U.VA. RESEARCHERS LOOK AT CHILDCARE AND CHILDREN

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 23 -- How can preschool programs
help children from disadvantaged homes succeed in school?
	That is what experts at the University of Virginia's Curry
School of Education and elsewhere hope to learn through a set of new
research projects that will run through the year 2000.
	Helping children who are likely to fail in the early years
of school is probably one of this country's most pressing
educational needs, says Robert Pianta, an associate professor at the
Curry School. Pianta is co-director of a national study now underway
to address these needs by examining what happens to children just
before and during kindergarten.
	The study is being conducted by early-childhood experts at
U.Va's Curry School along with counterparts at three other
universities -- the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of
California at Los Angeles -- and other internationally recognized
researchers. 
	The U.Va. project, funded for over $1 million, is part of a
$15 million, five-year grant from the Office of Educational Research
and Improvement.
	The study has several goals: an assessment of available
child-care and intervention programs; an exploration of the effects
of different family situations and child-care arrangements on
children's transition to kindergarten; an investigation into the
effectiveness of early intervention programs for children with
behavioral problems; an examination of public policies relating to
young children; and development of a strategy for disseminating the
research findings.
	"The goal is to see that all children in America will be
ready to learn by the time they start school," Pianta said.
	The preschool study builds on related research into the
effects of child care on children's development.

U.VA. RESEARCHERS ARE PARTICIPATING
 IN A SEPARATE, RELATED STUDY

	Last month, early childhood researchers reported in a
separate study that child care alone didn't affect the attachment of
15-month-old children to their mothers.  However, when mothers were
insensitive to their children's needs, child care in some cases was
found to harm mother-child bonds, especially if the children were
moved around a lot, care was of poor quality or lasted more than 10
hours a week, researchers found.   
	The attachment study, in which researchers at U.Va.'s Curry
School also participated, reported at the International Conference
on Infant Studies in Providence, R.I., was funded by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services' National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development. The study followed 1,300 families and
their children in 10 areas around the country.
	Started in 1991, the study will follow the children -- who
were one month or younger when the project began -- to 7 years.
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May  22, 1996
	 For more information on either of these studies, call
Robert Pianta at (804) 924-0792 or (804) 243-5483.  Television
reporters should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.