Parenting and child care as predictors of language, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in young, low-income children

Data from a sample of high-risk, low-income families with young children (the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project) were evaluated to assess the interactions of parenting risk and two child care variables, child care type and child care quality. A theoretical framework for conceptualizing such interactions was presented, and two specific hypotheses derived from this framework---the compensatory and lost resources hypotheses---were evaluated. Level of parenting risk was determined based on behaviors observed during a parent-child interaction task administered at child age 14 months, child care quality was measured using an observational rating of formal child care settings following the 14-month interview, and dominant child care type was derived from parental reports of the most formal type of child care received from 15 to 24 months. Cognitive, language, and behavioral outcomes were assessed at 24 and 36 months. Results provided no support for the lost resources hypothesis---that children experiencing low, but not high, parenting risk would be negatively impacted by non-optimal child care environments---and only very limited support for the compensatory hypothesis-that children experiencing high, but not low, parenting risk would be positively impacted by center or high-quality child care. Specifically, for a measure of cognitive ability assessed at 24-months, evidence suggested that participation in center-based care was compensatory for children from high parenting risk environments. Although results based on similar analyses for the same cognitive measure assessed one year later did not support such an interaction, a pattern of results suggestive of compensatory processes did emerge for a 36-month measure of receptive language, though the results were only marginally significant.