Margaret Burchinal

Margaret R. Burchinal (born June 16, 1951, in Columbus, Ohio)^[1] is a quantitative psychologist and statistician known for her research on child care.^[2] She is senior research scientist and director of the Data Management and Analysis Center of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Burchinal was lead editor of the Society for Research in Child Development monograph Quality Thresholds, Features, and Dosage in Early Care and Education: Secondary Data Analyses of Child Outcomes^[3] and co-editor of the monograph Best Practices in Quantitative Methods for Developmentalists.^[4]

Biography

Burchinal graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Iowa State University in 1976.^[5] She subsequently attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNCH), in which she graduated with a master's degree in special education in 1978.^[5] Her master's thesis was titled The Contingent Relationship of Mother and Infant Behaviors in Dyadic Interactions.

Burchinal obtained her PhD in quantitative psychology at UNCH in 1986. Her dissertation, titled Methods for Estimating Individual Developmental Functions

Burchinal's research program has investigated the impact of high quality of childhood education on children's language and cognitive development.[8] She served as an investigator on the Abecedarian Early Intervention Project, a controlled experiment that established the benefits of early childhood education for children growing up in poverty.^[9] This study enrolled over 100 predominantly African-American children born to low income families between 1972 and 1977. Infants were randomly assigned an early education group, which received an educational intervention in a childcare setting up to age five years, or to a control group. The educational intervention used games to encourage social, emotional, and cognitive areas of development with an emphasis on language skills. Follow up studies on the children's progress at ages 12, 15, 21, and 30 years indicated long lasting benefits of early childhood education.^[10][11]

Burchinal has collaborated with NICHD Early Child Care Research Network on studies of the long-term effects of early child care on children's functioning from ages 4 to 12 years old.

Burchinal and her colleagues have studied the impact of teachers' relationships with their students and the role of instructional scaffolding in supporting children's learning and development.^[14] Their research has shown how high quality relationships between preschool teachers and their students have beneficial effects on the children's academic and social skills.

Representative publications

• Burchinal, M. R.; Cryer, D. (2003). "Diversity, child care quality, and developmental outcomes". Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 18 (4): 401–426.
  doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2003.09.003
  .
• Burchinal, M. R.; Cryer, D.; Clifford, R. M.; Howes, C. (2002). "Caregiver training and classroom quality in child care centers". Applied Developmental Science. 6 (1): 2–11.
  S2CID 144913862
  .
• Burchinal, M.; Howes, C.; Pianta, R.; Bryant, D.; Early, D.; Clifford, R.; Barbarin, O. (2008). "Predicting child outcomes at the end of kindergarten from the quality of pre-kindergarten teacher–child Interactions and Instruction". Applied Developmental Science. 12 (3): 140–153.
  S2CID 144179341
  .
• Burchinal, M. R.; Peisner-Feinberg, E.; Pianta, R.; Howes, C. (2002). "Development of academic skills from preschool through second grade: Family and classroom predictors of developmental trajectories". Journal of School Psychology. 40 (5): 415–436.
  doi:10.1016/s0022-4405(02)00107-3
  .
• Burchinal, M. R.; Ramey, S. L.; Reid, M. K.; Jaccard, J. (1995). "Early child care experiences and their association with family and child characteristics during middle childhood". Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 10 (1): 33–61.
  doi:10.1016/0885-2006(95)90025-x
  .
• Burchinal, M. R.; Roberts, J. E.; Rhodus Riggins, J.; Zeisel, S. A.; Neebe, E.; Bryant, D. (2000). "Relating quality of center‐based child care to early cognitive and language development longitudinally". Child Development. 71 (2): 339–357.
  PMID 10834469
  .