Longitudinal impact of child care and home environments on low-income children's development

This longitudinal study investigates how child care quality (CCQ) and home learning environments (HLE) relate to cognitive and social-emotional development among children from low-income backgrounds during their first five years. Analyzing data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Study (N = 482), the research found that HLE demonstrated a significant positive association with achievements in cognitive and social-emotional domains. Notably, HLE's influence on cognitive development became increasingly important over time. While CCQ alone did not directly correlate with developmental outcomes in either domain, the interaction between CCQ and HLE over time significantly influenced cognitive growth. As children developed, cognitive development gaps widened in favor of children from high-quality home learning environments, with this advantage notably amplified by high-quality child care. The findings highlight the critical importance of both enriching home environments and nurturing child care settings in supporting optimal cognitive development for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.