Early Child Care Research Network and the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Vandell is co-author of the textbook Life-Span Development: Infancy Through Adulthood (with Laurence Steinberg, Marc H. Bornstein, and Karen S. Rook). Research Vandell had contributed to large-scale, longitudinal studies exploring how the quality of a child's care impacts their academic and social development from early childhood up to adolescence. The findings indicate that children who have access to full-time experienced caregivers have better social, cognitive, behavioral, and academic outcomes than children attended to by part-time caregivers. Children who do not have access to a good quality of care, whether it be from home or school programs, are more impulsive, risk-taking, and are less likely to respond well in social situations. Vandell's research on the impact of afterschool programs on children's academic and behavioral development indicates benefits of enrollment in afterschool programs in elementary school, including increased school attendance and academic skills and lower incidence of behavioral problems such as aggression. Representative work Vandell, D. L. (1996). Characteristics of infant child care: Factors contributing to positive caregiving. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 11(3), 269-306. Vandell, D. L. (2004). Early child care: The known and the unknown. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50(3), 387-414. Vandell, D.L., Belsky, J., Burchinal, M., Steinberg, L., Vandergrift, N. and (2010), Do effects of early child care extend to age 15 years? Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Child Development, 81, 737-756. Vandell, D. L., & Hembree, S. E. (1994). Peer social status and friendship: Independent contributors to children's social and academic adjustment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 40(4), 461-477. Vandell, D. L., & Ramanan, J. (1992). Effects of early and recent maternal employment on children from low‐income families. Child Development, 63(4), 938-949. Vandell, D. L., & Shumow, L. (1999). After-school child care programs. The Future of Children, 9(2), 64-80. References External links Faculty homepage Developmental psychologists American women psychologists Rice University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Boston University alumni University of California, Irvine faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women