The Impact of Program Structure on Cortisol Patterning in Children Attending Out-of-Home Child Care

Publication Date

Winter 2016

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Child care, Cortisol, Stress, Program structure

Abstract

Full-day center-based child care has repeatedly been associated with rising levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body manage challenge, across the day at child care. This article presents findings from two studies examining the relationship between child care program structure (number of days per week, and hours per day) and cortisol production across the day. Study 1 presents findings comparing cortisol production in 3- to 5-year-old children enrolled in either full-day (N = 55) or half-day (N = 63) Head-Start-funded programs. Study 2 presents findings comparing young children enrolled in either full-day full-time (5 days per week; N = 37) or full-day part-time (2–3days/week; N = 41) primarily tuition-funded programs. Using multilevel modeling and controlling for a number of child factors, attending full-day, full-time programs (as compared to either half-day or part-time programs) was associated with increased cortisol production across the day on child care and home days. Implications for early childhood educators are discussed.

Copyright Date

10-24-2015

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by Elsevier Inc. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Lumian, D. S., Dmitrieva, J., Mendoza, M. M., Badanes, L. S., & Watamura, S. E. (2016). The impact of program structure on cortisol patterning in children attending out-of-home child care. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 34, 92-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.09.004

Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.

The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.

Rights Holder

Elsevier Inc.

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

12 pgs

File Size

763 KB

Publication Title

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume

34

First Page

92

Last Page

103

ISSN

1873-7706

PubMed ID

26568654

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