Can center-based childcare reduce the odds of early chronic absenteeism?
Introduction
When considering the short-term effects of attending center-based childcare, research has predominantly focused on achievement and socioemotional outcomes (Claessens, 2012, Crosnoe, 2007, Loeb et al., 2007, Magnuson et al., 2007, Turney and Kao, 2009). Research generally supports that attending center-based care boosts achievement (Burger, 2010, Loeb et al., 2007, Loeb et al., 2004, NICHD, 2006). Research mostly links attending center-based care to null or lower socioemotional development and null or higher behavioral issues (Baker et al., 2008, Belsky et al., 2007, Herbst and Tekin, 2010, Loeb et al., 2007, Magnuson et al., 2007, NICHD, 2006, Yamauchi and Leigh, 2011).
Early academic and socioemotional outcomes are certainly critical to examine, particularly as they signal school readiness. However, in the discourse surrounding the influence of attending center-based childcare, research has not considered how going to center-based care may be linked to early patterns of chronic absenteeism. Although no absolute definition exists, chronic absenteeism is defined here as missing at minimum two or more weeks of school for any reason in a given year (Balfanz and Byrnes, 2012, Gottfried, 2014).
This gap in examining school absences as outcomes is critical to address: The short- and long-term negative consequences associated with excessive school absences cannot be overstated, including lower achievement, increased behavioral issues, lower social development, greater chances of grade retention, higher odds of school dropout, increased risk of the use of drugs and alcohol in young adulthood and adulthood, and lower employment prospects (Alexander et al., 1997, Broadhurst et al., 2005, Chen and Stevenson, 1995, Connell et al., 1994, Ekstrom et al., 1986, Finn, 1993, Gottfried, 2009, Gottfried, 2010, Gottfried, 2014, Hallfors et al., 2002, Kane, 2006, Morrissey et al., 2014, Newmann, 1981). It is estimated that somewhere between 10% and 15% of young school-aged children are chronically absent and thus susceptible to these negative consequences (Balfanz and Byrnes, 2012, Romero and Lee, 2007). This estimate is larger for students of lower socioeconomic status (SES) (Ready, 2010), thereby exacerbating these risks.
In elementary school, chronic absenteeism is highest in kindergarten (Balfanz and Byrnes, 2012, Romero and Lee, 2007). The notion of ‘chronic’ absenteeism is fairly nascent in both policy and research, and therefore most research in early school absences have not considered the effects of chronic absenteeism per se (as opposed to greater/fewer school absences) (Gottfried, 2014). The few research studies in the area of early chronic absenteeism found negative effects. Chang and Romero (2008) linked chronic absenteeism in kindergarten to lower first grade academic performance. Connolly and Olson (2012) linked chronic absenteeism in kindergarten to lower achievement, grade retention, and future chronic absenteeism. Gottfried (2014) linked chronic absenteeism in kindergarten to lower academic and socioemotional development.
Given that negative consequences of chronic absenteeism emerge in kindergarten, research has attempted to identify the drivers of school absences. Most research has focused on individual- and family-level factors. At the individual level, significant factors include educational disengagement or alienation from school (Harte, 1994, Reid, 1983). Family factors include family structure, father's occupation, mother's work status, household size, parental involvement, mother's age, mother's depression and socioeconomic status (SES) (Catsambis and Beveridge, 2001, Claessens et al., in press, Fan and Chen, 2001, Jeynes, 2003, McNeal, 1999, Muller, 1993, Ready, 2010, Reid, 1983, Romero and Lee, 2007, Sampson and Laub, 1994). Little work has been conducted outside of identifying individual and family factors.
A significant lapse in the research on both the effects on center-based care and the drivers of chronic absenteeism is the intersection between the two. On the one side, the research on the effects of center-based care has generally remained limited to achievement and socioemotional development. Other critical early indictors of early school success or risk of failure, such as absenteeism, have largely been ignored. On the other side, research into the drivers of chronic absenteeism have generally been limited to studying individual and family factors. In fact, altogether little is known about what programs and practices in early childhood might influence early chronic absenteeism. Additional research on the drivers of absenteeism beyond these factors will develop a more robust agenda around how to reduce this negative behavior at the onset of school entry, when the frequency of this behavior is highest.
Aside from one descriptive study linking attending prekindergarten care to lower rates of chronic absenteeism in kindergarten (Connolly & Olson, 2012), no large-scale study exists in the overlap of childcare and chronic absenteeism. Given the positive link between center-based care and early achievement, it is reasonable to expect that center-based care is linked to lower chronic absenteeism. There are four potential ways by which center-based care might be linked to lower chronic absenteeism in kindergarten: child transitions, family logistics, health, and timing.
Childhood is filled with ecological transitions that require adaptation to new environments (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), and school entry represents a significant ecological transition in early childhood (Ladd & Price, 1987). Kindergarten entry requires children to face many new demands including academic challenges, adaptation to institutional expectations, and socialization (Bensen et al., 1979, Bogart et al., 1980, Holland et al., 1974). Unsuccessful transition into kindergarten correlates with children feeling less secure about their environments and increased stress, thereby leading to school avoidance and negative feelings about school (Ladd & Price, 1987). These negative feelings materialize as absences (Ekstrom et al., 1986, Newmann, 1981) through refusal to attend school or pretending to be sick (Giallo, Treyvaud, Matthews, & Kienhuis, 2010).
Children who attend formal preschool often have better mastery of this transition into kindergarten (Ladd & Price, 1987). No single explanation exists. However, one reason may be that center-based care provides a structured learning environment that mirrors what school will be like. Children are formally assigned to a classroom, taught by a specific set of teachers, and have regulated schedules with established times for instructional activities. In contrast, children who are cared for in informal settings may not gain the same experience of participating in a formal school-like schedule (Claessens, 2012). Second, children in center-based care get an early start on adapting to long periods of parental separation (Ladd & Price, 1987). Third, center-based instructors are often more academically qualified than guardians in informal care alternatives such as relatives in home-like settings (Barnett, Carolan, Fitzgerald, & Squires, 2011). Therefore, in formal care, children have greater exposure to adults who more closely mirror school teachers in classrooms. Fourth, children in center-based care are often in environments with many peers, and this provides them with early opportunities to socialize, understand individual differences, and adapt to group behavior. Finally, attending center-based care provides children with an early opportunity to adapt to a routine of regularly leaving the home (Ladd & Price, 1987).
It is thus theorized that going to center-based care in prekindergarten facilitates the transition into kindergarten, either by providing children with an early school-like routine or with additional opportunities to adapt to interacting with adults who are similar in characteristics to schoolteachers and to interacting with other children in a classroom setting. Hence, when entering kindergarten, they have fewer adjustment demands and are more equipped to cope with new environments. This may actualize as having positive feelings about school and less anxiety about attending school; feelings such as these are linked to lower odds of being absent.
This framing of transitions fits into the larger literature on preparatory socialization. As described by Germain and Bloom (1999), preparatory socialization exists when spending time in one setting allows the individual to learn the processes and roles required in a future setting. Early in education, this entails learning how school demands differs from those at home, which, as described above, might facilitate children learning how to develop a school-going routine or how to interact with teachers and peers in a classroom-like setting. In young adulthood, this may surface as preparing for the requirements of the working world (Golde, 1998). The concept of transitions from setting-to-setting certainly has implications beyond this study to the extent which experiences in one environment leads to successful functioning in a future environment.
Going to center-based care may also influence parents’ behavior as it relates to chronic absenteeism in kindergarten. First, a direct-effects hypothesis suggests that parents are also adjusting to the routine of sending their children to a formal non-home setting. Thus, center-based care may be putting both children and their families in the mindset of regularly attending school, even before starting formal schooling (Ehrlich et al., 2014). Through the actions of sending their children to center-based care, parents have an extra year to adapt to school-going logistics, such as determining transportation options, shifting work schedules, instituting early-morning wake up, preparing/packing children's breakfasts and lunches, buying appropriate school attire – all of which are significant factors of good attendance once in school (Chang & Romero, 2008). Moreover, this extra year of school-going practice may be particularly crucial for working parents, who may not have the capacity to accommodate absenteeism.
Second, there may be an indirect mechanism. Once kindergarten begins, parents may hold more positive feelings and attitudes about their child's transition to kindergarten due to the previous period of adjustment to a school-like setting via center-based care (Margetts, 2000). Hence, not only is it possible that attending center-based care increases the efficiency by which parents determine the logistics of sending their children to formal schooling, but this efficiency also reduces parents’ stress and anxiety and increases parents’ positive feelings about the transition to kindergarten, which in turn, increases their children's positive feelings about the transition to kindergarten (Giallo et al., 2010). Positive feelings about school-going by parents or children, as mentioned earlier, are inversely related to school absenteeism.
There are also potential unique health benefits of attending center-based care. First, programs such as Head Start are designed to increase children's health through immunizations and health screenings (USDH, 2010, Yoshikawa et al., 2013). An increase in child health established prior to kindergarten might reduce the odds of absenteeism once in kindergarten, as increased absenteeism has been shown to be highly correlated with impaired health (Ready, 2010). Second, because children in center-based care are surrounded by many children simultaneously, it is possible that children are exposed to illnesses, like chicken pox, and develop immunities before starting school (Ehrlich et al., 2014). This can work out in the favor of reducing absenteeism once in kindergarten.
The first three conceptualizations of the role of center-based care on reducing chronic absenteeism focus on the role of center-based care in the year prior to kindergarten. Therefore, the first research question is put forth as follows:
RQ1: Does attending center-based care in prekindergarten reduce the odds of chronic absenteeism in kindergarten?
However, attending center-based care before/after school during the kindergarten school year might also reduce chronic absenteeism. Children can also adapt to the demands of schooling once they are participating in school – they do not learn to transition solely based on the skills acquired prior to entry (Bodrova & Leong, 2005). Given this, the overall experience of participating in kindergarten combined with center-based care before/after kindergarten hours may help to solidify transitions skills. For instance, being in center-based care before/after kindergarten hours year may reinforce the routine of attending a structured school-like environment all day. This may continue to facilitate children's preparation and practice of going to school, hence building positive attitudes toward school and hence lowering odds of chronic absenteeism. Or, the routine of going to center-based care before/after kindergarten hours may reinforce parental routines for their child's school attendance. If parents are responsible for making arrangements for both going to kindergarten and center-based care before/after the school day, then center-based care during this year may be reinforcing the logistics of attending school, which may be especially critical for working parents. Also, center-based care before/after kindergarten hours might provide other opportunities for children to interact with teachers and children, hence providing additional reinforcement to make sense of and adapt to the ecology of school-like settings (Bodrova & Leong, 2005), thereby increasing positive school attitudes and reducing negative feelings – all of which are linked to lower chronic absenteeism (Ekstrom et al., 1986, Gottfried, 2009, Newmann, 1981). A second research question is put forth as follows:
RQ2. Does the timing of attending center-based care (prekindergarten, before/after school during kindergarten, or both) reduce the odds of chronic absenteeism in kindergarten?
Prior research has found that students with greater absences in kindergarten are from lower-SES families (Nauer et al., 2014, Ready, 2010). For instance, Applied Survey Research (2011) found that no other child characteristic provided statistically-significant differences in absence patterns besides SES. Chang and Romero (2008) found that once family SES was taken into account, racial differences were no longer significant. It appears, then, that one major determinant of early chronic absenteeism is low SES.
Children from low-SES families have been shown to benefit from center-based care, academically and developmentally (Barnett, 1995, Burchinal et al., 1997, Loeb et al., 2004). A key empirical issue, however, is that children from low-SES families are much less likely to utilize childcare (Meyers & Jordan, 2006). In addition, families selecting not to utilize childcare are characterized by lower maternal education, single-parent households, non-English home language, higher mobility, and maternal depression (Bainbridge et al., 2005, Crosnoe, 2007, Fuller et al., 1996, Greenberg, 2011, Hebra et al., 2013, Hirshberg et al., 2005, Wolfe and Scrivner, 2004). In fact, Johnson, Martin, and Brooks-Gunn (2011) found that low-SES families with childcare subsidies were relatively more advantaged (on the characteristics mentioned above) than non-recipient eligible low-SES families. Therefore, one concern is that family selection bias drove the observed positive associations between center-based care and child outcomes: Families with the lowest levels of resources, motivation, or knowledge to send their children to center-based care are also the least likely to be making educational and developmental advances. As an example, children with less depressed mothers are more likely to attend center-based childcare (Hebra et al., 2013). Therefore, the association between childcare and child outcomes for low-SES children may not be solely attributed to the childcare itself.
These similar family selection issues might also be obscuring the link between center-based care and early school absenteeism. For instance, families who are sufficiently organized to enroll their child in prekindergarten as well as to develop the logistics to ensure their children attend on a regular basis (and are hence less likely to drop out of programs such as Head Start) are the same families who are more likely to ensure that their children perform better once in kindergarten, including having stronger school attendance. While maintaining school-going routines might be the most valuable especially for low-SES families particularly given high rates of mobility and maternal depression, it might be these families who are least likely to be exposed to these logistics-building opportunities. Hence, the relationship between center-based care and attendance might be capturing a specific sample of families who have selected into center-based care as well as who have ensured their children remain in the program. Accounting for family selection issues, as they pertain to SES and other high-risk family attributes, is critical in this evaluation and is addressed below. As critical is addressing whether there are differences in any observed relationship between center-based care and absenteeism, but doing so by SES.
Even after addressing selection, there are still several reasons to hypothesize that the above 4-pronged conceptualization (transitions, logistics, health, timing) would be especially important for children in low-SES families. First, research suggests that low-SES parents do not have the resources readily available to address the going-to-school logistics required for kindergarten, such as having access to reliable transportation (Chang & Romero, 2008). Hence, center-based care during prekindergarten might induce these parents to address these demands and adjust to school-going routines. Second, given that children in low-SES households face greater health issues (Hughes and Ng, 2003, Romero and Lee, 2007), center-based care attendance in prekindergarten may provide health benefits, such as immunization, that would in turn reduce absences once in school. Finally, low-SES parents may not have developed the skills or knowledge to help support their children in formal schooling (Chang & Romero, 2008). Additionally, parents in low-SES families might have had negative schooling experiences (Chang & Romero, 2008). Therefore, center-based care might be especially critical to develop and reinforce positive attitudes about formal schooling (and hence reducing chronic absenteeism), as they might not be exposed to this type of environment at home (Ready, 2010).
Given these potential benefits, the final research question asks:
RQ3. Do the relationships differ by socioeconomic status?
Kindergarten is an extremely critical period that sets the foundation for future success (Duncan et al., 2007, Olson et al., 2005, Posner and Rothbart, 2000). Therefore, knowing what early childhood experiences reduce chronic absenteeism would help to set children on a strong trajectory. Given the lack of knowledge of the role of center-based care on chronic absenteeism and of early programs and policies that reduce this negative behavior, this study contributed to the research through these unexplored research questions.
The utilization of center-based care is increasing in the U.S. (Blau and Currie, 2004, Claessens, 2012, Smith et al., 2003, Yamauchi and Leigh, 2011). Therefore, this study addresses how to improve outcomes for an increasing number of children taking part in these early childhood programs. By informing stakeholders invested in the efficacy of center-based programs alongside stakeholders invested in the reduction of chronic absenteeism, the unification of both areas will help formulate new policy discussions around understudied but potentially influential factors of early childhood success.
Section snippets
Participants
Data in this study were sourced from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class of 2011 (ECLS-K:2011), which represents the most contemporary national-level data available to evaluate the research questions in this study. This dataset was developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The collection process included a large-scale survey design and assessment data collection of children and their families and schools. Children were in kindergarten in
Baseline models
Table 2 presents the findings from the baseline logistic models. Each model presented in the table is unique – the binary dependent variable is indicated by column heading. The key predictors are located in the first section of the rows. The coefficients are odds ratios (with standard errors clustered by school in parentheses). A larger value of the coefficient suggests a worse outcome – a higher odds of being a chronic absentee. A more favorable outcome occurs with lower coefficient values,
Discussion
This study was the first to position itself in the intersection on research on center-based care and on chronic absenteeism. Given the growth in the utilization of center-based care, this study contributed the body of research focusing on early schooling outcomes of children in these programs. Given recent policy concerns of the detrimental effects of chronic absenteeism in early education (see Balfanz and Byrnes, 2012, Chang and Romero, 2008, Gottfried, 2014, Nauer et al., 2014), this present
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