Morning or afternoon: Does it make a difference in early childhood programs

Given that the use of AM (morning) and PM (afternoon) sessions in early childhood programs is a pervasive and established model lacking conclusive research evidence to support its appropriateness, the study used mixed methods design to test the hypothesis that if relevant differences in teacher, family, and child characteristics are accounted for, children in AM sessions will perform equally well as the children in PM sessions in social and cognitive outcomes. Descriptive and multilevel analysis was conducted using quantitative data. Constant comparative method was used to analyze the qualitative data. Results indicate that a number of children, family, and teacher, and session-level variables moderate the effect of time-of-day on cognitive and social outcomes. While there are some interesting differences in children's achievement and behavior in the two sessions, there is no clear indicator of these differences. Limitations of the findings and implications for future research, policy, and practice are discussed.