RELATIONS AMONG CHILD-CARE QUALITY, TEACHER-BEHAVIOR, CHILDRENS PLAY ACTIVITIES, EMOTIONAL SECURITY, AND COGNITIVE ACTIVITY IN CHILD-CARE

Eight hundred forty children (435 girls) enrolled in full-time, center -based child care participated in the study. Children ranged in age fr om 10 to 70 months. Sixty-six percent of the children were European Am erican, the remainder African American. Children's play activities and cognitive activities as well as their relationships with caregivers w ere observed within the child care setting. The study tested the predi ction that variation in children's cognitive activities could be direc tly and indirectly explained by child care quality, positive social in teraction with teachers, and children's play activities and attachment security with their child care teachers. The prediction was examined and at least partially supported in eight subsamples of infant-toddler and preschool age European American and African American children in subsidized and nonsubsidized child care. Specifically, in seven of the eight subsamples, 15 to 30% of the variability in children's cognitiv e activities could be predicted from positive social interaction with teachers, attachment security, and participation in creative play acti vities.