Highlights

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It is designed to provide detailed information on children’s development, health, and in- and out-of-home experiences in the years leading up to school. The ECLS-B is the first nationally representative study within the United States to directly assess children’s early mental and physical development, their attachment with their primary caregiver (usually their mother), the quality of their early care and education settings, and the contributions of their fathers, both resident and nonresident, in their lives. The children participating in the ECLS-B are being followed longitudinally from birth through kindergarten entry. To date, information has been collected from children and their parents during two rounds of data collection, when the children were about 9 months and about 2 years of age. About 10,700 children and their parents participated at 9 months, and about 9,850 children and their parents participated at 2 years. Their experiences are representative of the experiences of the approximately 4 million children born in the United States in 2001. This E.D. TAB gives a brief look at some characteristics of this population of children when they were about 2 years old. It complements information presented in Children Born in 2001: First Results from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) (NCES 2005- 036), the first report NCES released based on the 9-month ECLS-B data.

The purpose of this E.D. TAB is to introduce new NCES survey data through the presentation of selected descriptive information. The E.D. TAB is purely descriptive in nature. Readers are cautioned not to draw causal inferences based solely on the bivariate results presented in this E.D. TAB. It is important to note that many of the variables examined in this report are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored here. The variables examined here are also just a few of the variables that can be examined in these data and were selected to demonstrate the range of information available from the study. The selected findings are examples of estimates that can be obtained from the data and are not designed to emphasize any particular issue. Release of the E.D. TAB is intended to encourage more in-depth analysis of the data, using more sophisticated statistical methods.

This E.D. TAB presents information from some of the unique features of the ECLS-B study. The findings in this report are organized in the following sections: 

• Demographic Characteristics of Children and Their Families; 
• Children’s Early Mental and Physical Skills; 
• Children’s Attachment Relationship With Their Mothers; 
• Children’s Experiences in Early Care and Education; and 
• Fathers in the Lives of Children.