GRANT ALLOWS U.VA. TO CONTINUE TRACKING DEVELOPMENT
 OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN CHILD CARE AS PART OF NATIONAL STUDY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 21 -- The National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development has awarded the University of
Virginia's Curry School of Education a $2.8 million grant to
continue participating in a long-term national study on the effects
of child care experiences on young children, from birth to age 7.
	Researchers at the U.Va. site have been following
approximately 130 children since their births four years ago.
U.Va.'s site is one of 10 locations nationwide cooperating in the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Study of Early Child Care.  Approximately 1,350 children,
representing diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, are
involved in the nationwide project directed by the 10 cooperating
institutions.	
	"This is one of the most detailed and comprehensive studies
of children's development ever to be conducted," said principal
investigator Robert Pianta, associate professor in U.Va.'s Curry
School of Education.
	Unlike previous large-scale studies that have focused on
older children or children placed in child care centers, this study
has been following children since their birth and is documenting
child care experiences in a range of settings, including care by
fathers, grandparents, in-home caregivers and day care centers.
Researchers at all sites are contributing their observations of
children's development in child care and at home and school to a
common data pool.
	The national study has found that by three months of age,
almost 40 percent of infants were in child care more than 30 hours
per week; by 12 months of age, 80 percent were in regularly
scheduled child care for at least a few hours weekly.  By 12 months,
one-third of the children in care had experienced at least three
different child care arrangements, according to results presented at
a recent meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.
	To determine the quality of child care, 576 six-month-old
infants in the NICHD study were observed in their care settings.
Forty percent were the only children in their setting; 30 percent
were in small groups of two to three children, and eight percent
were in groups larger than eight children.
	Of those infants in care, 35 percent were placed in child
care homes,18 percent in child care centers and 17 percent with
grandparents.  About 15 percent of the group received care by their
fathers, and another 15 percent received in-home care from other
individuals. 
	Higher quality of care was more likely to occur when there
was a small number of children, when child-to-adult ratios were
small and when caregivers held less authoritarian beliefs about
child-rearing, the study found.  Safe and stimulating facilities
also contributed to higher quality caregiving.
	Infants were placed in early child care mostly for economic
reasons, the study found.  "When they began child care depended on
how much their families needed the money from the mothers' jobs, how
much their mothers earned and what mothers believed about the
effects of their employment," said Pianta.  
	The grants awarded to U.Va. and the other nine sites will
allow study of the children's social and cognitive development as
they enter kindergarten and first grade. The funds will continue the
study through December 1999.
	"This is an extremely important study of development because
it will help determine factors contributing to children's school
success," Pianta said.
	Originally started under the direction of Deborah Phillips,
then an associate professor in the psychology department, the U.Va.
site was transferred to the Curry School as the children became 4
years old. Researchers in the project are based in the Old Forestry
Building.
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November 20, 1995
	FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Robert Pianta at (804)
243-5483 or via rcp4p@virginia.edu.