Relations between family predictors and child outcomes: Are they weaker for children in child care?

Studies suggesting that family factors predict developmental outcomes more strongly for children reared principally by their parents than those with extensive early child-care experience stimulated the examination of the differential prediction of child outcomes using a subsample of families participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. A variety of factors were used to predict development of children who averaged 30 hr of nonparental care per week for each month of their lives and for those who never experienced more than 10 hr of care per week by someone other than their mothers. Multivariate analyses provided no evidence that family factors predicted outcomes differentially for these 2 groups, though exploratory analyses revealed several instances of differential prediction.