Examining Sex Differences in Abecedarian Impacts

• In Event: What Works Best and For Whom: Treatment Heterogeneity in Long-Term Effects of Early-Care and Education

Abstract

Considerable evidence suggests that early childhood is a critical developmental period and that high-quality early-care and education (ECE) can change developmental trajectories – especially for children experiencing poverty and structural racism (Ramey & Ramey, 1998). The Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC), along with the Perry Preschool Project (PPP), demonstrated that ECE can change the life trajectories of Black children from low-income families by documenting impacts on education, income, incarceration, and health risk factors as adults (Burchinal et al., 2015). More recent evidence from PPP indicates that these impacts vary by sex with large ECE impacts on educational outcomes for females and earnings for males (Heckman et al, 2010), likely reflecting differential treatment of ethnic and racial minority children based on gender leading to educational disparities (Mulligan & Flanagan, 2006; Strayhorn, 2008). The purpose of this study is to examine whether ABC also showed differential impacts by gender, and if so, when, and why differences emerge.
ABC was an intensive infant and preschool program serving predominantly Black (98%) children from low-income households from Chapel Hill, NC between 1972-1983 (Campbell et al., 2001). Infants were randomly assigned to either the treatment (n=57) or control (n=54) group. Infants in the treated group attended the childcare center from 4 months to kindergarten entry. High quality care included: teachers with bachelor’s degrees; low adult:child ratios; transportation; scaffolded experiential learning; frequent teacher-child conversations; and on-site medical care. Participants were assessed every 6 months in their first 5 years, and at 6, 7, 8,12, 15, 21, 30, and 35 years.
Analyses tested whether gender moderated the ABC treatment impacts on 8-21-year academic achievement (Woodcock & Johnson, 1989), 30-year self-reported educational attainment, criminal arrests and convictions, income, job status, and marital status, and a physical exam at 35 years. While individuals in the treated group had higher levels than individuals in the control group on academic achievement, college graduation, job status, and health, gender-specific impacts emerged on reading and math skills, educational attainment, and blood pressure. As shown in Figure 1, the treatment impacts on academic skills and educational degree were larger for females and larger for males on blood pressure. Longitudinal analyses of academic skills indicated that gender differences emerged after age 8, with consistent treatment impacts over time for the females and declining impacts over time for the males (see Figure 2).
Several factors were examined as possible explanations of sex differences in ABC treatment impacts, including teacher perceptions in the first three years of school (Schaefer et al., 1978) and self-esteem during adolescence (Harter, 2012). Preliminary results suggest sex differences in treatment impacts on achievement may be related to a pattern of decline in teacher perceptions during the early school years for males in the treated group and an increasing sense of self-worth in late adolescence for females in the treated group.
These findings will be discussed within the context of a growing literature on the differential treatment of Black children based on sex that results in educational disparities (APA Presidential Task Force on Educational Disparities, 2012).

Authors

• Margaret Burchinal, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Tiffany Jamie Foster, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kylie Garber, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marketa Burnett, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Iheoma U. Iruka, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author