Variation in Child Care Quality and Its Implications for Children

The “first wave” of day care research, asking whether the development of children in day care and home‐reared children differs, has gradually given way to a “second wave” of research, asking what are the implications for children's development of variation in day care quality. Although this second wave of day care research is still actively underway, it is a fruitful time to evaluate how far we have come in our understanding of day care quality. This article examines how research defines and operationalizes quality, and it assesses the evidence for four questions: Does variation in day care quality have implications for children's daily experiences in day care? Do cognitive and socioemotional development vary with day care quality while children are still in care? Is there any evidence of enduring implications of day care quality for children's development? And how are family socioeconomic and psychological factors and day care quality linked?