Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

PURPOSE: Children growing up in poor and disadvantaged environments tend to end up having weaker outcomes in most areas of outcome domains. Based on the existing literature that early childhood care education (ECCE) programs have immediate or short-term effects on child outcomes, Head Start is particularly designed as preventive programs that mitigate the negative impacts of economic deprivation on children's outcomes. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether participating in ECCE programs improve children's academic achievement, behavior problems, and school outcomes, throughout their elementary school and adolescent years even after controlling for other determinants, such as their home environments and neighborhood qualities. This study paid a particular attention to the long-term effects of Head Start participation on poor children's outcomes. It also closely examined whether there are any gender and racial differences in the effects of ECCE participation.

METHODS: The data for this study came from various years of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and their two Child Development Supplements (CDS-I & II) of 1997 and 2002. The sample included 599 children who responded to the ECE participation question in 1995 PSID and participated in the following CDS-I and II. Descriptive analyses were followed by series of multiple regressions to examine the effects of ECCE participation on the outcomes of interest.

RESULTS: The multivariate analyses of this study revealed the following major findings: (1) Participation in ECCE programs did not generate consistent and significant long-term impacts on children's academic, behavior, and school outcomes; (2) Head Start participation was associated with increased academic test scores and decreased involvement with school problems throughout all school years (from age 7 to 17) for poor girls; (3) participation in any types of ECE programs was significantly related to long-term decreases in behavior problems among white children, and (4) home environments, parents' education, and neighborhood qualities are more consistent and significant determinants of children's long-term outcomes than ECE participation.

FINDINGS: Findings of this study offer numerous implications for policy and research. They, most of all, support rationales for public investments in the most disadvantaged children by making affordable and high quality ECCE programs available. They also call for more studies that investigate racial and gender differences in the impacts of ECCE on children's outcomes.