Skills acquired during early childhood are believed to lay the foundation for development into adulthood, but this issue has not been carefully examined empirically. Using the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we asked which school readiness skills predict which adult outcomes. The study followed 814 participants to 26 years of age (81 % White, 9 % Black, 5 % Hispanic, 53 % female: 23 % low income). Analyses related preschool language, academic, executive functioning, and social-emotional skills to adult educational attainment, employment, and arrests. Modest associations were observed. An overall school readiness composite predicted educational attainment, income, and occupational status. Individual school readiness skills independently related to some adult outcomes, with a academic and language composite and inhibitory control predicting adult educational attainment and executive functioning and social skills predicting adult occupational status. School readiness skills were not related to self-report of any arrests.

Regulations and policy in early care and education (ECE) is based largely on the idea that structural elements of ECE, such as child-adult ratio, predict teacher-child interactions that then predict child developmental outcomes. This structure-process-outcome model was initially proposed when many states had minimal ECE quality standards. Our study tested the structure-process-outcome model using four large early childhood data sets that were collected over a 30-year period. Data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 606, 24% non-White), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study's Birth Cohort (n = 1,420, 56% non-White), the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014 Cohort (n = 2,105, 76% non-White), and the University of North Carolina's Early Learning Network (n = 455, 75% non-White) were analyzed. Child-adult ratios and teachers' highest level of education were associated with measures of observed classroom quality during the historical period when there were minimal regulations and classroom ratios were higher and teacher education was lower; relations were not found when regulations required higher levels of structural quality. Notably, we also did not find significant relations between process quality measured by commonly used quality assessments and children's academic and behavioral outcomes in the preschool year. These findings suggest that as policies have improved structural quality, there is a need to refine the structure-process-outcome theoretical model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Publicly funded prekindergarten (pre-K) has received substantial investments in recent decades. A robust literature base has shown that pre-K, in general, tends to be associated with shorter-term rather than longer-term impacts. Yet, these findings are not definitive across varying state contexts and student demographic groups. The current study examined state administrative literacy and absence data in kindergarten and first grade for 455 students in North Carolina's publicly funded pre-K program and 225 of their non-pre-K peers. State datasets were paired with data from an in-depth longitudinal study starting in the 2016-17 school year. Student-level characteristics (family income, maternal education, race/ethnicity, multilingual learner, and disability status) were examined as possible moderators. We found pre-K attendance was associated with higher kindergarten entry literacy scores, but these advantages diminished over time. The following groups of students continued to see some longer-term benefits of pre-K: students whose mothers had a high school diploma or less and Latine students. Pre-K was associated with fewer days absent in kindergarten and first grade, with no evidence of moderation.

The study examines students' skills at kindergarten entry and gains in skills across the kindergarten through first-grade period (pre-COVID-19) for predicting literacy, language, math, inhibitory control, and social-adjustment outcomes in the spring of fourth grade, after schools reopened. In a large US school district, longitudinal data were collected on students (N = 785) who were linguistically diverse (85% home language other than English) and from families with low-income backgrounds. Adjusting for covariates, students' achievement and executive function skills at entry to kindergarten and gains in these skills across K-1 predicted their proficiency in reading, math, and language in fourth grade. Executive function skills at kindergarten entry and across K-1 predicted inhibitory control in fourth grade, and kindergarten-entry social adjustment predicted school engagement and connectedness to teachers in fourth grade. Early skills or gains were not differentially predictive of fourth-grade outcomes for English-language learners versus English speakers.

Several influential studies reported sex differences in early care and education (ECE) treatment on young adult IQ and academic outcomes. This paper extends that work by asking whether sex differences in impacts of the Carolina Abecedarian Project emerged during the treatment period or subsequently and whether sex differences were maintained into middle adulthood. The randomized clinical trial (98% Black, 51% female) followed 104 infants 5 to 45 years of age. Longitudinal analyses estimated treatment and sex-by-treatment differences at 5 years, from 5 to 21 years, and at 21 and 45 years. Results revealed treated children entered school with higher IQ and reading skills than control children. Treatment impacts on IQ and math increased over time for females and decreased for males yielding sex differences in treatment impacts at 21 and 45 years. These findings suggest that, while the ECE treatment similarly benefited boys and girls in the short term, the long-term impacts likely depended on subsequent experiences.

A sample of 496 early childhood teachers was assigned randomly in two phases to a series of professional development (PD) interventions. Phase I intervention was a 14-week course on effective teacher-child interactions. Participants were then re-randomized into Phase II intervention, which consisted of individual, interactions-focused coaching. Impacts of the course, coaching, and their combination were evaluated relative to business-as-usual controls on knowledge of effective interactions, skill in detecting effective interactions, observed teacher-child interactions, beliefs about intentional teaching, and children's classroom engagement. Research Findings: Teachers exposed to the course demonstrated greater knowledge of and skills in detecting effective teacher child-interactions, and displayed higher quality instructional support in their interactions with children during the year following the course. Teachers who received coaching were also observed to display higher levels of instructional support and children in their classrooms displayed more positive engagement with adults. However, neither teachers nor children appeared to gain additional benefit from the combination of the course and coaching. Practice or Policy: The results have important implications for efforts to systematically and efficiently improve the quality of early childhood programs through the delivery of PD that is directly aligned with teachers' classroom interactions.

In a group randomized trial of 45 elementary schools, a whole-child health and wellness curriculum introduced as a regular part of the educational programming was compared to education as usual over 2 years with a 2-year follow-up. The curriculum focused on integrating multiple SEL skills—mindfulness, compassion, and physical awareness—with the intent to advantage developmental patterns for these skills, academic engagement, personal well-being, and student behavior. The program design and trial implementation were launched with end-use delivery and long-term sustainability as integral considerations. Effects were shown for several SEL skills and behavioral indicators previously robustly correlated to long-term outcomes. Effects were demonstrated more broadly in schools serving high-poverty communities, suggesting the impact was stronger where the need was greater. Results are interpreted regarding supporting school-based SEL, the potential of applying group randomized trials with end-use conditions of implementation, and the value of fitting innovation efforts to school system operations, mandates, and priorities for promoting sustainability.

More rigorous research is needed on how to design programs

To provide a landscape of mathematics activities children experience in U.S. preschool and kindergarten classrooms, we observed time children spent in mathematics activities (and — as a contrast — literacy) in 101 geographically diverse early childhood classrooms in seven U.S. states. We also observed what mathematics content, grouping strategies, and management formats teachers engaged during classroom mathematics activities. Each observation lasted approximately 2 hours; collectively these observations focused on 930 children observed one to three times during the 2018/2019 or 2019/2020 school year. Averaging across individuals’ data within classrooms, we found that mathematics and literacy activities comprised 5% and 45% of time observed in preschool classrooms, respectively; and 25% and 42% of time observed in kindergarten classrooms, respectively. At both grades, when mathematics activities occurred, they were proportionally more often teacher-led rather than child-led. These findings raise concerns about the paucity of mathematics and over-reliance on developmentally inappropriate teacher-managed mathematics instruction in early childhood classrooms, especially preschools. Amount of time in math did not vary by preschool auspice, but time in literacy and the proportion of math time devoted to specific math content did: In Head Start classrooms we observed lowest percentage of time in literacy (and the highest percentage of time in non-instruction) compared to all other auspices. Across auspices, numeracy was the predominant math content area overall, but especially in Head Start classrooms. Thus, some aspects of early mathematics may differ with program auspice, suggesting that recommendations to increase and improve early mathematics activities may need to consider auspice characteristics.

Children's early environmental experiences are often considered highly influential for later life development. Yet, environmental contexts, such as the home and early care and education (ECE) setting, and multiple aspects of each setting, are not typically examined concurrently. In this study, we examined associations between cognitive stimulation and emotional support in the home and ECE setting during the preschool years (36-54 months) with adolescent (age 15; n = 708; 52% female) and adult (age 26; n = 584; 54% female) outcomes using data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a study conducted at 10 sites across the United States. Cognitive stimulation in the home was significantly related to increased academic achievement at age 15 and educational attainment at age 26. Home emotional support was related to decreased behavior problems and increased social skills at age 15. No significant associations were found between either emotional support or cognitive stimulation in ECE and children's later development. These findings provide further support that the child's home environment during early childhood plays a substantial role in development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

ABSTRACT This study utilized data from the Family Life Project (FLP) to examine Head Start children’s school readiness skills at the end of preschool in comparison to two other care groups: home-based care and other center-based care. The FLP study enrolled a birth-cohort of 1,292 children born in two historically low-wealth, rural regions of the U.S., with oversampling of children from low-wealth families and African American families. Propensity score weighting adjusted for differences in baseline child and family characteristics between the Head Start participants and children in the two alternative care groups. Research Findings: The results indicated that the Head Start group had higher literacy skills at the end of preschool in comparison to the home-based care group (β = 0.36), but no other reliable differences emerged between these groups in school readiness skills. No reliable differences emerged between the Head Start and other center-based care groups in school readiness skills. Practice and Policy: Implications for educational practice and policy were discussed in relation to Head Start programming in rural America, including potential targets for program improvement and strategies for program expansion.

Pre-kindergarten (pre-k) is thought to have both direct and indirect effects on children's outcomes in early elementary school. Direct pre-k effectsconsistently include moderate to large gains in academic skills and sometimes include increases in problem behaviors that affect acquisition of skills in school. Indirect pre-k effects assume that having more pre-k attenders in classrooms motivates teachers to pro-vide more challenging instruction and provide children with more academically skilled, but perhaps be-haviorally challenged peers with whom they interact. To date, these indirect effects have not been care-fully examined. This study used a district-wide cohort study of a pre-k program ( n = 2572 children, 482 kindergarten classrooms) to examine whether the proportion of children in kindergarten classrooms with pre-k experience related to gains in children's academic, executive function, and social skills dur-ing kindergarten. Results indicated that schools with more pre-k attenders served more children from low-income families and children of color. The quality of instruction in classrooms with more pre-k at -tenders was rated as slightly higher in terms of instructional support and focus on abstract learning when school composition was not considered. Teachers reported less focus on teachers-parent coordination of home learning in classrooms with more pre-k attenders. Children with more classmates who attended pre-k, regardless of their own pre-k attendance histories, showed slightly larger gains in vocabulary and inhibitory control skills but also showed smaller increases in ability to manage frustration. When taken together, findings may indicate that peers influence young children's verbal and social skills, but do not support speculation that increasing pre-k exposure would improve reading or math skills overall or lead to more externalizing behavior problems.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early care and education (ECE) evolved around two goals: allowing parents of young children to work (the purpose) and promoting early childhood development (the promise). An extensive body of research has examined how ECE promotes child development. A much sparser body of research has studied how ECE access affects families' economic and psychological well-being, particularly from a developmental perspective. These imbalanced literatures have created an incomplete picture of the role of ECE in developmental science, and this gap in knowledge limits the extent to which both the purpose and the promise of ECE can be fulfilled. In this article, we argue that developmental researchers should pay more attention to the parent and family outcomes, processes, and mechanisms that depend on stable, high-quality care (the purpose), and how these downstream cascades influence child development in the short and long term (the promise). While these issues are international, in this article, we focus on the development of and research on ECE in the United States to illustrate how the focus on both the purpose and promise of ECE could expand policies and research in the area.

Whether high quantities of center-based care cause behavior problems is a controversial question. Studies using covariate adjustment for selection factors have detected relations between center care and behavior problems, but studies with stronger internal validity less often find such evidence. We examined whether within-child changes in hours in center-based care predicted changes in externalizing problems in toddlers and preschoolers (N = 10,105; 49% female; data collection 1993-2012) in seven studies, including from Germany, Netherlands, Norway, two from Canada and two from the U.S. Race/ethnicity data were only collected in the United States (57% and 80% White; 42% and 13% African-American; 1.2% and 5% Latinx). Meta-analyses showed no association (r = .00, p = .88) between hours in center-based care and externalizing problems.

Pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) programs typically improve early academic skills, but those gains too often disappear after children transition to elementary school. At least three hypotheses explain this "fade-out" of Pre-K effects: Pre-K does not focus on the "trifecta skills" that uniquely support subsequent learning and development; the quality of school-age experiences as "sustaining environments" are more important for Pre-K attenders than nonattenders; and kindergarten (K) teachers provide "redundant instruction" by teaching the same skills taught in preschool programs. The present sample included the second year of assessments on 455 children living in rural counties in the Southeast recruited from Pre-K classrooms and the first year of assessments for 246 K classmates without center-based preschool experience. Children's academic, language, executive function (EF), and social skills were assessed each fall and spring, and the quality of classrooms was measured each winter. Propensity scores weighted the two groups on demographic characteristics. Hierarchical linear models indicated that the Pre-K attenders had higher levels of language, academic, and EF skills than nonattenders at the beginning of K, but those differences significantly declined for academic skills. By the end of K, the Pre-K group showed slightly higher language and EF skills than the nonattenders. Results appeared to support the trifecta skills hypothesis to explain fade-out, with no evidence supporting the differential sustaining environments or redundant instruction hypotheses. Implications and the study's limitations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Memorializes Mark I. Appelbaum (1941-2020). Appelbaum was a giant in the field of quantitative psychology and developmental methodology. At the time of his passing, he was Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego. He was a distinguished researcher, teacher, and administrator who helped to transform research in psychology, education, and medicine by developing and applying methods for analyzing longitudinal data. He also was an award-winning teacher and mentor, an innovative administrator, and an individual with a passionate commitment to service-service to his colleagues, universities, and to the discipline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Although high-quality early care and education (ECE) is widely accepted as one of the most effective means for promoting early learning and development, many ECE programs have limited impact perhaps because of issues with how ECE quality is defined and measured. This study seeks to expand definitions of ECE quality by asking which preschool ECE quality dimensions relate to gains in which developmental outcomes and contrasting measurements using classroom-level ratings and child-level behavior counts. The sample includes 366 children in 63 randomly selected prekindergarten (pre-k) classrooms in six rural counties in a Southeast state. In the fall and spring, children were administered tests of academic achievement, language skills, and executive functions, and teachers rated their social skills. In the winter, the quality of teacher-child interactions was rated at the classroom level and the frequency that the child experienced complex teacher talk, domain-specific instructional activities, and whole group settings were counted at the child level. Two sets of analyses related gains in outcomes to the classroom-level ratings in both analyses and to behavior counts summarized at the classroom level and at the child level in separate analyses. Results indicated that (1) different ECE dimensions related to gains in different outcomes; (2) ECE quality measures based on observing the selected experiences of individual children provide as strong or stronger associations with child outcomes than do ratings of teacher-child interactions; and (3) it may be necessary to measure experiences of individual children if those experiences are likely to vary markedly among children in the same classroom. (c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Policy observers have expressed concern over whether misalignment between pre-K and K–12 has negative consequences for children. This study considers students’ exposure to redundant content across the pre-K and kindergarten years. Specifically, it asks, to what extent are skills and concepts taught in kindergarten redundant with skills and concepts taught in one state’s public pre-K program, and for whom is redundancy most likely? Overall, findings from teacher surveys show that about 37% of the language, literacy, and math content covered in kindergarten is redundant with content covered in pre-K. The highest rates of redundancy seem to occur for basic (rather than advanced) content items, including the identification of letters and sight words. Moreover, children from families who live at or below the poverty line experience significantly higher rates of redundant content. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

Students' level of academic skills at school entry are a strong predictor of later academic success, and focusing on improving these skills during the preschool years has been a priority during the past 10 years. Evidence from two prior nationally representative studies indicated that incoming kindergarteners' math and literacy skills were higher in 2010 than 1998, but no national studies have examined trends since 2010. This study examines academic skills at kindergarten entry from 2010 and 2017 using data from over 2 million kindergarten students. Results indicate that kindergarteners in 2017 had moderately lower math and reading skills than in 2010, but that inequalities at school entry by race/ethnicity and school poverty level have decreased during this period.

The diversity of experiences among bilingual children is reflected in the variability of abilities in each of their languages. This paper describes the CECER-DLL Child and Family, and Teacher Questionnaires and discusses the utility of these tools. These questionnaires were created to address the need for valid and reliable tools to document contextual characteristics and language experiences of young bilingual children in developmental and educational research. A multi-site validity study using the CECER-DLL Questionnaires demonstrates how children's language skills are influenced by language exposure at home and at school, mothers' and teachers' skills in each language, mother's generational status, and languages used during language and literacy activities at home.