Child and Parenting Outcomes After 1 Year of Educare

• Published in: Child development Vol. 88; no. 5; pp. 1671 - 1688
• Main Authors: Yazejian, Noreen, Bryant, Donna M., Horm, Diane, File, Nancy, Hans, Sydney, St. Clair, Lisa, Burchinal, Margaret
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development 01.09.2017; Wiley-Blackwell; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Achievement Gap; Behavior problems; Child Development - physiology; Child poverty; Child Rearing; Childbirth & labor; Children; Children & youth; Disadvantaged Youth; Early Childhood Education; Early Intervention (Education) - methods; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Female; Head Start project; Humans; Infant; Infant Behavior - physiology; Infants; Language Development; Language proficiency; Low Income Groups; Male; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Participation; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parents & parenting; Partnerships; Poverty; Preschool Children; Social Skills; Speech Perception - physiology; Toddlers; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12688

Educare is a birth to age 5 early education program designed to reduce the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their more economically advantaged peers through high-quality center-based programming and strong school-family partnerships. This study randomly assigned 239 children (< 19 months) from low-income families to Educare or a business-as-usual control group. Assessments tracked children 1 year after randomization. Results revealed significant differences favoring treatment group children on auditory and expressive language skills, parent-reported problem behaviors, and positive parent-child interactions. Effect sizes were in the modest to medium range. No effects were evident for observer-rated child behaviors or parent-rated social competence. The overall results add to the evidence that intervening early can set low-income children on more positive developmental courses.