The Role of Day Care Quality in the Prediction of Children's Vocabulary

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship of day care quality and vocabulary comprehension in preschool children while controlling for the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and family structure. The Pea-body Picture Vocabulary Test was administered to 100 children from 10 day care centers rated as either high or low on the Harms & Clifford (1980) Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. SES was measured using the Nock & Rossi Home Prestige Scale (1979) . Family structure was defined as one versus two parent families. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine these relationships. Results indicated that both SES and day care quality are significantly related to vocabulary comprehension, and further, day care quality seems especially important in single parent, mother-headed households. The need for high quality day care, especially for low SES, single parent families was discussed.