Child Care (In)Stability and Children’s Developmental Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Background: From an attachment theory perspective, children benefit from having stable, consistent, and reliable child caregivers (Ruprecht, Elicker, & Choi, 2016). Yet, many children experience frequent unpredictable and sudden changes in child care arrangements (Adams & Rohacek, 2010; Chaudry, 2004). Nonetheless, relatively few studies have explored how child care (in)stability influences children’s development. The present review is the first systematic synthesis of child care (in)stability studies, and delineates associations between child care (in)stability and children’s outcomes by developmental domain. This review also explores factors that mediate and moderate relations between child care (in)stability and children’s development.
Method: This systematic literature review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA; Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, & Altman, 2009). First, a search using specific keywords and phrases in four databases was completed, yielding 5,578 articles. Our search was restricted to include only articles published in English and in peer-reviewed journals. Adhering to specific eligibility criteria, a title/abstract screening followed by a full text screening were conducted next. Only studies defining child care instability as sequential changes in child care arrangements and those employing a quantitative design were included. Lastly, the reference lists of the included articles were searched for additional relevant articles that were potentially missed by the initial database search (see Figure 1). Once the final articles were selected for analysis (n = 36), key information was extracted from each study and organized into specific categories.
Findings: Results were classified into two broad categories: (a) Stability (continuity of care) and (b) Instability (sequential changes in care). Child care stability was most consistently related to children’s greater child-caregiver attachment levels and fewer behavior problems. Child care instability was categorized into three categories: (a) Changes within settings, (b) changes across settings, and (c) changes within and across settings combined. Changes within settings and changes across settings were consistently associated with negative developmental outcomes, such as lower social competence. Among moderators in the relations between child care (in)stability and children’s developmental domains, consistent results appeared mostly for timing of changes, illustrating that changes occurring at younger ages (e.g., infancy) were more detrimental to children’s development, particularly related to behavioral outcomes and attachment with caregivers. Few mediators, such as parenting stress, were considered in studies related to the associations between child care (in)stability and child development and showed mixed results.
Conclusion: This study is the first to systematically review and synthesize findings exploring implications of child care (in)stability with children’s development. In this review, we identified how child care (in)stability is multifaceted. Results were differentiated based on children’s developmental domains and types of child care changes (within versus across settings). The implications of this research are critical for young children and the need for new measures and concrete definitions of child care (in)stability, capturing additional considerations, such as frequency of child care changes, are crucial in advancing this literature that will inform policy-makers and other key stakeholders to promote children’s development.

Authors

• Eleni Zgourou, Kean University
  Presenting Author

• Mary Bratsch-Hines, University of Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Steven John Holochwost, City University of New York Lehman College
  Non-Presenting Author