This study examines the effects of intrapersonal caregiver characteristics on infant/toddler social-emotional outcomes and if these relations are mediated by the level of sensitive and responsive care within the context of center-based child care. Data come from 111 caregivers and 114 children from 41 Early Head Start and community infant/toddler classrooms in California. Path analyses estimated direct and indirect effects of caregiver emotion regulation and internal representations of care and revealed that sensitive and responsive care mediated the association between these intrapersonal caregiver characteristics and children’s social-emotional outcomes. Results suggested that caregivers’ ability to form a positive affective and relational community within the group of infants and toddlers was more important than their ability to attend to children solely on an individual basis.

The study provides evidence for the value of developing early childhood professional development strategies aimed at helping caregivers understand the importance of child-level and group-level attunement as well as recognize child- and group-level indicators of security, regulatory capacity, engagement, and sense of community.

Early school success is dependent on children's ability to function as a regulated member of a classroom, including appropriately managing emotions and behavior, and attending to relevant information and tasks (Peth-Pierce, 2000; Raver, 2002). This study examines the growth of self-regulation of low-income, largely Latino and dual language learning three to six-year-olds. Children improved in their performance over time on tasks from the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment Battery (PSRA; Smith-Donald, Raver, Hayes, & Richardson, 2007). Non-linear growth modeling was used to model rapid growth on impulse inhibition tasks at age three, and approach to ceiling/floor on impulse control tasks by kindergarten (Grimm, Ram, & Hamagami, 2011). Spanish-English dual language learners performed similarly to their non-Latino peers on measures of impulse control and a conflict task whereas their monolingual English-speaking Latino peers performed worse, suggesting a possible cognitive advantage of bilingual language acquisition on self-regulation skills (Blair & Raver, 2011; Li-Grinning, 2007). Finally, quality of teacher-child interactions predicted small differences in executive function. Implications are suggested for supporting low-income children's self-regulation development and ultimately influencing their school readiness by supporting the simultaneous acquisition of their home language, and by providing sensitive, responsive, and instructionally supportive interactions with a caregiver or teacher.

Despite trends indicating that low-income, Latino families underuse licensed child care (Chaudry et al., 2011; Howes et al., 2007), questions remain about why these mothers do not use infant and toddler child care programs. Therefore, this mixed methods case study of a Los Angeles community illustrates the interplay of licensed child care availability with maternal preferences regarding infant and toddler care arrangements. Community demographic data as well as availability and quality of licensed child care data provided the descriptive community context. Family survey data depicted trends in child care use of a predominantly low-income sample of 556 mothers living in the community. Lastly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subsample of 28 family survey mothers to shed light on mothers' beliefs about infant and toddler child care. Taken together, these sources of data indicated that limited infant and toddler licensed care was available, and few programs served specifically low-income families. Within this community child care context, mothers had a limited awareness of the available licensed care. Additionally, these mothers expressed negative impressions of licensed care, which seemed warranted based on the observational data on programs serving low-income families. From this study, policymakers should strive to improve the quality of care for all infant and toddler programs while also better designing and marketing child care assistance programs to meet the needs of low-income families. Practitioners can utilize these findings by learning about the concerns of low-income mothers, addressing any shortcomings their programs face, and better communicating with new mothers to allay fears about group care.

Children's competent engagement with peers in pre-kindergarten classrooms is important for their development of school readiness social skills, as well as social relationships (Howes, 2010). This study examines the relationship between classroom-level teacher-child interactions and individual children's peer engagement across a classroom day. Multi-level regression models indicate that domain-specific teacher-child interactions focused on the intent and content of cognitive facilitation were positively associated with children's peer sociability, assertiveness, and communication, suggesting that effective instructional interactions are associated with higher level peer interactions within classrooms. In contrast, domain-specific teacher-child interactions focused on the intent and content of positive management and routines were negatively associated with all types of peer engagement, providing some support for the idea that teachers may also need to develop skill in engaging in teacher-child-peer interactions. No significant associations were found between domain-general responsive teaching and children's peer engagement within PreK classrooms. Implications are suggested for supporting children's peer engagement within classrooms and ultimately influencing their school readiness by increasing teachers' effective use of instructionally supportive interactions.

There are a limited number of programs as well as a limited structural capacity for children under four. Research indicates that 22% of four-year old children are enrolled in preschool (College Board, 2008). Currently, The United States lacks a unified system for families with children under the age of three, with opportunities to attend center-based care or specific programming (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Not all families have access to high quality care. Intervention programs that focus on the family and on parent and caregiver education have also been shown to have strong, positive influences on child growth and school readiness (Zigler, Finn-Stevenson, & Hall, 2002). The current study was designed to better understand the parents and parenting practices of low-income infants and toddlers who are not participating in center-based care and the extent to which attending community-based parenting classes influences the parenting practices

The National Child Care Staffing Study (NCCSS) released in 1989, brought national attention for the first time to poverty-level wages and high turnover among early childhood teaching staff, and to the adverse consequences for children. In the succeeding 25 years, combined developments in science, practice, and policy have dramatically shifted the context for discussions about the status of early childhood teaching jobs, and the importance of attracting and retaining a well-prepared workforce that is capable of promoting young children’s learning, health and development.

Today, the explosion of knowledge about what is at stake when early childhood development goes awry has coincided with powerful economic arguments for investments in high-quality early care and education. New evidence about the ways in which stress and economic insecurity challenge teachers’ capacity to provide developmentally supportive care and education is lending scientific support to the claim that child well-being depends on adult well-being not only at home but in out-of-home settings. And, serious debate at the federal level, echoed in virtually every state, is underway about the vital importance of improving the quality of early education, and the most productive strategies for ensuring that young children’s critical early experiences will promote, not undermine, their lifelong learning and healthy development.

Worthy Work, STILL Unlivable Wages compiles evidence from multiple sources to provide a portrait of the early childhood teaching workforce today in comparison to 25 years ago. The need to rely on a variety of data sources to obtain this portrait reveals the absence of a comprehensive, regularly updated database on the status and characteristics of the early childhood workforce. In addition to examining trends in center-based teachers’ education, wages and turnover, the report includes new evidence examining economic insecurity and use of public benefits among this predominantly female, ethnically diverse workforce. The report also appraises state and national efforts to improve early childhood teaching jobs, and offers recommendations aimed at reinvigorating a national conversation about the status and working conditions of the more than two million teaching staff who work in our nation’s early care and education settings.