready to succeed in school, and ready to perform well on tests of academic skills. Rather than "delivering" education, the educators are most likely to help children by "providing" experiences known to benefit young children.
The attitude of society towards STEM can also be mentioned as a problem. Studies show that many parents, even teachers, believe that STEM education is only suitable for gifted children that it is more important for boys who show greater talent than girls and that it is suitable for old children. These adult attitudes about STEM can also be passed on to children.
A problem that needs to be discussed in the universities and the other educational institutions is the training of teachers. Studies show the uncertainty of some teachers with regard to STEM content and their perturbation with questions posed by children. Some teachers believe that "science and math are difficult, complex and confusing subjects". “Lack of confidence” is shown from teachers who participated in different studies. These concerns are also found in the parents.
Key messages:
• There are some potential problems that could call into question the effectiveness of training and repel children from STEM from their early age.
• These problems could affect the effectiveness of early STEM education. They can hinder the development of the spontaneous interest that children make towards these areas of knowledge and the realization of the necessary preparation of the children for life.
• It is important to work with teachers and parents on the importance of early STEM education for children, regardless of gender, which contributes to child development, enrichment of children's ideas and experiences, and stimulation of interest in STEM.
• It is important to discuss the teacher training activities in the direction to change the “Lack of confidence” of the teachers, related with the early STEM education.
... No obstante, los beneficios se concentrarían en segmentos concretos de la población. La evidencia apunta a que, sobre todo, la disponibilidad de servicios de cuidado de alta calidad produciría beneficios cognitivos sustanciales para aquellos niños/as pertenecientes a los segmentos de menores ingresos de la población (Love, Eliason Kisker, Ross et al., 2002;Meyers, 2003). ...
Las políticas de apoyo a las familias con hijos/asresultan fundamentales para la adecuación del sistema de protección social al paradigma de la inversión social. En el marco de estas políticas, las prestaciones de apoyo a la conciliación se constituyen como uno de los pilares fundamentales. Orientadas a impulsar una participación equilibrada entre mujeres y hombres en la vida familiar y en el mercado de trabajo, estas prestaciones se posicionan como herramienta para avanzar en la igualdad de oportunidades en el empleo, romper conlos roles y estereotipos tradicionales de género, y cubrir las necesidades de atención y cuidado de los niños/as. Este trabajo realiza una aproximación exploratoria a estas prestaciones. Primero, se realiza una revisión de la literatura académica, presentando las principales evidencias acerca de los impactos de estas prestaciones sobre distintas dimensiones. Seguidamente, se describen las principales formas de estructuración de estas prestaciones en el ámbito internacional.
... En lloc de "impartir" educació, és més probable que ajudem els nens "proporcionant-los" experiències conegudes per beneficiar-los (Katz 2010). (Meyers et al., 2003, Magnuson et al., 2004. Els autors van reportar estudis a llarg termini que indiquen la importància de l'educació infantil per a les habilitats matemàtiques i lectores. ...
Capte la atención de los lectores mediante una cita importante extraída del documento o utilice este espacio para resaltar un punto clave. Para colocar el cuadro de texto en cualquier lugar de la página, solo tiene que arrastrarlo.]
... Im Anschluss an diese Erklärung darf nicht unterschätzt werden, wie wichtig frühkindliche Erfahrungen für die Zukunft des Einzelnen sind und wie sehr Ungleichheit den Aufbau einer zufriedenstellenden Karriere und einer Gesellschaft mit gleichen Chancen beeinträchtigt. Im Jahr 2002 erklärten Meyers et al. und Magnuson die Bedeutung der frühkindlichen Gleichberechtigung, da sie eine Schlüsselvoraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Schullaufahn sei(Meyers et al., 2003, Magnuson et al., 2004). Die Autoren berichteten von den Langzeitstudien, die auf die Bedeutung der frühkindlichen Bildung für die Mathematik-und Lesefähigkeiten hinwiesen. ...
Ünlü Çetin, Ş., Bilican, K., & Üçgül, M. (2020). Key points for STEM in Early Childhood Education an involving parents: A guidebook for early childhood educators, An ıntellectual output of the 2018-1-TR01-KA203-059568 PARENSTEM: STEM Education for Preschoolers and Their Families Project, Kırıkkale Universıty.
... Finally, it is possible that classroom quality may covary with selection bias above and beyond the covariates already included in the statistical models. Indeed, evidence suggests that children experiencing demographic risk factors often attend lower quality ECE programs (Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004). Future research will need to examine both family and structural selection factors that may contribute to documented associations reported in this study. ...
Research Findings: The aim of the current study was to examine the extent to which the effects of preschool classroom quality on children’s mathematics is moderated by executive functioning (EF) during the preschool year. The study sample included 102 children (M age = 53.57 months [SD = 5.42]; 49% male) and one of their parents recruited from 26 Head Start or center- and community-based preschools. Results from main effects analyses indicated that one indicator of quality, emotional support, was significantly associated with children’s mathematics skills. Further, interactions between the quality domains and EF were significant, indicating that children with higher levels of EF benefited substantially more in terms of their mathematics skills if they were in classrooms with higher quality. Practice or Policy: These findings have implications for intervention work designed to support school readiness and for policies regarding the provision of high quality early care and education.
... The economic deprivation perspective posits that economic differences between families produces differences in child investments. In line with this, affluent parents invest more in quality home learning environments, educational institutions and programs, as well as enrichment items and activities such as books, computers, lessons, trips, and "high-brow" cultural activities like museum or concert attendance (Bainbridge et al., 2005;Bourdieu, 1984;DiMaggio, 1982;Meyers et al., 2004;Lareau, 2011). Low income parents, on the other hand, tend to have less disposable income for educational and enrichment investments (Desmond and Kimbro, 2015;Hoynes and Schanzenbach, 2016). ...
Economic investments in children may represent a powerful mechanism to explain differences in child outcomes across family types. Unfortunately, evidence on child related spending across family structures remains poorly understood. Using the Consumer Expenditure Survey (1996–2015), this study is the first to investigate patterns of child-related spending in an increasingly common type of extended family household: multigenerational households, in which children reside with at least one parent and grandparent. This study also contributes to a growing literature giving primacy to parents' socioeconomic disadvantage as moderating the association between multigenerational relationships and child well-being. Results indicate that, when compared to similar two-generation households, multigenerational households are associated with increased spending on education and with decreased spending on child care. Differences in child-related spending between multigenerational and two-generation households differ according to parents' income and relationship status. Overall, living with grandparents represents an adaptive strategy that helps low-income or single parents invest more money in their children's education, hobbies and activities, and to save on the costs of child care.
... Inequality can be seen as problem in its own right, but also as source of other social problems. Numerous body of research literature link poverty with both poor short-term health and well-being and lesser long-term accumulation of human capital, for example (see Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogeln, 2003). ...
Early childhood education’s role in increasing equality in society has been highlighted by international organizations. However, it is unclear what is meant by the concept of equality in different situations, as the meaning fluctuates and reflects the cultural political contexts in which it is embedded. In this paper, we analyse the equality discourses of local early childhood education and care (ECEC) policymakers in Finland, drawing on different conceptualizations of equality and social justice. In doing so, we show that the way in which equality is conceptualized differs – along with the suggested remedies – depending on whether the subjects of equality are adults, children at the border of an institutional setting, or children within the ECEC institution.
... While participation in preschool education programs has increased over time, important differences remain in enrollment rates among population subgroups ( Meyers et al., 2004). Table 1.2 reveals that, based on NHES data for 3-to 5-year-olds in 2001, enrollment rates vary substantially by race/ethnicity, poverty status, and maternal education. ...
... Thus, program quality may covary with selection bias above and beyond the covariates already included in the models. For example, children facing elevated risk factors in the home are more likely to be placed in a home-based setting or in a poorer quality center (Belsky, Spritz, & Crnic, 1996;Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004;Porter et al., 2010). Further, structural factors, such as policies at the state and community levels (e.g., presence or absence of universal preschool or Head Start), may affect the distribution of preschool quality for a given region, in turn shaping a parent's selection from what is available (Loeb, Fuller, Kagan, & Carrol, 2004). ...
This study examined whether classroom quality is related to preschoolers’ social-emotional functioning (social competence and behavior problems) and explored whether urbanicity (variation in geographic region: rural, small city, or large urban living) moderates this relation. Participants included 102 children (51% female) who were approximately 4.5 years old (M = 53.57 months, SD = 5.42). Fifty-one percent of children were enrolled in Head Start. Linear regression models indicated that classroom quality was moderately related to social competence and not significantly associated with behavior problems for the full sample; however, urbanicity moderated relations between quality and social competence and behavior problems. Specifically, higher classroom quality was significantly related to fewer externalizing behaviors and marginally related to fewer internalizing behaviors for children in rural communities, but not for children in small or large urban settings. Similarly, higher quality was associated with stronger social competence for children in small urban cities, but not for children in large urban cities. Discussion addresses the importance of the geographic regions families reside in as a context for children's development, and how early educational experiences may be particularly important for children living in rural and small urban communities.
... The effects of family of origin are already found in children before they begin formal schooling (e.g., Carneiro & Heckman, 2003;Meyers et al., 2004) and extend to the transitions and outcomes in early adulthood and adulthood. According to the cumulative advantage theory (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006), an unfavorable life event increases the likelihood of subsequent unfavorable events. ...
Early adulthood life courses have become diversified in recent decades, but little is known about how different dimensions of early life courses (i.e., education, labor market participation and family formation) co-evolve and are associated with parental background. This study describes the most typical joint labor market and family formation pathways of young adults and assesses whether belonging to these pathway groups is associated with parental origin. We use annually updated register-based data and analyze Finnish men and women born between 1972 and 1975 with follow-up until their mid-30s. By using multichannel sequence analyses, we identified six distinct pathway types to adulthood that are defined by educational attainment, labor market participation, and family formation, and demonstrate that these pathways are primarily dominated by the educational achievements of young adults. Educational choices and trajectories, thus, also strongly shape the patterns of other life paths and events in early adulthood. Gender differences were particularly evident for pathways characterized by low education, women entering pathways dominated by early partnership and motherhood, and men remaining without a partner or any children. We further show that parental resources – particularly parental income – predict the paths upon which the young adults embark. Parental resources in particular are most strongly linked with the educational differentiation between the paths.
... Cross-country comparative studies provide ample evidence that higher income families or families with a highly educated mother use childcare services to a much larger extent than lower income families or families with a lower skilled mother (Ghysels and Van Lancker 2011;Van Lancker 2013). Other research endeavours focusing on single countries found similar patterns, for instance in the USA (Fuller and Xiaoyan 1996;Meyers et al. 2004;Greenberg 2011) and in several European countries (e.g. Abrassart and Bonoli 2015;Krapf 2014;Vandenbroeck et al. 2014;Van Lancker and Ghysels 2012;Del Boca and Pasqua 2005;Spieß et al. 2003). ...
Childcare services are increasingly put forward as one of the most important policy levers to combat poverty and inequality. However, higher income families use childcare services to a much larger extent than lower income families. Almost all European countries increased expenditures on childcare over the past years, but has an ever-increasing public spending on childcare provision led to more equality in its use? In this article, the relationship between spending and childcare use as well as between spending and inequality in childcare use over the period 2006–12 is empirically analyzed using a random effects model drawing on country-level panel data (n = 156), derived from the EU-SILC and OECD SOCX databases. Since governments can spend money in different ways, it is discussed whether a public or a market-based strategy to subsidize childcare provision is related to more equality. The results suggest that more spending leads to higher levels of childcare use, but not directly to lower levels of inequality. For achieving equity in childcare use, government investment should lead to an expansion of childcare places across the income distribution. The findings allow the formulation of new hypotheses regarding the role of the private market in childcare services provision.
... A proper understanding of the mechanisms underlying inequality in childcare service use is crucial for its success as a policy instrument to mitigate social inequalities in early life, yet previous attempts to explain inequality in childcare use were rather idiosyncratic and focused on specific countries or regions (e.g. Abrassart and Bonoli, 2015;Fuller and Liang, 1996;Meagher and Szebehely, 2012;Meyers et al., 2004;Spieß et al., 2003), primarily examining the role of individual, family-and service-level characteristics. Since the comparative welfare state literature lacks insight into what features of the social context are more or less conducive for achieving more equality in childcare use, we engage in macro-sociological analysis in which we focus on how aggregate social mechanisms rather than micro-level household characteristics are associated with childcare inequality. 1 Similar to studies examining income inequality as a macrolevel phenomenon (Kuznets, 1955;OECD, 2011), this article conducts a macro-level analysis exploring which welfare state characteristics are associated with the observed inequality in childcare use for a broad set of countries. ...
Childcare services are increasingly regarded a major policy lever to combat social inequalities in early life. Yet, it was shown that inequality in the use of childcare services is the norm rather than the exception in European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. As a result, social inequalities between disadvantaged and advantaged children are likely to be reinforced instead of being narrowed. The aim of this article is to conduct a macro-level analysis exploring which welfare state characteristics are associated with inequality in childcare use. We find that government involvement in the availability, affordability and quality of service provision is related to lower levels of inequality in childcare use. The results also suggest an impact of labour market opportunities and parental leave schemes. The findings contribute to a proper understanding of the institutional mechanisms underlying inequality in childcare service use.
... Further, these gaps do not seem to lessen or disappear as students advance through schooling. For these reasons, many have argued that access to early education is perhaps one of the most critical areas of inequality (Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, and Waldfogel 2004). ...
While much has been written in the field of educational technology regarding educational excellence and efficiency, less attention has been paid to issues of equity. Along these lines, the field of educational technology often does not address key equity problems such as academic achievement and attainment gaps, and inequality of educational access and opportunity. In this paper, we survey research regarding persistent inequality issues related to (a) educational access and (b) educational opportunity in the U.S. education system. Furthermore, we discuss intended and unintended consequences of educational technology on social equality. We then conclude with a discussion of how educational technology researchers and practitioners should consider the broader social context in which their work is conducted and the intended and unintended consequences it might have on social inequality.
... For example, if children who enroll in informal settings come from lower income households, it may be that difference and not exposure to different sectors explains disparities in outcomes. Several studies document systematic differences in care use by family characteristics (Huston, Chang, & Gennetian, 2002;Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004). Financial and employment constraints, language, cultural mores, access to information, and children's developmental stage may all be associated with both care type and child outcomes (Coley, Votruba-Drzal, Collins, & Miller, 2014;. ...
This study leverages nationally representative data (N ≈ 6,000) to examine the magnitude of quality differences between (a) formal and informal early childhood education and care providers; (b) Head Start, prekindergarten, and other center-based care; and (c) programs serving toddlers and those serving preschoolers. It then documents differences in children's reading and math skills at age 5 between those who had enrolled in formal and informal settings. Cross-sector differences are substantially reduced when accounting for a set of quality measures, though these measures do less to explain more modest differences in outcomes within the formal sector. Results inform current efforts aimed at improving the quality of early childhood settings by highlighting the large quality differences across sectors and their relationship with child development.
... Changes in enrollment of children from the lowestincome families are likely influenced not just by changes in their families' incomes and expenditure patterns but also by changes over time in the availability of public funding through programs such as child care subsidies, tax credits, and direct support for programs such as Head Start and public prekindergarten. Child care subsidy spending was modest until the welfare reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s, at which point it accelerated and overtook spending on the longer-established child care tax credit programs (Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004). Head Start spending and associated enrollment have also exhibited considerable variability over time. ...
We use data from the 1968–2013 October Current Population Survey to document trends in 3- and 4-year-old children’s enrollment in center-based early childhood education, focusing on gaps in enrollment among children from low-, middle-, and high-income families. We find that income-related gaps in enrollment widened in the 1970s and 1980s but appear to have plateaued or narrowed for succeeding cohorts. These patterns are consistent with recent trends in income-related gaps in school achievement.
... Prior research has documented these disparities in professional qualifications as key contributors to patterns of lower quality care provided for children from ethnic minority groups, and those from low-income families (e.g., Cassidy, Lower, Kintner, & Hestenes, 2009;Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004). Although we recognize that many other factors (e.g., affordability, supports for providers, adult-child ratios) also likely contribute to inequalities in child care quality (e.g., Cassidy et al., 2009), the current study focuses on providers' professional qualifications. ...
Efforts to improve school readiness call for improvements in the professional qualifications of the early childhood workforce. It is critically important that these efforts are inclusive of a diverse workforce. Providers from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds make up a sizable portion of the early childhood workforce, yet diversity continues to be disproportionally concentrated among providers with lower qualifications. This study examines the effect of a state-wide scholarship program on increasing qualifications for nondegree-seeking providers from diverse groups caring for children in early childhood settings. Data from two components of Oregon’s Quality Rating and Improvement System for early care and education were linked with individual provider identification numbers (N = 1,783): the Oregon Child Care Professional Development Registry (PD Registry) and the state-wide Betty Gray Scholarship Program. Findings revealed that providers from ethnic and linguistic minority backgrounds had lower qualifications, on average, but also accessed scholarships at elevated rates. Scholarships were associated with modest increases in professional qualifications for all groups of providers but did not reduce the gap in qualifications between providers from minority and nonminority backgrounds. Implications for teacher educators who deliver training and/or education to providers are discussed. Directions for future research and programming related to qualifications of early childhood providers are also presented. Copyright
... Research that examined factors related to families' child care decisions overall also provides insight into child care decisions by immigrant parents. Studies have found that mothers who work outside the home, work full-time, are high earners (Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004), and work standard daytime hours (Peyton, Jacobs, O'Brien, & Roy, 2001) are more likely to use center-based care than other types of care. Changes in maternal work patterns can also impact care selection. ...
Prior studies that have investigated child care arrangements among Latino immigrant families have often overlooked the role of parental immigration status and neighborhood factors in shaping child care selection. Thus, this study considers the effects of parental immigration status and neighborhood contexts, on child care selection among Latino immigrant families using a sample of 862 young children (ages 0-5) from the 2001 Los Angeles Families and Neighborhood Survey. Results from a hierarchical multinomial regression model suggest that, irrespective of immigration status, children of Latina mothers were significantly less likely to use center-based care than parental care, but the relationship was stronger for the children of undocumented Latina mothers. The findings also indicate that children living in poor neighborhoods were less likely to use formal center-based care, all else equal.
... 14 In Australia childcare centres and family day care services operate under a national quality improvement and accreditation system funded by the federal government to promote high-quality care. 15 Despite these policy commitments, children from low-income families remain more likely to experience poorer quality care than those from high-income families, 16 yet it is they who are believed to gain the most. 4 Our previous research showed that of the three domains (higher quality relationships, activities and childcare provider characteristics) of childcare quality we hypothesised would be associated with children's development, only one domain (the quality of carer-child relationships) was associated with children's development. ...
Background:
Higher quality childcare in the years before school may help narrow developmental gaps between the richest and poorest children in our societies, but specific evidence is limited and inconsistent. We address this issue by examining whether higher quality childcare is associated with better developmental outcomes at school entry for children from lower than higher income families.
Methods:
The sample from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children included children attending childcare from 2 to 3 years (n=980-1187, depending on outcome). Childcare quality was measured using carers assessment of their relationship with the child. Children's receptive vocabulary was directly assessed in the child's home, and behavioural difficulties were measured by teachers and parents at 4-5 years. We assessed additive and multiplicative income-related effect measure modification of the quality of carer-child relationship on developmental outcomes.
Results:
After adjusting for confounding, there was some evidence of effect measure modification on the additive and multiplicative scales of childcare quality by income. Children experiencing higher quality relationships and lower income had almost the same risk of poorer receptive vocabulary as children in higher quality relationships and higher incomes (relative excess risk due to interaction=0.18; 95% CI -0.20 to 0.52), ratio of relative risks=1.11 (1.04 to 1.17)). These patterns were similar for teacher-reported and parent-reported behavioural difficulties.
Conclusions:
The effects of higher quality childcare, in terms of quality relationships with carers, on children's cognitive and behavioural development at school entry were stronger among children from lower income families. This provides some evidence that higher quality relationships in childcare may be especially important in helping reduce developmental gaps for children from lower income families.
... Nevertheless, trends in US education inequality raise some serious issues about fracturing. However, we must again rely primarily on indirect evidence Inequalities in education begin in pre-primary schools, where the share in these schools of 3 and 4-year old children from families with higher income is much higher than from poorer families [Meyers et al. 2004]. Moreover, between 1968 and 2000 this gap widened [Murray 2012, pp. ...
This essay reviews the evidence from the mid-1970s up to 2010 of the increasing differentiation of the richest people from the rest of the population, a phenomenon designated as “fracturing.” Indicators under review include not just income and wealth, but also residential location, education, and health. Most of the indicators indicate that fracturing is increasing, that this process is cumulative, and that it will continue in the future. Public opinion data show that the attitudes and opinions of the richest are also deviating from the rest of the population on many (but not all) social and economic issues, and it seems likely that economic fracturing has had an important influence on this split, but the social implications of fracturing are, however, difficult to isolate.
... Meyers et al. estimate that federal and state spending for preschool services and means-tested subsidies, and federal tax expenditures for individual child care tax benefits, exceeded $20 billion as of 2000. 19 This estimate fails to capture significant public expenditures, however, including subsidized food programs, state supplementation of federal Head Start services, and federal and state tax benefits for providers. ...
Although the majority of young children now spend time in nonparental child care, we know relatively little about who provides this care and how its costs are distributed among parents, government, and other family members. In this article we use data from a survey of New York City families with children younger than six to estimate the contribution of parental expenditures, government assistance, and the market value of “donated” caregiving time by family, friends, and relatives. We conclude that uncompensated caregivers provide a substantial share of child care that is “invisible” in conventional economic measures.
... If children who have other advantages also get better child care (as Meyers et al. (2002) show) then it will come as no surprise if children in better quality care have better outcomes. However, is difficult to attribute the better outcomes to the causal effects of child care quality. ...
... These early care experiences have important implications for inequality. The quality of non-parental child care and parenting are not unrelated: if all are poor or impoverished, disadvantaged children can be doubly or triply disadvantaged (Meyers, Rosenbaum, Ruhm & Waldfogel 2004;Esping-Anderson 2004). This makes a system of quality child care of vital social importance. ...
1 explores the background to childcare policy challenges in Australia. It examines the residual nature of childcare policy, the growing evidence about its vital importance in affecting the life chances of children, existing patterns of use in Australia, questions of quality, affordability, demand and supply and the growing reach of the market. The logic of corporate provision through the market is at odds with the logic of quality care, and better employment standards and a more assertive state are essential to a better Australian system of early childhood care and education. There is also a pressing need for research that links to policy in the Australian context.
В посочената глава са описани потенциални проблеми, които биха могли да възникнат в обучението по STEM в ранното детско образование. Описани са насоки за тяхното решаване.
Çocuklar okul yılları öncesinde farklı ev ortamlarında bulunmakta ve bu ortamlar gelişimlerini etkilemektedir. Okul öncesi eğitim, özellikle okul öncesi yıllarda öğrenciler arasındaki farkları azaltmak ve öğrencileri eğitime hazırlamak için önemli bir imkân sağlamaktadır. Özellikle sosyoekonomik açıdan dezavantajlı öğrencilerin sahip oldukları dezavantajları büyümeden telafi etmek ve eğitimin başlangıç yıllarında daha eşit koşullar sağlamak için okul öncesi eğitimin önemi birçok çalışmada gösterilmektedir. Bu çalışmada da okul öncesi eğitimin eşitsizlikleri azaltmadaki rolü ile birlikte Türkiye’deki gelişimi incelemiş, mevcut durum ve son yıllarda yapılan iyileştirmeler ele alınmıştır. Okul öncesi eğitimin Türkiye’deki gelişiminin Cumhuriyetin ilk yıllarından itibaren çalışan kadınların çocuklarının bakımını önceliklendirecek şekilde başladığı ve okul öncesi eğitim veren okulların ilk kez 1961 yılında bir eğitim kurumu olarak tanımlandığı görülmektedir. Kurumsal yapı bağlamında Türkiye’de görülen dönüşüm ile Avrupa ülkelerinde bulunan okul öncesi eğitim kurumlardaki dönüşümler genel bir benzerlik göstermektedir. Türkiye’de bu kurumların fiziki kapasitelerinin ve yaygınlığının artırılması, işbirliği ile oluşturulmuş güncel eğitim programlarına sahip olması ise 2014 yılında olmuştur. Bu yıldan itibaren “Gezici Öğretmen Sınıfı”, “Gezici Sınıf” ve “Taşıma Merkezi Ana Sınıfı” gibi projelerle dezavantajlı öğrencilerin erişimini artıracak projeler ve işbirliklerinin sayısı da artırılmıştır. Tüm bu çabalarla 1992 yılında %5,1 olan okul öncesi okullaşma oranı 2020 itibarıyla beş yaş grubu için %71’e ulaşmıştır. Gerçekleştirilen projeler ve okul öncesi eğitimin önemine yapılan vurgular, 2023 Eğitim Vizyonunun hedeflerinden “5 yaşın zorunlu eğitim kapsamına alınması”na yönelik atılan önemli adımlardır.
Çocuklar okul yılları öncesinde farklı ev ortamlarında bulunmakta ve bu ortamlar gelişimlerini etkilemektedir. Okul öncesi eğitim, özellikle okul öncesi yıllarda öğrenciler arasındaki farkları azaltmak ve öğrencileri eğitime hazırlamak için önemli bir imkân sağlamaktadır. Özellikle sosyoekonomik açıdan dezavantajlı öğrencilerin sahip oldukları dezavantajları büyümeden telafi etmek ve eğitimin başlangıç yıllarında daha eşit koşullar sağlamak için okul öncesi eğitimin önemi birçok çalışmada gösterilmektedir. Bu çalışmada da okul öncesi eğitimin eşitsizlikleri azaltmadaki rolü ile birlikte Türkiye’deki gelişimi incelemiş, mevcut durum ve son yıllarda yapılan iyileştirmeler ele alınmıştır. Okul öncesi eğitimin Türkiye’deki gelişiminin Cumhuriyetin ilk yıllarından itibaren çalışan kadınların çocuklarının bakımını önceleyecek şekilde başladığı ve okul öncesi eğitim veren okulların ilk kez 1961 yılında bir eğitim kurumu olarak tanımlandığı görülmektedir. Kurumsal yapı bağlamında Türkiye’de görülen dönüşüm ile Avrupa ülkelerinde bulunan okul öncesi eğitim kurumlardaki dönüşümler genel bir benzerlik göstermektedir. Türkiye’de bu kurumların fiziki kapasitelerinin ve yaygınlığının artırılması, işbirliği ile oluşturulmuş güncel eğitim programlarına sahip olması ise 2014 yılında olmuştur. Bu yıldan itibaren “Gezici Öğretmen Sınıfı”, “Gezici Sınıf” ve “Taşıma Merkezi Ana Sınıfı” gibi projelerle dezavantajlı öğrencilerin erişimini artıracak projeler ve işbirliklerinin sayısı da artırılmıştır. Tüm bu çabalarla 1992 yılında %5,1 olan okul öncesi okullaşma oranı 2020 itibarıyla beş yaş grubu için %71’e ulaşmıştır. Gerçekleştirilen projeler ve okul öncesi eğitimin önemine yapılan vurgular, 2023 Eğitim Vizyonunun hedeflerinden “5 yaşın zorunlu eğitim kapsamına alınması”na yönelik atılan önemli adımlardır.
STEM в етапа на ранното детско образование и включването на родителите на малки деца. Ръководство за детски учители STEM за деца от предучилищна възраст и техните родители Под редакцията на Шенил Юнлу Четин, Кадер Билиджан, Мемет Ючгюл
Part C Early Intervention is intended to build capacity among caregivers of infants and toddlers with special needs to use tailored strategies in natural environments. Satisfaction and perceived strategy use, however, remain unclear. In a Northeastern home-based program, caregivers (n = 195; 33% response) and providers (n = 66; 33% response) answered questions on strategy use, whether others are asked to use strategies, and perceived compliance. A subset of providers participated in a focus group. Most providers were “somewhat confident” caregivers use recommended strategies. Half of providers consistently encouraged caregivers to ask others to use strategies, with this linked to familiarity with ecological systems theory. Despite 86.2% of caregivers asking one or more person to use strategies, there was little confidence in compliance. Findings and implications are discussed, including revisiting coaching practices, exploring variability in support networks, and promoting strategy use across key partners.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference of the Immersive Learning Network, iLRN 2016, held in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, in June/July 2016.
The proceedings contain 9 full papers carefully reviewed and selected from 45 submissions and the best 5 special track papers. The papers focus on various applications of immersive technologies to learning.
China's government has abolished its one-child policy and intends to universalise access to preschool education by 2020. It has also announced plans to raise the retirement age beginning in 2022. Together, these policies risk generating a major increase in the number of parents who must balance workplace–preschool demands with little assistance from grandparents. Drawing on a mixed-method design and a sample of parent-workers who reside in Beijing, this article finds that most parents currently deem the need to reconcile the respective demands of their workplace and preschool to be a concern of limited significance. But we also find that sustaining this situation will require the bolstering of government and enterprise supports that can assist parents provide for the education of their preschool-aged children with diminished assistance from grandparents.
School readiness remains a major challenge in the United States educational system. Research consistently shows significant disparities in pre-literacy skills and language acquisition based on socioeconomic class emerging within the first 18 months of childhood. Simultaneously, access to media devices such as smart phones and tablets is increasing, even among very young children. New guidelines suggest that those as young as two years of age can safely use these types of devices for up to two hours a day. Effective educational interventions for preschoolers have been developed using a variety of media, including computer games, suggesting that earlier interventions may be both possible and effective. We begin by providing a critical context that considers the importance of early-childhood language acquisition for two to three year old children. Then, we present a Science-Fiction Prototype that explores the possibilities of a sophisticated system to enhance school readiness and educational and economic opportunity.
This article considers the interplay of education and inequality along two related dimensions. First, the extent to which education is unequally distributed through the population is discussed; with inequalities in education across family background, gender, race, and ethnicity outlined and quantified. The next section reviews the inequalities in earnings and employment probabilities that are associated with differences in education. They are shown to be substantial, indicating that educational opportunities have an important role in improving individuals' life chances.
As women moved into the formal labor force in large numbers over the last forty years, care work-traditionally provided primarily by women-has increasingly shifted from the family arena to the market. Child care, elder care, care for the disabled, and home care now account for a growing segment of low-wage work in the United States. But the expanding market provision of care has created new economic anxieties and raised pointed questions: Why do women continue to do most care work, both paid and unpaid? Why does care work remain low paid when the quality of care is so highly valued? In For Love and Money, an interdisciplinary team of experts explores the theoretical dilemmas of care provision and provides an unprecedented empirical overview of the looming problems for the care sector in the United States. Drawing on diverse disciplines and areas of expertise, For Love and Money develops an innovative framework to analyze existing care policies and suggest potential directions for care policy and future research. Contributors Paula England, Nancy Folbre, and Carrie Leana explore the range of motivations for caregiving, such as familial responsibility or limited job prospects, and why both love and money can be efficient motivators. They also examine why women tend to specialize in the provision of care, citing factors like job discrimination, social pressure, or the personal motivation to provide care reported by many women. Suzanne Bianchi, Nancy Folbre, and Douglas Wolf estimate how much unpaid care is being provided in the United States and show that low-income families rely more on unpaid family members for their child and for elder care than do affluent families. With low wages and little savings, these families often find it difficult to provide care and earn enough money to stay afloat. Candace Howes, Carrie Leana and Kristin Smith investigate the dynamics within the paid care sector and find problematic wages and working conditions, including high turnover, inadequate training and a 'pay penalty' for workers who enter care jobs. These conditions have consequences: poor job quality in child care and adult care also leads to poor care quality. In their chapters, Janet Gornick, Candace Howes and Laura Braslow provide a systematic inventory of public policies that directly shape the provision of care for children or for adults who need personal assistance, such as family leave, child care tax credits and Medicaid-funded long-term care. They conclude that income and variations in state's policies are the greatest factors determining how well, and for whom, the current system works. Despite the demand for care work, very little public policy attention has been devoted to it. Only three states, for example, have enacted paid family leave programs. Paid or unpaid, care costs those who provide it. At the heart of For Love and Money is the understanding that the quality of care work in the United States matters not only for those who receive care but also for society at large, which benefits from the nurturance and maintenance of human capabilities. This volume clarifies the pressing need for America to fundamentally rethink its care policies and increase public investment in this increasingly crucial sector.
The families in which American children live have changed dramatically in recent years. Stay-at-home mothers, once the norm, have become an increasingly rare phenomenon, due to 2 major trends in family and work arrangements. These trends have profound implications for the role of work-family policies in promoting child wellbeing, particularly in low-income families. In this chapter, I consider the 4 major types of work-family policies: parental leave; other types of paid leave; flexible work arrangements; and child care. For each policy domain, I review what we know about how policies affect child well-being and then critically assess the current state of such policies in the United States, with a particular emphasis on their adequacy with regard to meeting the needs of children in low-income families. Because these policies tend to be more widely developed in other countries, I draw on evidence from overseas as well as from the United States. I conclude by discussing important policy considerations.
Among developed countries there are large differences in earnings inequality and intergenerational earnings persistence. This paper investigates public education and tax policies as a possible source for these differences. Empirical and quantitative policy experiments focus on the case of the U.S. and Norway. An overlapping generations model is developed and calibrated to match U.S. data. Functions for labor taxes and public education spending are estimated for each country and incorporated into the model. The benchmark exercise finds that taxes and public education spending account for about one-third of differences in earnings inequality and 14 percent of differences in intergenerational earnings persistence between the U.S. and Norway. Furthermore, public intervention in early childhood education more than doubles the impact of these policy changes.
Early childhood education and care affects millions of young people, their parents, and ultimately society at large. Social workers are employed directly in early childhood education and care programs and also witness the results of inadequate early interventions in various practice settings. Yet social workers do little of the research related to this topic. Numerous issues relate to both social work and to thoughtful discussions of early childhood education and care, including the unequal use of high quality early education programs, which is ultimately a social justice issue. This article elucidates how social workers can and why they should contribute to practice, policy, and research related to early childhood education and care.
School systems are called not only to instruct and socialize students but also to differentiate among them. Although much research has investigated inequalities in educational outcomes associated with students’ family background and other ascriptive traits, little research has examined cross-national differences in the total amount of differentiation that school systems produce, the total achievement inequality. This article evaluates whether two dimensions of educational systems—variations in opportunities to learn and intensity of schooling—are associated with achievement inequality independent of family background. It draws data from the Programme for International Student Assessment for more than 50 school systems and models the variance in achievement. Findings suggest that decreasing the variability in opportunities to learn—in the form of greater homogeneity in teacher quality and the absence of tracking—within the school system might reduce achievement inequality. More intense schooling is also related to lower achievement inequality to the extent that this intensity is homogeneously distributed within the school system, particularly in the form of a more highly qualified teacher workforce.
Child care and early education policies may not only raise average achievement but may also be of special benefit for less advantaged children, in particular if programs are high quality. We test whether high quality child care is equalizing using rich longitudinal data from two comparison countries, Denmark and the United States. In Denmark, we find that enrollment in high-quality formal care at age 3 is associated with higher cognitive scores at age 11. Moreover, the findings suggest stronger effects for the lowest-income children and for children at the bottom of the test score distribution. In the US case, results are different. We find that enrollment in school or center based care is associated with higher cognitive scores at school entry, but the beneficial effects erode by age 11, particularly for disadvantaged children. Thus, the US results do not point to larger and more lasting effects for disadvantaged children. This may be because low income children attend poorer quality care and subsequently attend lower quality schools.
It remains unclear whether social mobility is increasing in the advanced nations. The answer may depend on mobility patterns within very recent birth cohorts. We use the inter-generational module in the 2005 EU-SILC which allows us to include more recent cohorts. Comparing across two Nordic and three Continental European countries, we estimate inter-generational mobility trends for sons both indirectly, via social origin effects on educational attainment, and directly in terms of adult income attainment. In line with other studies we find substantially more mobility in Scandinavia, but also that traditionally less mobile societies, like Spain, are moving towards greater equality. We focus particularly on non-linear relations. Most interestingly, we reveal evident asymmetries in the process of equalizing life chances, in Denmark. The disadvantages associated with low social class origins have largely disappeared, but the advantages related to privileged origins persist.
Parents who have children and invest well in their future create, all at once, private and collective welfare. The increasingly large gap between the desired number of children and actual fertility must be interpreted as a welfare failure for families but also as a major problem for our economy and society. If, additionally, we invest too little in our children's skills the outcome is negative both for their life chances and for our future productivity. The new low- fertility equilibrium together with a substantial number of early school leavers that we see in many advanced countries poses, accordingly a policy challenge of considerable urgency. The challenge is clearly not limited to the rich OECD nations. Fertility has fallen sharply in East Asia and now also in a number of Latin American countries. As a whole, Latin American fertility has fallen from an average of 4.5 births per woman in the late 1970s to 2.5 in the new Century. There are several Caribbean nations that are approaching low fertility, meaning less than 1.6 per woman, and Chile seems headed in a similar direction (Guzman et.al., 2006). Latin America also faces a major skills challenge. While school enrolment rates are generally high in Latin America, there is great unevenness in terms of post-lower secondary level attainment. From the PISA studies as well as the International Adult Literacy Surveys it is quite evident that key Latin American nations, such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico, perform internationally poorly in terms of developing cognitive learning skills. In the 2000 PISA study, the mean Brazilian score is one standard deviation below the OECD mean, a truly huge gap. Similarly, from the IALS data we see that a full half of the Chilean population scored in the bottom quintile in terms of both prose and quantitative abilities. 1 This suggests that youth in the economically most advanced Latin American countries are poorly prepared for the evolving knowledge economy.
Socio-economic transformations associated with the shift to post-industrial societies have not only created new opportunities and prosperity, but have also given rise to the emergence of new social risks occurring at different stages of life. This paper examines the situation of children, who can arguably be considered a particularly vulnerable social group. It provides an overview of the changes generating child-related risk structures and, given this background, compares child well-being outcomes across a number of dimensions in the countries of the EU 15. The analysis reveals considerable heterogeneity both across and within welfare state regimes, suggesting overall a sort of "North-South-divide" with Nordic Europe coming out on top and Southern Europe on the bottom. In Austria, children seem to be better-protected from poverty risk than the average child in the EU 15. However, the level of material well-being is lower compared to the Nordic countries and does not translate into equally good performance in all the selected non-material domains.
As the number of children receiving care in out-of-home settings increases in the United States, the risk of injury in such settings has become the subject of intense research.
This study examined the relative safety of out-of-home care compared with care in a child's own home.
This community based prospective cohort study of 656 families in three adjacent counties in the Piedmont region of North Carolina characterizes the patterns and rates of injuries among children less than 5 years of age in three child care settings, home care (HC), center based care (CBC), and other out-of-home care (OOHC). Information about minor and severe injuries was obtained from parents using monthly telephone interviews over a one year period. Statistical modeling designed to handle unbalanced data with correlated observations was used as the primary tool for analysis.
Rate of minor injuries was highest in CBC, followed by HC, and then OOHC. However, these differences for OOHC may have been due to reporting biases and errors in rate estimates. There were no significant differences in severe injury rates among the three settings.
The risk of serious injury among children under 5 in CBC is not different from that of children in HC or OOHC despite the fact that the risk of minor injury is higher.
Child care quality depends on child care regulation as plants depend on water. An insufficient amount guarantees problems, but an excessive amount may also be problematic. The principal responsibility for child care regulation in the United States resides with state government officials, who must regulate a highly diverse industry. Research shows that regulation promotes quality but that trade-offs exist. Quality improvements that undermine availability or affordability should be evaluated with care. Also, regulatory enforcement deserves as much attention as regulatory standard setting. To improve child care regulation, state policymakers should consider eliminating some local regulations, regulating more family day care homes, upgrading teacher-training requirements, allocating more resources to regulatory enforcement, and designing more effective enforcement strategies.
To provide pertinent background information on infectious diseases and injury in child day care and outline measures to address these health care needs.
We reviewed published English-language literature identified through a MEDLINE bibliographic search, major literature summaries, and bibliographies from identified articles.
Child day-care settings reviewed included family child care homes, centers, special facilities for ill children, and facilities for children with special needs.
Primarily children in a variety of day-care settings, often compared with children cared for at home.
The occurrence of outbreaks and illness related to infectious disease and injury.
Compared with preschool-aged children reared at home, among children in day care the risk of some infectious diseases was two to four times greater. Rates of both intentional and unintentional injuries in day-care settings were somewhat lower than those for children cared for at home.
Because preschool-aged children spend increasing time in structured day-care settings, the risk for some infectious diseases has increased. At the same time, child day-care settings present opportunities for ensuring healthier children through enhanced development, safer environments, better nutrition, increased vaccination coverage, and health promotion.
Recent studies have suggested that day care may be a relatively unsafe environment. In this population-based study, the incidence of injuries in day care and home care were evaluated based on the number of hours children were exposed to each environment. In this population, 43.6% of children less than 5 years of age spent part of the year in day care. The rate of injuries in day care was 2.50 per 100,000 child-hours of exposure compared with a rate of 4.88 per 100,000 child-hours of exposure in the home environment. There were no differences in overall severity of injuries in the two groups. It was concluded that children are at no greater risk of injury in day-care settings than in the home environment.
Viral gastroenteritis is one of the most frequently encountered problems in the day-care setting. Four different viruses are proven diarrhea pathogens, and each consists of multiple antigenic types. Most vial gastroenteritis cases occur during outbreaks, indicating that exposure is high once the agent is in the center. The occurrence of frequent outbreaks of infection in DCCs permits better studies of the immunologic factors that protect children against infection in this setting than can be achieved outside group settings.
The study's objective was to examine and compare injury rates of children ages 6 months to 6 years in day care centers and homes. More specifically, we tested the hypothesis that the injury rate is lower in day care centers than at homes, as suggested by previous studies.
A comprehensive prospective injury registration was carried out in Stavanger, Norway, during 1992. We obtained data from this system to identify injuries occurring in day care centers, homes, and other places during 1992. Exposure-adjusted incidence rates were calculated to compare the risk of injury at day care centers, homes, and other places. We also obtained data from medical records on use and costs of medical care. In addition, a parent questionnaire was developed and used to gather data on the amount of injury-related restricted activity.
Among 9454 children ages 6 months to 6 years in Stavanger, 770 injuries occurred during 1992: 96 in day care centers, 472 at home, and 202 at other places. For children ages 6 months to 2 years, the rate of injuries was significantly lower in day care centers than at home (1.2 and 2.5, respectively, per 100,000 children-hours), but for children ages 3 to 6, the rates of injuries were similar in day care centers and at home (1.3 and 1.5, respectively, per 100,000 children-hours). The great majority of children attending day care centers were from 3 to 6 years of age. No significant differences were found in the severity of the injuries.
For children ages 3 to 6 years, which included most of the children attending day care centers in Stavanger, Norway, day care centers were not found to be safer than homes. We think continuing attention should be paid to injury control in day care centers.
Unlabelled:
To review the evidence concerning the association between (different forms of) day-care and otitis media in children aged 0-4 years, we performed a meta-analysis of studies identified by a systematic search with Medline from 1966 to July 1997 and by the reference lists. Seventeen articles were classified as useful because these articles studied children of 0-4 years of age and because odds ratios as well as confidence intervals were presented or could be calculated. All these studies found a association between attending a day-care centre and otitis media. The association between otitis media and family care was less clear. Differences in study design, age of the subjects, and controlled variables did not explain the association.
Conclusion:
Day-care is a risk factor for developing otitis media: the number of children seems to be important for this effect, probably due to increased exposure to otitis media pathogens.
Using the 1988 Child Health Supplement to the National Health Interview Survey, we analysed the association between child-care characteristics and frequent ear infections among children under 6 years attending child care. We observed strong associations for 1- to 2-year-old children for variables involving exposure to many different children, including number of children in the main setting and one or more changes in child-care arrangement in the past year. No significant effects were observed for the children under 1 year, but sample sizes were small. Likewise, no strong associations were observed for the 3- to 5-year-old children, but they may have outgrown the detrimental effects of repeated respiratory tract infections.
The epidemiology of infections associated with out-of-home child care is well-known, but our understanding of cost-effective prevention strategies is limited. Existing studies indicate that multidimensional interventional programs can reduce infection rates, but these conclusions are limited by a variety of methodologic concerns. Important areas for future research are to determine the critical elements of effective intervention programs, whether improvements in infection rates can be sustained over long periods and the costs of implementing and sustaining these programs.
In a prospective study carried out in Lyon, France, the association between the excretion of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the increasing frequency and severity of viral respiratory infections in children attending day-care centers was evaluated. Urine samples were collected in November 1992 (S1) and 4 months later in February 1993 (S4). A total of 246 children aged 6-12 months attending 29 day-care centers from 1 November to 28 February were screened for the excretion of CMV in urine. The diagnosis of viral acute respiratory infection was performed in the case of outbreaks only. Forty-eight (19.5%) children were both S1 and S4 positive for CMV, 30 (12.4%) became CMV positive (S1-/S4+), 4 (1.6%) became negative (S1+/S4-) and 164 (66.7%) remained negative. The percentage of children becoming CMV positive was significantly (P<0.001) higher in day-care centers where more than 40 children were enrolled. Nine outbreaks due to respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus and enterovirus were recorded in 8 of 29 (27.6%) day-care centers. Viral acute respiratory infections were significantly (P<0.05) more frequently recorded in day-care centers in which CMV and respiratory viruses cocirculated and were significantly (P<0.001) more frequently reported in CMV-infected children. These findings suggest that viral acute respiratory infections are significantly more likely to occur in CMV-infected children.