Mother and caregiver sensitivity over time: Predicting language and academic outcomes with variable- and personcentered approaches. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 52(3

Sensitive and responsive careglving is associated with better cognitive and lan-guage outcomes. Using the longitudinal data set from the National Institute for Child Heolth and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, this study asks how changes in the sensitivity of both moth-ers and caregivers from 6 months to 6 years relates to languoge and academic outcomes at the start of formal schooling. Three questions are posed; (1) How varioble is the quality of caregiving that children experience from mothers and child care providers during early childhood? (2) Da children benefit from both sensitive porents and sensitive caregivers? (3) Are changes in sensitivity over time related to cognitive and language outcomes at the end of preschool and the beginning of formol education? Person-centered and variable-centered anolyses revealed that children experience changing patterns of sensitivity across time, that children benefit from sensitive interactions with all adults, and that changes in the sensitivity children experience across time ore associated with both lan-guage and cognitive outcomes