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Multiple Child Care Arrangements and Common Communicable Illnesses in Children Aged 3 to 54 Months

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Abstract

The study examined the relationship between the number of concurrent child care arrangements and children’s incidence of communicable illnesses throughout the first 4½ years of life, and whether this association is mediated by the total number of children across care settings. Within-child fixed effects regression models were used to relate changes in the numbers of concurrent nonparental arrangements to changes in children’s illnesses using longitudinal data from the NICHD’s Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,265). 52 % of children attended multiple child care arrangements at least once from 3 to 54 months. Increases in the number of arrangements were associated with a 15 % increase in respiratory problems among children 3–54 months of age, and a 25 % increase in otitis media among children 36–54 months. Associations were smaller among African American children compared to European American and other-race children. Findings suggest that the number of peers with which a child comes into contact at child care mediates the association between increases in number of arrangements and increases in reported respiratory problems. Children attending multiple child care arrangements prior to kindergarten entry experience slightly more contemporaneous communicable diseases, relative to attending single nonparental arrangements, through exposure to more peers.

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Notes

  1. Random effects (RE) models were also conducted, and Hausman tests were conducted to compare estimates from FE and RE models for each outcome. Hausman tests were significant for 10 of the 12 models tested, indicating there were systematic differences between the estimates from the 2 types of models and suggesting the presence of omitted variable bias; therefore, this study prefers the results from the FE models.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful for helpful comments from Jen-Hao Chen and anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs, American University, Ward Circle Building, 4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20016, USA

    Taryn W. Morrissey

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Correspondence to Taryn W. Morrissey.

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Morrissey, T.W. Multiple Child Care Arrangements and Common Communicable Illnesses in Children Aged 3 to 54 Months. Matern Child Health J 17, 1175–1184 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1125-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1125-5

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