Quality Infant Day-Care and Grade School Behavior and Performance

Relations between attendance in stable high-quality day-care programs and grade school behavior and performance were determined using 2 longitudinal data sets. The first sample included grade school children who had received stable, full-time infant day-care and preschool day-care until they reached school age in the same high-quality day-care center. In this sample the amount of time (months) spent in full-time center care was positively related to the number of friends and extracurricular activities of the children. In addition, more time in the center was positively related to parents' ratings of the children's emotional well-being, leadership, popularity, attractiveness, and assertiveness and negatively related to aggressivity. Study 2 sampled sixth graders who had also received varying amounts (months) of stable full-time day-care, but this group attended a variety of quality day-care centers. In this sample the amount of time in day-care was related to the teachers' ratings of their emotional well-being, attractiveness, and assertiveness. In addition, children with more time in high-quality day-care showed more physical affection during peer interactions, were more often assigned to the gifted program, and received higher math grades.