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CHILD CARE QUALITY: STRUCTURAL QUALITY
EARLY CHILDHOOD LONGITUDINAL STUDY—BIRTH COHORT
Measure: Child Care Structural Quality items from the baseline Parent Interview
Source
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics in collaboration with several health, education, and human services agencies, including the National Center for Health Statistics; the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the Office of Special Education Programs; the Maternal and Child Health Bureau; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; the Office of Indian Education; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and the Office of Minority Health.
Sponsoring Institutes from NIH include the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Nursing Research, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Center on Minority Health Disparities, and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.
The Parent Interview was developed by the funders specifically for the ECLS-B to collect information about a child’s development, family life, and childcare arrangements.
Population Assessed
The ECLS-B is a longitudinal study that follows a nationally representative sample of children from birth through first grade. The base-year data were collected when children were approximately 9 months old. The base-line sample consisted of 15,550 children. Exhibit 1 shows the breakdown of the sample by race and/or ethnicity.
| Race and/or Ethnicity | Number of Children | Percentage of Sample |
|---|---|---|
| White | 7728 | 49.7 |
| Black | 2923 | 18.8 |
| Hispanic | 2416 | 15.5 |
| Chinese | 705 | 4.5 |
| Pacific Islander/Other Asian | 1779 | 11.5 |
Additionally, the sample includes 2,118 (13.6 percent) twins, 2,543 (16.4 percent) children of very low birth weight, and 2,237 (14.4 percent) children with moderately low birth weights. The sample will also include an oversampling of American Indian births, with an initial sample size of 1,454.
Periodicity
The ECLS-B began in 2001 and is scheduled to conclude in 2008. The first data collection occurred during the base year (2001–02) when children were 9 months old. This includes an assessment of children, interviews with primary caregivers, a father self-administered questionnaire, and a videotaped observation of parent-child interaction. Future data collections are planned for when the children reach 24 months (first follow-up in 2003) and 48 months (second follow-up in 2005) and when they enter kindergarten (third follow-up in 2006–07) and first grade (fourth follow-up in 2007–08). The parent interview is fielded at all subsequent collections (i.e., 24 months, 48 months, the kindergarten year, and the first-grade year).
Subscales/Components
The parent interview contains a section of questions about the childcare arrangements for the child. The section addresses the types of child care used, the length of time the child has been in the current arrangements, and the cost of the care.
Procedures for Administration
The parent interview is completed by the child’s primary caregiver, which is in most cases the mother. The interview is given in a home-visit using computer-assisted personal interviewing. A paper and pencil questionnaire is used for collecting sensitive information. It is estimated by the EDCP team that the childcare questions in the parent interview take 4–6 minutes to complete.
Psychometrics/Data Quality
Because the first data release is not until fall 2003, the psychometric information for the ECLS-B is unavailable at this time.
Languages Available
The interviews described in this options document are available in English.
Items Included
The parent interview is available online at http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/kindergarten.asp. The parent interview includes questions pertaining to the structural components of the childcare the child is receiving. Sample questions are included below.
Let’s talk about the nonrelative who provides the most care for [CHILD/TWIN]. Is that care provided in your home or another home?
Own home
Other home
Both/varies
Refused
Don’t know
Does this person who cares for [CHILD/TWIN] live in your household?
How many days each week does [CHILD/TWIN] receive care from that person?
How many hours each week does [CHILD/TWIN] receive care from that person?
How many children are usually cared for together, in the same group at the same time, by that person, counting [CHILD/TWIN]?
How many adults usually care for [CHILD/TWIN] at the same time during that care arrangement?
You said that [CHILD/TWIN] was cared for by [NUMBER] other non-[relative/relatives] on a regular basis. How many total hours each week does [CHILD/TWIN] receive care from [this/these] non-[relative/relatives]?
References and Source Documents
The ECLS-B parent interview is available online at the ECLS Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/
The User Guides and Codebooks will be released in fall 2003.
Across Disciplines & Across Methods: A Picture of Young Children’s Development. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 24–28, 2000
Several other papers are also available on the ECLS Web site:
Measuring Father Involvement In Young Children’s Lives: Recommendations for a Fatherhood Module for the ECLS-B NCES Number: 200102 Release Date: April 17, 2001
A Birth Cohort Study: Conceptual and Design Considerations and Rationale
NCES Number: 199901 Release Date: February 16, 1999
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