# THE NICHD STUDY OF EARLY CHILD CARE

> **NIH NIH U10** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE · 1993 · $701,853

## Abstract

This proposal is submitted in response to an NICHD RFA to assemble
a cooperative agreement among a group of PI's to study the effects
of infant child care, proposed is a longitudinal study of infant
child care, such that its impact on child outcomes will be studied
from the perspective of the social ecology of the family (i.e.,
parental values and attitudes, parental stress parental support,
parent-child interactions, and family demographics), the social
ecology of the child care setting (i.e., type of care, stability
of care, quality of care, provider values, provider-child
interactions, and provider stress and support), and individual
differences among children (i.e., sex, temperament).  Outcome
variables in this site-specific proposal include attachment,
behavioral-emotional problems, verbal intelligence, and language
performance.  Parent-child interaction and provider-child
interaction will be measured with a newly-developed time budget
survey to assess the life conditions of children in two settings,
the home and the child care setting.

Children (n=200), their parents, and their child care providers
will be studied over a 39 month period, when the children range in
age from 4 to 42 months.  Children will be sampled randomly and
identified through birth records to increase the generalizability
of the results and because so many children attend unlicensed child
care facilities.  Families will be stratified by type of child care
during recruitment (family day care vs. no child care), SES, and
mother's age.

The specific aims of the research are:  (1) to examine the
differences and similarities between the life conditions of infants
in child care and infants not in child care; (2) to examine the
relationship between the type of care infants receive and their
concurrent and long-term development; (3) to examine the
relationship between the quality of care infants receive and their
concurrent and long-term development; (4) to examine whether the
social ecology of the home and child care settings mediate the
impact of child care on development; and (5) to examine whether
individual differences among children (e.g., sex and temperament)
mediate the impact of infant child care on development.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2199568
- **Project number:** 5U10HD025451-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
- **SAM.gov UEI:** GBNGC495XA67
- **Principal Investigator:** KATHLEEN A MCCARTNEY
- **Activity code:** U10 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $701,853
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1989-05-01 → 1995-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2199568

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2199568, THE NICHD STUDY OF EARLY CHILD CARE (5U10HD025451-05). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2199568. Licensed CC0.

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