# THE NICHD STUDY OF EARLY CHILD CARE

> **NIH NIH U10** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 1994 · $901,878

## Abstract

More than half of all women with infants under one year are employed
outside the home.  Their infants experience a variety of forms of
nonmaternal care.  Recent research suggests that children who begin
nonmaternal care in the first year are at risk for insecure attachment and
non-compliance, characteristics which may make them more likely to develop
learning, emotional and behavior problems in later years.  It is not fully
understood, however, how factors associated with nonmaternal care affect
these outcomes.  The proposed project will compare the quality of mother-
child mutual adaptation in the second year for dyads with and without
mothers who are employed during the infant's first year.  It will also
determine the individual, familial and environmental factors related to
differences in mother-child mutual adaptation within mother-employed and
mother-at-home groups.  The proposed project is a prospective,
longitudinal study in which primiparous couples will be recruited
prenatally.  Mothers and infants will be observed at home quarterly in the
first year.  Infants whose mothers leave them in nonmaternal care will be
observed in that setting two weeks after onset and quarterly thereafter.
The quality of caregiving at home and in daycare will be measured with a
coding scheme tapping sensitive and appropriate responsiveness to infant
signals.  Mutual adaptation, a construct consisting of attachment
security, the control-autonomy balance in the mother-child relationship,
and interactive quality will be assessed at 12 and 18 months.  This method
will permit a validation of the use of the Strange Situation as an
assessment of attachment security for infants experiencing regular non-
maternal care.  A model will be tested in which the effects of nonmaternal
care are mediated by infant vulnerability to variations in maternal
caregiving, which in turn is subject to individual, familial and
environmental influences.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2199557
- **Project number:** 5U10HD025447-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **SAM.gov UEI:** HD1WMN6945W6
- **Principal Investigator:** CATHRYN BOOTH-LAFORCE
- **Activity code:** U10 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1994
- **Award amount:** $901,878
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1990-01-24 → 1995-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2199557

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2199557, THE NICHD STUDY OF EARLY CHILD CARE (5U10HD025447-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2199557. Licensed CC0.

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