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Early childcare, executive functioning, and the moderating role of early stress physiology
- Source :
- Developmental Psychology. 50:1250-1261
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- American Psychological Association (APA), 2014.
-
Abstract
- Intervention studies indicate that children's childcare experiences can be leveraged to support the development of executive functioning (EF). The role of more normative childcare experiences is less clear. Increasingly, theory and empirical work suggest that individual differences in children's physiological stress systems may be associated with meaningful differences in the way they experience these early environments. Using data from a large population-based sample of predominantly low-income rural families, we tested the degree to which children's childcare experiences--quantity, quality, and type--in the first 3 years of life predicted emerging EF. Moreover, we examined whether these effects varied as a function of children's basal cortisol levels in infancy and toddlerhood--an indicator of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis stress physiology. Our results showed that higher quality care predicted more effective EF at 48 months, irrespective of quantity or type. This relation did not vary as a function of children's early cortisol levels. Attending greater hours of care per week was also related to EF; however--consistent with theory--the positive association between spending more time in childcare and more positive EF extended only to children with low levels of basal cortisol at 7 or 24 months of age. Attending center-based care was unassociated with EF.
- Subjects :
- Male
Rural Population
Hydrocortisone
Individuality
Short-term memory
Developmental psychology
Immunoenzyme Techniques
Executive Function
Basal (phylogenetics)
Child Development
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Cognitive development
Humans
Psychological testing
Child Care
Saliva
Life-span and Life-course Studies
Association (psychology)
Demography
Psychological Tests
Attentional control
Infant
Socioeconomic Factors
Child, Preschool
Regression Analysis
Normative
Female
Rural area
Psychology
Stress, Psychological
Clinical psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19390599 and 00121649
- Volume :
- 50
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Developmental Psychology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ce6dd5ff59a7c6de6772563bde22dad6