Research Projects:

Evaluation of Promising Models and Delivery Approaches to Child Care Provider Training

Early Reading First Evaluation

The Efficacy of Building Language for Literacy and Core Knowledge to Promote School Readiness

Preventing Child Neglect in High-Risk Mothers

Reading First (in Louisiana)

Baby/Child Library

Community Child Health Research in Washington, DC

Early Childhood Education: Effects on Adult Adaptation
Intergenerational Pathways to Competence in Minority Families
Louisiana Early Childhood Development Programs (LA4) Pre-Kindergarten: Program Evaluation and Research
Predicting and Preventing Neglect in Teen Mothers

Title: Early Childhood Education: Effects on Adult Adaptation

Co-PIs: Frances Campbell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Craig Ramey
Primary Funding Agency: NICHD/NIH
Abstract: This study is to examine the long-term effects of early childhood education on the adult adaptation of persons born into low-income families and to identify factors associated with successful outcomes, particularly in relation to early childhood educational intervention. This proposal is to follow up two samples of individuals enrolled as infants in one of two prospective randomized trials of early childhood education for children at risk for school failure: the Abecedarian Project and Project CARE. The combined samples are 96% African American. For this follow-up, ages of the target persons will range from 28 ? 30; a life stage where they would usually have completed formal education and be establishes careers and families. Mediators and moderators of early childhood effects on adult functioning will be explored. Extant data sets cover the infancy, early childhood, and adolescence of the samples. Participants in both studies have been followed through age 12. For the Abecedarian study, data were collected through age 21. Significant educational and academic benefits related to early intervention were still seen for Abecedarian participants in young adulthood, but it was too early in their lives fully to describe the range of adult adaptation they would display. Including the CARE participants in this research on adult competence and adaptation will expand the number of available cases enough to permit a more reliable estimate of the long-term effects of intensive early childhood education as well as the testing of complex predictive models described long-term development. New data for this study will describe adult adaptation in terms of educational levels, vocational success, economic circumstances, mental health and well-being, and socioemtional adjustment including relationships with significant others, parenthood, and constructive community involvement. Possible mediators of treatment effects on vocational attainments may include early cognitive development, academic progress, and educational levels. Possible mediators of treatment effects on adjustment may include early adjustment in school, family stability, and parental attitudes. Moderators of treatment effects may include the quality of the early home environment, parental characteristics, avoidance of lawbreaking, substance abuse in parents or the self, and avoiding teenaged parenthood. Procedures will include structures and unstructured interviews, and self-completed psychological scales and inventories.