Child development

Types of Degrees Child development Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many early childhood education graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	12,709
Associate Degree	6,823
Basic Certificate	5,393
Master’s Degree	3,624
Undergraduate Certificate	1,926
Graduate Certificate	144
Doctor’s Degree	20

What Child development Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to child development were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Child development Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills for Child development Majors

When studying child development, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Child development Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a child development student include the following:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

What Can You Do With a Child development Major?

People with a child development degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education	8.0%	$55,470
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education	10.5%	$29,780

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Child development?

The major attracts more women than men. About 96% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of child development majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	550
Black or African American	1,122
Hispanic or Latino	3,281
White	6,813
International Students	110
Other Races/Ethnicities	833

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Child development. About 0.9% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Child development

Some degrees associated with child development may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to child development have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	14.8%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	5.3%
Some College Courses	6.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	5.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	47.7%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	9.5%
Master’s Degree	13.3%

Online Child development Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	221	42
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	1
Associate’s Degree	488	111
Bachelor’s Degree	69	18
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	234	67
Post-Master’s	17	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	8	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Child development

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to child development.

Major	Number of Grads
Elementary Education	41,711
Secondary Education	10,948
Teacher Education	9,411
Teacher Development & Methodology	6,323
Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education & Teaching	3,018
Kindergarten/Preschool Education & Teaching	2,718
Adult & Continuing Education	922
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Educational Methods	379
Montessori Teacher Education	304
Online Educator/Online Teaching	153
College/Postsecondary/University Teaching	101
International Teaching and Learning	24
Waldorf/Steiner Teacher Education	1

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Vgrigas under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.