SynthesisPloS one2017
Child-Staff Ratios in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings and Child Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Early childhood education and care quality and associations with child outcomes: A meta-analysis.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review of the implementation of obesity prevention interventions in early childcare and education settings using the RE-AIM framework.Translational behavioral medicine · 2020Pooled it
- A national randomized controlled trial of the impact of public Montessori preschool at the end of kindergarten.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Trial
- The School Counselors Role in Supporting Teachers Working with Children who Have Experienced Trauma: Lessons Learned.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2025Article
- Adult/child ratio and group size in early childhood education or care to promote the development of children aged 0-5 years: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2022Review
- Predicting school readiness program implementation in community-based childcare centers.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The Effects of Age, Dosage, and Poverty on Second Language Learning through SparkLingInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Which Meso-Level Characteristics of Early Childhood Education and Care Centers Are Associated with Health, Health Behavior, and Well-Being of Young Children? Findings of a Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Longitudinal pathways of engagement, social interaction skills, hyperactivity and conduct problems in preschool children.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2021Article
- Locally implemented prevention programs may reverse weight trajectories in half of children with overweight/obesity amid low child-staff ratios: results from a quasi-experimental study in France.BMC public health · 2020Article
- PROTOCOL: Adult/child ratio and group size in early childhood education or care to promote the development of children aged 0-5 years: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Child-staff ratios are a key quality indicator in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs. Better ratios are believed to improve child outcomes by increasing opportunities for individual interactions and educational instruction from staff. The purpose of this systematic review, and where possible, meta-analysis, was to evaluate the association between child-staff ratios in preschool ECEC programs and children's outcomes. Searches of Medline, PsycINFO, ERIC, websites of large datasets and reference sections of all retrieved articles were conducted up to July 3, 2015. Cross-sectional or longitudinal studies that evaluated the relationship between child-staff ratios in ECEC classrooms serving preschool aged children and child outcomes were independently identified by two reviewers. Data were independently extracted from included studies by two raters and differences between raters were resolved by consensus. Searches revealed 29 eligible studies (31 samples). Child-staff ratios ranged from 5 to 14.5 preschool-aged children per adult with a mean of 8.65. All 29 studies were included in the systematic review. However, the only meta-analysis that could be conducted was based on three studies that explored associations between ratios and children's receptive language. Results of this meta-analysis were not significant. Results of the qualitative systematic review revealed few significant relationships between child-staff ratios and child outcomes construed broadly. Thus, the available literature reveal few, if any, relationships between child-staff ratios in preschool ECEC programs and children's developmental outcomes. Substantial heterogeneity in the assessment of ratios, outcomes measured, and statistics used to capture associations limited quantitative synthesis. Other methodological limitations of the research integrated in this synthesis are discussed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.