Using data ("n" = 3,790 with 2,119 in the 3-year-old cohort and 1,671 in the 4-year-old cohort) from 353 Head Start centers in the Head Start Impact Study, the only large-scale randomized experiment in Head Start history, this article examined the impact of Head Start on children's cognitive and parent-reported social-behavioral outcomes…

Using data from the first 2 phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, the authors examine the links between maternal employment in the first 12 months of life and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children at age 3, at age 4.5, and in first grade. Drawing on theory and prior research from developmental psychology as well as…

In this study, we examined the developmental pathways from children's family environment to school readiness within a low-income sample (N = 1,046), with a specific focus on the role of sustained attention. Six distinct factors of the family environment representing maternal parenting behaviors, the physical home environment, and maternal mental…

Household chaos has been linked to poorer cognitive, behavioural, and self-regulatory outcomes in young children, but the mechanisms responsible remain largely unknown. Using a diverse sample of families in Chicago, the present study tests for the independent contributions made by five indicators of household chaos: noise, crowding, family…

Early development is likely influenced by quality of early parenting and improvements or declines in quality over time. Little is known about how changes in different dimensions of parenting influence child outcomes, nor the relative sizes of associations when considering several aspects simultaneously. These questions are addressed in the Early…

Examined longitudinally maternal emotional distress, parental behavior, and provision of cognitively stimulating activities as mediators of the association between family income and prematurely born young children's development. Found that provision of stimulating experiences in the home mediated the relation between family income and children's…

Used a subsample from the Infant Health and Development Program to examine effects of neighborhood and family income and family risk factors on developmental test scores at ages 1 through 3. Family poverty was associated with lower scores at ages 2 and 3. Neighborhood affluence was associated with higher scores at age 3. Home environment was a…

Examined data on 900 European American children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care to explore links between maternal employment during the child's first year and child cognitive outcomes. Found that maternal employment by the child's ninth month related to lower school readiness scores at 36 months, with more pronounced effects for certain…

Investigates changes in children's socioemotional development, achievement, and self-concept after the birth of a sibling. Data from a national longitudinal survey of preschool-aged children, over a two-year and a four-year period, indicate that a sibling's birth accompanied significant, albeit temporary, increases in children's behavior problems.…

Examined differences in intelligence test scores of black and white five-year-olds born premature with low birth weight. Found that black children's IQ scores were 1 SD lower than those of white children. Adjustments for ethnic differences in poverty reduced the differential by half; adjustments for differences in home environment reduced it by…

Study of a cohort of low birth weight, preterm infants examined effects of maternal knowledge and concepts of child rearing on the home environment and developmental outcomes. Maternal knowledge, measured at 1 year, was found to be associated with quality of the home environment, the number of child behavior problems, and to a small degree, infant…

Reviews current large-scale, longitudinal studies focusing on children. Describes the data collected, including child outcomes, process-oriented information on child-parent interactions, child care quality, parental mental health, family violence, fathering, employment patterns, and community characteristics. Notes that several studies incorporate…

Examined associations between individual dimensions of the home literacy environment and specific emergent literacy skills among low-income preschoolers. Found that three dimensions of family literacy environments--language and verbal interactions, learning climate, and social and emotional climate--differentially foster preschool children's…