1. European Early Childhood Education Research Association
7-10 September 2014
Crete
Does participation in child care affect problem behavior in primary school
Dr. Maša Vidmar
Educational Research Institute, Slovenia

2. BACKGROUND Effect of child care on child socio-emotional development
Contradictory results
Quality is important (structural and process)
Child characteristics & family factors are important
Sociopolitical context is important
Statistical tools are important

3. BACKGROUND ECEC system in Slovenia Public centre-based child care
Single-phased setting
Regulated quality standards and professional development
Subsidized service
High participation rates
 Age
2013/14 1
42.1 % 2
65.4 % 3
83.8 % 4
87.8 % 5
94.3 % 6
5.4 %
% of children enrolled
Year

4. Other sociopolitical characteristics
Length of parental leave
Female workforce participation
Variability in number of months (years) children spend in child care

5. BACKGROUND Problem behavior Internalizing behavior
Externalizing behavior

6. AIMS
To examine link between attending public centre- based child care and internalizing and externalizing behavior in school in specific sociopolitical context
To examine if the association changes as a function of maternal education – is effect of child care stronger for children with low-educated mothers
Months in child care
IB/EB
Grade 1
Grade 2 ?

7. METHOD: Participants 39 Slovene basic schools Students:
T1 = Start 1st grade : N = 328, M = 6;3
T2 = End 1st grade: N = 325, M = 6;11
T4 = End 2nd grade: N = 323, M = 7;10
49% girls
Child care enrolment: between 0 and 40 months: M = 16,5 (SD = 15,1)
Mothers: M=12,5 years (SD = 3,1), 62,2 % with high school or less
Assistant teachers, home teachers

8. METHOD: Instruments Problem behavior Parental Q
Social competence and behavior evaluation, Preschool edition (SCBE, LaFreniere & Dumas, 1995)
80 items: SC, IB, EB
Internalizing behavior: depressive, anxiuos, isolated, dependent
Externalizing behavior: angry, aggressive, egotistical, oppositional
Teacher reports
Parental Q
Length of child care attendance
Maternal education

9. METHOD: Procedure T1: mom-reported questionnaires
T2: assistant teacher-reported questionnaires
SCBE
T4: home teacher-reported questionnaire

10. RESULTS: internalizing behavior
n.s.
Internalizing behavior Grade 2
Internalizing behavior
Grade 1
Months in child care
.18
.61
depressive
anxious
isolated
dependent
depressive
anxious
dependent
isolated
CFI = .96 RMSEA(CI) = .07( ) SRMR = 0,05 χ2(28) = 79.79***. Longitudinal invariance.

11. RESULTS: internalizing behavior
Covariates on IB1 and IB2:
Gender: n.s.
Age: on IB1 and IB2
Maternal education: on IB1 and IB2
Child care remains significant for IB1

12. Results: externalizing behavior
n.s.
Externalizing behavior Grade 2
Externalizing behavior
Grade 1
Months in child care
n.s.
.68
angry
aggressive
egotisical
oppoistional
angry
aggressive
oppositional
egotistical
CFI = .96 RMSEA(CI) = .09( ) SRMR = 0,05 χ2(28) = 94.37***. Partial longitudinal invariance.

13. Results: externalizing behavior
Covariates on EB 1 and EB2:
Gender: boys higher on EB1
Age: EB1
Maternal education: n.s.
Child care remains n.s. for EB1
Child care is significant for EB2

14. Effect of maternal education
Education as moderator:
Is the effect of child care stronger for children with low- educated mothers
Multiple groups CFA and SEM: problem with model not identified / standard errors could not be computed
Separate models for two groups:
Children of mothers with high school or less (≤ 12 years)
Children of mothers with more than high school (> 13 years)

15. SEM by maternal education
Months in child care
Internalizing
Grade 1
Grade 2
.15
.61
.23
.70
Months in child care
Externalizing
Grade 1
Grade 2
.74
.67

16. CONCLUSIONS
Early child care does not pose a developmental risk in a specific sociopolitical context

17. PROS AND CONS Structural equation modeling Longitudinal design
Large sample of children from randomly selected schools
Errors: same reporter, hallo effect, different assessment criteria
Generalizability
Other predictors

18. FUTURE STUDIES
Follow-up on problem behavior in later grades

19. THANK YOU!