title: Early childcare, executive functioning, and the moderating role of early stress physiology.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Psychology, New York University.
authors.forename: Clancy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Psychology, New York University.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ursache
authors.affiliation: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Willoughby
authors.affiliation: Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, Arizona State University.
authors.forename: Douglas A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Granger
mesh_terms: D002654:Child Care / Q000523:psychology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012424:Rural Population; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone