1. Early Childcare Careers: What are the Facts? Judith Stull, Marsha Weinraub*, Michelle Harmon Research, Policy, and Practice Conference (R2P), April 8, 2014, Philadelphia, PA Director, Family & Children’s Research Collaborative, Temple University, 215-204-7360, marsha.weinraub@temple.edu Background Project Overview Results/Conclusions Research to Practice Strategies “ Considerable evidence links child-care quality and cognitive development among preschoolers. Childcare quality has been positively related, albeit modestly, to preschool –age children’s cognitive development and social competence in a wide variety of studies that controlled for family background characteristics such as socioeconomic status, maternal education, or family.” (p. 340) Burchinal, M. R., Roberts, J. E., Riggins Jr, R., Zeisel, S. A., Neebe, E., & Bryant, D. (2000). Relating quality of center ‐ based child care to early cognitive and language development longitudinally. Child Development, 71(2), 339-357. Higher levels of child care quality were modestly associated with improvements in children’s socioemotional development, and extensive hours in child care were linked to increases in children’s quantitative skills and decreases in behavior problems. Votruba-Drzal, E., & Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, P. (2004). Child Care and Low ‐ Income Children's Development: Direct and Moderated Effects. Child development, 75(1), 296-312 Project Goal: To understand the effects of subsidized care on children’s school readiness and subsequent development through an analysis of the “childcare careers” (Pre Kindergarten Experiences – PKEs) of children with childcare subsidies. Import of project: Although researchers and policymakers can access cross-sectional data that show the kind and quality of care that is being “bought” at any one time with subsidies, this project provides a longitudinal analysis of children’s pre-kindergarten experiences. Perhaps the modest or inconsistent findings are due to the variability of experiences. The initial assumptions made were: Child development was a function of the quality of the child care experienced – the higher the quality, the greater the positive effect Center-based care was superior to other forms of care in terms of child development Pennsylvania had a quality rating system (Keystone Stars) for center-based care so quality measures were available In this secondary data analysis project, we analyzed data from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) and the Office of Income Management. Detailed subsidy data from the state by length of time and by type of care a. Center-basedb. Group homecare b. Residential/ Neighborhoodd. Family care Analysis focused on the greater Philadelphia area – sample from an on-going project with N= 735 children Method On the whole the children spent the greatest percentage of time in center care (58.4%), followed somewhat distantly by R_N care (35.7%), then family care (4.7%), and group care (1.2%). 1.Impact of center care mat have been underestimated 2.Addressing multidimensionality may yield richer understanding 3.To capture the actual effect of center-based childcare on school readiness, the following need to be factored into any analyses: a. Length of time by quality characteristics, b. Number and length of “gaps,” and c. Number of centers, and other childcare arrangements