Department of Family and Consumer Studies, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
WestEd California Comprehensive Center, Sacramento, California, USA.
Infancy. 2024 Nov-Dec;29(6):983-1001. doi: 10.1111/infa.12619. Epub 2024 Aug 23.
High-quality early care and education (ECE) programs are associated with positive outcomes, especially for children from low-income families. During the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown many of these families faced an abrupt halt to ECE. Here, we examined how toddlers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds enrolled in high-quality ECE programs in the United States during the 2020 pandemic (n = 48) fared on cognitive and socioemotional outcomes compared to a 2019 pre-pandemic cohort (n = 94) and a pandemic 2021 cohort (n = 132). Toddlers in the 2020 cohort scored significantly lower on executive function compared to toddlers in 2019 and 2021 cohorts. Toddlers in the 2020 cohort had higher ratings self-regulation compared to the pre-pandemic cohort, but not 2021 cohort. There were no differences on attachment ratings between cohorts. Findings suggest that the abrupt halt to ECE programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted US toddlers' cognitive and socioemotional abilities. This underscores the importance of continued high-quality ECE for infants and toddlers from low-income families during disruptive times. Further work is needed to investigate the long-term impacts of experiencing an abrupt halt to ECE due to COVID-19.
高质量的早期儿童照护和教育（ECE）计划与积极的结果相关，特别是对于来自低收入家庭的儿童。在最初的 COVID-19 大流行封锁期间，许多这些家庭突然停止了 ECE。在这里，我们研究了在美国，2020 年大流行期间入读高质量 ECE 计划的经济弱势背景的幼儿（n=48）与 2019 年大流行前队列（n=94）和 2021 年大流行队列（n=132）相比，在认知和社会情感结果方面的表现如何。与 2019 年和 2021 年队列相比，2020 年队列的幼儿在执行功能方面的得分明显较低。与大流行前队列相比，2020 年队列的幼儿的自我调节评分较高，但与 2021 年队列没有差异。队列之间在依恋评分上没有差异。研究结果表明，由于 COVID-19 大流行而突然停止 ECE 计划对美国幼儿的认知和社会情感能力产生了影响。这突显出在困难时期为来自低收入家庭的婴儿和幼儿提供持续高质量 ECE 的重要性。需要进一步研究由于 COVID-19 而突然停止 ECE 对幼儿产生的长期影响。
