ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, in the first version of this chapter for the handbook of Research on the Education of Young Children, we reviewed the empirical studies on child care from the 1970s and 1980s. By-and-large, the studies reviewed were small single-site studies (Phillips & Howes, 1987). Only two studies that could be considered nationally representative existed, the landmark National Day Care Study (Ruopp, Travers, Glantz, & Coelen, 1979) and the then newly released National Child Care Staffing Study (Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1992; Howes, Sakai, Shinn, Phillips, Galinsky, & Whitebook, 1995; Howes, Whitebook, & Phillips, 1992; Phillips, Howes, & Whitebook, 1992; Phillips, Voran, Kister, Howes, & Whitebook 1994; Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips, 1990; Whitebook, Howes, & Phillips, 1998). We concluded:
We have sufficient research in the area of child care to make several overarching conclusions. Child care quality appears more important than either child care form or age of entry in predicting children’s development. Quality in child care is closely linked to the adult providing care. In settings where the adult can effectively perform both nurturing and teaching roles, children are able to develop more social and cognitive competence. Teacher effectiveness is linked to individual characteristics, including formal education and specialized training, and to setting characteristics, particularly salaries and adult-child ratio. Although family and child care influences are difficult to separate, most studies find that the best predictors of children’s outcomes are a combination of family and child care influences.
