Side-effects of Daycare
Link Found Between Behavioral Problems and Time in Child Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
New York Times, August 11, 2008WASHINGTON, April 18 -- Researchers conducting the largest long-term study of child care in the United States said today that they had found that children who spend most of their time in child care are three times as likely to exhibit behavioral problems in kindergarten as those who are cared for primarily by their mothers.
The study followed more than 1,100 children in 10 cities in a variety of settings, from care with relatives and nannies to preschool and large day care centers. Its conclusions are based on ratings of the children by their mothers, those caring for them and kindergarten teachers.
The study, whose detailed results have not been published, found a direct correlation between time spent in child care and traits like aggression, defiance and disobedience. In interviews today, two of its lead researchers said the findings held true regardless of the type or quality of care, the sex of the child, the family's socioeconomic status or whether mothers themselves provided sensitive care.
"As time goes up, so do behavior problems," said Dr. Jay Belsky, one of the study's principal investigators.
Dr. Belsky said children who spent more than 30 hours a week in child care "are more demanding, more noncompliant, and they are more aggressive." He added, "They scored higher on things like gets in lots of fights, cruelty, bullying, meanness, as well as talking too much, demands must be met immediately."
The research, financed by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, has not undergone the rigorous scientific evaluation known as peer review. But the long-running study is widely regarded as the most comprehensive examination of child care to date. In 1996, the same group of researchers concluded that using day care centers or baby sitters did not affect infants' trust in their mothers.
Dr. Belsky said he would present the findings on Thursday in Minneapolis at a meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. His announcement will undoubtedly inflame a debate that has continued for years over whether it is better for mothers to work or stay home. Dr. Belsky helped set off that debate in 1986 when he published an article suggesting that child care posed a risk of developmental problems.
Some experts on work and family life are already questioning the study's results. Perhaps, said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research organization in New York, "it's not being in child care that is the problem, it's that employed parents are tired and stressed."
And Claudia Wayne, former director of the Center for the Child Care Workforce, a group that advocates improving the quality of child care, suggested that quality might indeed be an issue because most child care was mediocre.
Thirteen million preschoolers, including six million infants and toddlers, are in child care in this country, according to the Children's Defense Fund in Washington. Nearly 30 percent of American children are in child care centers, while 15 percent are with family child care providers and 5 percent are with in-home caregivers, the organization says. Another 25 percent are cared for by relatives, which was defined as child care in the N.I.H. study. Roughly one- fourth are cared for by their parents.
When the researchers examined behavioral ratings for children who were in care for more than 30 hours per week, they found that 17 percent of them were regarded by teachers, mothers and caregivers as being aggressive toward other children. That is compared with 6 percent for the group of children in child care for less than 10 hours a week.There were some surprising findings. Children who spent more time in child care were initially rated as being more fearful and sad than other children, but the differences disappeared by kindergarten.
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I, for one, am not prepared to deal with 13 million Ted Bundys in a few years.
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