Special issue features research on the association between child care quality and children's development. The articles address the ways in which quality can best be measured; the nature, reliability and causal implications of the assocation between quality and child development; and the strength of the association. (Burchinal et al's results on child care quality for children considered at-risk is especially interesting.)

- The effects of quality of care on child development
by Michael Lamb

- Characteristics and quality of child care for toddlers and preschoolers
by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network

- The production of quality in child-care center: Another look
by David Blau

- Children's social and cognitive development and child-care quality: Testing for differential associations related to poverty, gender, or ethnicity
by Margaret R. Burchinal, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, Donna M. Bryant & Richard Clifford

- Early child care experiences and children's social competence between 1 1/2 and 15 years of age
by Jessica Campbell, Michael Lamb & C. Phillip Hwang