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Preliminary results of the National Institute of Child Health
and Development (NICHD) Study of Early Care have generated a
great deal of media attention about the effect of child care on
children's behavior and development. Given the fact that child
care is an issue of great importance to families and
policymakers, it is critical that the results to date are
presented accurately and clearly.
Q: Does child care cause aggressive behavior?
A: No. In fact, the behavior of all children
in the study, whether in child care or not, was within the
normal range. It is an error to conclude from this study
that child care causes violence, aggression, or other problem
behaviors.
Q: Does child care harm children?
A: No. Quality of care, whether at home
or in a child care center, is the most significant predictor
of good outcomes for children. Children who grow up in situations
that are safe, clean, have stimulating environments, lower
adult-child ratios, whether at home or in child care,
have better developmental outcomes.
In fact, researchers have found that children who experience
high-quality child care have intellectual and language skills
that are not different from children who are raised
exclusively by their mothers.
Q: Does child care damage the parent-child
relationship?
A: No. There is no evidence that a
parent-child relationship is weakened as a result of the time a
child spends in child care. A combination of family and home
characteristics, including income, maternal education, two-parent
family status, maternal separation anxiety, and maternal
depression predicts the quality of mother-child interaction more
than the children's experiences in child care.
Call for Action
Many Minnesota children spend time with caregivers who are not
their parents. It is essential that we have policies and
practices that ensure that all child care settings
support the development of healthy children and families. The
overwhelming evidence of the NICHD Study of Early Care highlights
the promise of helping children and families by providing
high-quality child care. Given this, and given the number of
families in Minnesota from across the economic spectrum that
require child care, the following is needed:
- Good quality care should be available for families who
need out-of-home care, to assure good developmental
outcomes for all children.
- Policies should be implemented to reduce the turnover
rate of child care providers and bolster their education.
- Child care programs should be encouraged to assess the
extent to which they include features of high-quality
care.
For More Information
For more information, contact Scott
McConnell (smcconne@umn.edu)
at the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED) at the
University of Minnesota, 612-625-3058. Visit the CEED Web site at
http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed.
This issue of FACT FIND was written by:
Mary McEvoy, Ph.D., Center for Early Education and
Development, College of Education and Human Development,
University of Minnesota
For more information about CEED, contact:
Christopher Watson, CEED, University of Minnesota,
Education Sciences Building, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108;
telephone: 612-625-2898; fax: 612-625-6619; email: watso012@umn.edu.
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2001 issue