title: Child Care Services, Socioeconomic Inequalities, and Academic Performance.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if child-care services (CCS) at a population level can reduce social inequalities in academic performance until early adolescence.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 12-year population-based prospective cohort study of families with a newborn (n = 1269). Two CCS variables were estimated: "intensity" (low, moderate, and high number of hours) and "center-based CCS type" (early onset, late onset, and never exposed to center-based CCS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families who received high-intensity CCS (any type), compared with those who received low-intensity CCS, had significantly better reading (standardized effect size [ES] = 0.37), writing (ES = 0.37), and mathematics (ES = 0.46) scores. Children from low-SES families who received center-based CCS, compared with those who never attended center care, had significantly better reading (ESearly onset = 0.68; ESlate onset = 0.37), writing (ESearly onset = 0.79), and mathematics (ESearly onset = 0.66; ESlate onset = 0.39) scores. Furthermore, early participation in center-based CCS eliminated the differences between children of low and adequate SES on all 3 examinations (ES = -0.01, 0.13, and -0.02 for reading, writing, and mathematics, respectively). These results were obtained while controlling for a wide range of child and family variables from birth to school entry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Child care services (any type) can reduce the social inequalities in academic performance up to early adolescence, while early participation in center-based CCS can eliminate this inequality. CCS use, especially early participation in center-based CCS, should be strongly encouraged for children growing up in a low-SES family.
authors.affiliation: University of Montreal; Research Group on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment (GRIP) and Ste-Justine's Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; sylvana.cote.1@umontreal.ca.
authors.forename: Julie C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Laurin
authors.affiliation: Douglas Mental Health University Institute, and Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada;
authors.forename: Marie-Claude
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Geoffroy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Laval University, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychology, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia;
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boivin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Québec in Montreal, Montreal, Canada;
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Japel
authors.affiliation: University of Montreal; Research Group on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment (GRIP) and Ste-Justine's Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada;
authors.forename: Marie-France
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Raynault
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia; School of Public Health, University College Dublin, Belfield, Ireland.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Tremblay
authors.affiliation: University of Montreal; Research Group on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment (GRIP) and Ste-Justine's Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Psychology, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia;
authors.forename: Sylvana M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Côté
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002662:Child Health Services; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors