# THE NICHD STUDY OF EARLY CHILD CARE

> **NIH NIH U10** · UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA · 1993 · $501,528

## Abstract

The broad intent of the proposed collaborative research is to
examine the concurrent and long term development effects of varying
patterns and qualities of in-home and out-of-home care for infants
and toddlers.  The site-specific study proposed at the University
of Virginia examines the effects of infant child care on children's
socioemotional development, and focuses on the predictive role of
variation in the stability and quality of children's day care
environments.  Within this conceptual framework, the timing and
extent of day care experience, family environment and background
factors (including maternal stress and separation anxiety), and
characteristics of the children and examine for their moderating
influence on the contribution of day care quality and stability.
The research is designed to improve upon methodological weaknesses
of prior day care research, to contribute to theoretical issues in
this area, and to inform policy debates about infant day care.

The study has five specific aims:  (1) To assess, prospectively and
longitudinally, the socioemotional development of children who have
varying child care experiences, including exclusive maternal care,
during infancy.  A cohort-sequential design is employed in which
one cohort of families is first assessed during the third trimester
of pregnancy and followed to the child's third birthday, and a
second cohort is first seen when the child is 12 months old and
followed to age four years.  (2) To examine the contribution of
variation in the quality of the day care setting to any effects
found for early entry into infant day care.  We hypothesize that
quality of care, rather than "age of entry" into and amount of day
care, is the primary predictor of developmental outcomes.  (3) To
examine variation in the stability of day care as a component of
quality.  Day care has been studied primarily as a static
intervention:  one arrangement at one point in a child's life.  We
propose to examine stability and change in care over time as a
predictor of children's adaptation to day care.  (4) To examine the
interactive effects of children's home and day care environments
on their socioemotional development.  Both in-home and out-of-home
care experiences are assessed repeatedly during the course of the
study.  We hypothesize that either a positive home or day care
environment can buffer children from one detrimental environment,
and that particularly negative developmental effects will be found
when both day care and home environments are of low quality or
highly unstable.  (5) To test the hypothesis that pre-enrollment
designs in day care research yield less biased results than do
designs in which families are recruited after decision about
maternal employment and day care have been made.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2199562
- **Project number:** 5U10HD025449-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
- **SAM.gov UEI:** JJG6HU8PA4S5
- **Principal Investigator:** Deborah A. Phillips
- **Activity code:** U10 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $501,528
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1989-05-01 → 1995-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2199562

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2199562, THE NICHD STUDY OF EARLY CHILD CARE (5U10HD025449-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2199562. Licensed CC0.

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