Quality Of Early Child Care Makes A Difference But Good Parenting Matters More, US Study Finds

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Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Caregivers / Homecare
Article Date: 27 Mar 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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A new US government study on children's development up to the age of 12 shows that quality of pre-kindergarten child care makes a difference but quality of parenting makes a much bigger difference.

The study, which was funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), is published in the journal Child Development.

The study followed the development of 1,364 children from birth to the end of 6th grade (average age 12.0 years) enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The NICHD Study is the the largest, longest running, and most comprehensive study of child care in the US.

Families were recruited as part of hospital follow ups to mothers who had recently given birth during 1991 in 10 different parts of the US. The sample is not representative of the overall child population of the US.

The study's lead author was Dr Jay Belsky, Director of the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues and Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck University of London, UK.

Dr Belsky and colleagues found that although parenting was a stronger and more consistent predictor of development than early child care, quality of early child care made a difference to vocabulary. Children who had higher quality care before starting kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than children who had lower quality care.

There was no difference to attainment in numerical or reading skills.

And children who spent longer in child care centres before starting kindergarten were reported as having more behavioural problems than children who did not, reagardless of the quality.

The types of problems were assessed by teachers completing a checklist that lists 100 different problem behaviours, such as demands a lot of attention; argues a lot; bragging and boasting; destroys things belonging to others; cruelty, bullying or meanness to others; disobedient at school; gets into many fights; lying or cheating; screams a lot.

In this case the children who spent longer in child care were reported as having aggression and disobedience problems such as "gets in many fights", or "disobedient at school", or "argues a lot".

The researchers strongly emphasized that the vocabulary and behaviour problem effect was very small in comparison to the difference that parenting quality made to child development, regardless of the type, quality or quantity of early child care.

And they also pointed out that the behavioural problems were well within the "normal" range, and would not be classified as clinical disorders.

As Dr Belsky explained, "It would not be possible to go into a classroom and with no additional information, pick out which children had been in center care".

Child care was measured in terms of quality, quantity and type from when the children were born to when they were four and a half years old.

Child care was defined as being cared for by "anyone other than the child's mother that was regularly scheduled for at least 10 hours per week. This included care by fathers, grandparents and other relatives".

Quality of child care included things like the training of care providers and the ratio of care providers to children.

Vocabulary scores were measured by testing children's ability to name objects when shown a picture.

The researchers found that neither the time spent in early child care nor the type made a difference to their later vocabulary attainment - it was the quality of the care that made the difference. This parallels findings in other studies, where children who are exposed to adult language early in life were more likely to attain higher scores on language development.

The researchers suggested that poor care provider training and a low ratio of carers to children could be a strong influence on later behaviour problems. For instance, a low ratio of carers to children could stop carers having enough time to help children learn how to resolve conflicts, such as how to share toys, they said.

In summing up, Dr James Griffin, who suprevised the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study, said that attention from parents mattered a whole lot more than quality of day care or schooling. And he also said that parents should not let behavioural problems fester - better to address a behaviour problem as soon as it emerges, rather than hope the child will just grow out of it.

The researchers stressed it was important to continue the research to see if these effects lasted through to later school years.

"Are There Long-Term Effects of Early Child Care?."
Jay Belsky, Deborah Lowe Vandell, Margaret Burchinal, K. Alison Clarke-Stewart, Kathleen McCartney, Margaret Tresch Owen, The NICHD Early Child Care Research Network.
Child Development 78 (2), 681�"701, March/April 2007
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01021.x

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Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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