CHILD CARE SCHOLARS

本研究旨在探讨幼儿身体健康、幼儿教育、家庭资源与入学准备之间的关系。数据将来自儿童早期纵向研究（出生队列），该研究跟踪了2001年在美国出生的大约10,700名儿童的代表性样本，从婴儿期到幼儿园。研究问题提出：1)身体健康问题是否直接预测入学准备能力？2)限制健康状况不佳的儿童在欧洲经委会促进发展的机会是否可以间接解释健康问题与入学准备之间的联系？3)参加欧洲经委会是否缓和或加剧了儿童身体健康问题与入学准备之间的负面联系，从而使欧洲经委会起到保护或进一步不利健康状况不佳的儿童的作用？4)家庭收入对问题1 - 3中探讨的关联有保护作用还是加重作用？研究问题将使用OLS和逻辑回归以及倾向得分分析方法来探讨儿童身体健康与入学准备之间的直接、中介和调节关系。

The proposed research aims to elucidate relations between children's physical health, early childhood education, family resources, and school readiness. Data will be drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Birth Cohort), which followed a representative sample of approximately 10,700 children born in the United States in 2001 from infancy through kindergarten. Research questions ask: 1) Do physical health problems directly predict school readiness competencies? 2) Does restricting development-promoting opportunities in ECE among children in poor health indirectly explain the associations between health problems and school readiness? 3) Does participation in ECE temper or exacerbate the negative associations between children's physical health problems and school readiness, such that ECE serves to protect or further disadvantage children in poor health? 4) Does family income have protective or aggravating effects for associations explored in Questions 1 through 3? Research questions will be addressed using OLS and logistic regressions as well as propensity score analysis methods to explore direct, mediated, and moderated relations between children's physical health and their school readiness.