This study focuses on the interrelationship between family influences and child care of varying quality on the toddler's capacity for compliance and self-regulation in a laboratory setting. A total of 89 families with children 18 to 36 months participated. Thirty-two families used day care centers identified as high quality, 25 families used day care centers identified as low quality, and 32 families did not use day care centers. Three quality-of-care indices were used: adult-child ratio, continuity of staff, and training of staff. The child and the primary parent participated in a 30-minute laboratory session. Observations of the child's capacity to comply with the parent's request to complete a boring and familiar task and the child's capacity for self-regulation both in the presence and the absence of the parent were made. Measures were adapted from those used by Schaeffer and Crook (1980, 1981), Londerville and Main (1981), and Lytton (1979). Composite scores for adult and child behavior were created by adding the scores on each task segment of the laboratory session. At 18 months, children from both high and low quality care settings demonstrated abilities to resist temptation and to use self-regulating techniques that were similar to those demonstrated by 36-month-old children who did not attend day care. Parents with children in high quality child care were more invested in their child's compliance at an earlier age than were other parents. Parents' behavior was also different for their 18-month-olds than for their older children. Compliance tasks revealed developmental trends consistent with Kagan's (1981) and Kopp's (1982) suggestion that the capacity to comply develops during the toddler period. References and tables are appended. (AS)