Piecing together the puzzle: A mixed methods study of the Abecedarian Intervention

Abstract

The Abecedarian Study (ABC) has been integral to demonstrating the impacts of Early Care and Education (ECE). It is important to understand the practices and mechanisms through which ABC had impacts on later outcomes, but a lack of implementation data limits our understanding of program mechanisms. The present study took a mixed methods approach to describe the mechanisms of the original ABC program. The qualitative study provides a detailed description of the ABC program based on historical program documentation and retrospective interview responses of ABC teachers and staff. The teachers and staff reported individualized coaching, child-centered environments and activities, and frequent teacher-child conversations were common in ABC classrooms. Informed by qualitative results, a mediation analysis was conducted with the original ABC sample (n = 111). Analyses suggest that verbal skills at entry to school were the primary mechanism for ABC impacts on adult education and income. These findings suggest that ECE programs that focus on improving verbal skills, perhaps through child-centered activities and frequent teacher-child conversation may be more likely to have longer-term impacts.