Long-Term Outcomes of Early Supporting Environments and Subsequent Developmental Contexts

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Key questions in developmental science are the extent to which early supporting environments have lasting effects on children’s life chances, and the extent to which subsequent developmental contexts help sustaining effects of such early supporting contexts. Recent theorizing about fadeout of early interventions, and emergence of effects in other developmental domains has lifted these questions to the forefront of the research agenda (Bailey et al., 2017; 2020). In this symposium, we present four studies that address these questions using longitudinal studies that have followed children into adulthood.

The first and second papers show long-term effects of early childhood education (ECE) on educational attainment and income well into adulthood using data from Canada and Norway, respectively.

The third and fourth papers dive deeper into the consequences of developmental contexts throughout childhood and adolescence (including, but not restricted to ECE) for adult outcomes (educational attainment, occupation, and income), using the age 26 follow-up of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The third paper shows supporting evidence for three mechanisms on the pathway from ECE to adult outcomes: skills begets skills, sustaining environments, and “foot-in-the-door”. The fourth paper shows how cumulative opportunities across childhood and adolescence mediate the association between family income during early childhood and adult outcomes, and most so for children from low-income families.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Henrik D. Zachrisson, University of Oslo

Individual Presentations

• Long-Term Associations Between Early Child Care and Education, And Educational and Economic Outcomes in Adulthood - Pascale Domond, Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center; Massimiliano Orri, University of Bordeaux; Yann Algan, SciencesPo; Leanne C Findlay; Frank Vitaro, Université de Montréal; Richard E. Tremblay, University of Montreal; Presenting Author: Sylvana Cote, Université de Montréal

• Revisiting No Child Left Behind: The Surprising Effects of Child Care on Longer-Run Outcomes - Presenting Author: Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør, Universitetet i Oslo; Nicolai Topstad Borgen, Universitetet i Oslo; Henrik D. Zachrisson, University of Oslo

• Three Developmental Pathways Linking Early Care and Education to Adult Educational Attainment - Presenting Author: Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California - Irvine; Sandra Simpkins, University of California - Irvine

• Low-Income Children’s Cumulative Developmental Opportunities and Educational Attainment and Earnings in Early Adulthood - Presenting Author: Eric Dearing, Boston College; Andres Sebastian Bustamante, University of California - Irvine; Henrik D. Zachrisson, University of Oslo; Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California - Irvine