April 2007 - US study into effects of long day care on developing children

Feature Product

The Early Years Learning Framework: Building confident learners

Explores how educators can help children to be confident and involved learners (Outcome 4 of the EYLF).

Available now from ECA: only $14.95

Join Early Childhood Australia's mailing list

Awesome! It's great to have such relevant & interesting information to read.
Amanda

Child Development, Family, Health, and Education Research.

April 2007 - US study into effects of long day care on developing children

A US study has been released claiming that keeping children in long day care for a year or more may increase the likelihood that they will be disruptive at school. However, others have argued that the report only indicates that poor-quality care is harmful and high-quality care is beneficial, as previous studies have claimed.

Long day care study details

The Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development has been following the development of over 1300 children in 10 US cities since 1991.

According to the study, the time pre-schoolers spend in long day care may increase the likelihood that they will be disruptive at school, an effect that could last until age 11 or 12. The study claims that this occurs regardless of a child's gender, quality of care and level of income of his or her family.

One of the main authors of the study, Jay Belsky, stated that the research called for a questioning of the overall value of child care:

'What happens in classrooms, schools, playgrounds and communities when more and more children, at younger and younger ages, spend more and more time in centres, many that are indisputably of limited quality?'

Responses to study

Experts in the Australian childcare field have downplayed the study's claim about the harmful effects of long day care, stating that there are stronger quality assurance systems in place in Australia than in the US.

Members of the childcare field have also clamed that the study merely reaffirms the belief that low-quality care is harmful to children, pointing to the study's caveats: that the disruptive effect was ‘slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children'; and that parents and a child's genes more strongly influence their behaviour.

Benefits of child care

The US study also indicates that time spent in high-quality care was beneficial, as this was linked to higher vocabulary scores during primary school.

In response to the study, Childcare Associations Australia president Anne Clarke said:

'Australian children who have experienced time in long day care have greater social skills, independence and are often more advanced in their developmental levels than other children.'

Barbara Pocock, director of the University of South Australia's Centre for Work and Life, said that the study affirmed the importance for Australian parents ‘to watch out for quality of care'.

Read The Age's 'Day care likely to cause disruptive behaviour: Study'.
Read The Australian's 'A year of childcare "disrupts"'.

Poor-quality child care linked to depression in practioners

Another US researcher, Deborah Phillips of Georgetown University, also recently discussed the harmful effects of low-quality child care.

In an address to the Australian Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne on 22 March, Phillips argued that the mental health of childcare workers in Australia were in a comparable state to the US, where up to a quarter of all childcare workers suffer from clinical depression.

Pay linked to depression

In her address, Phillips referred to a US study demonstrating that poverty-level wages led to depression in a significant numbers of childcare workers. She highlighted that Australia also has similar low wages for those who look after young children:

'I fear both our countries are ambivalent about the childcare sector, and it shows in the wage structure. Childcare workers in the US get paid less than the guys who wash cars in parking lots. That's just not ethical.'

Effects on young children

Phillips said that adults who suffered from depression were detrimental to children. She referred to US research and also work done by Australian academic Margaret Sims that show lack of attention to a child can raise their anxiety level.

Margaret Sims is the acting editor of the Australian Journal of Early Childhood, published by Early Childhood Australia. One aspect of her research is the relationship between children's stress (as indicated by the presence of cortisol) and the quality of child care.

Phillips went on to say: 'The work is still under way, but the point is that normal variations in children's care environments can affect the stress response system'. She also pointed out that there was a proven link between high amounts of stress in early childhood and depression, heart disease and substance abuse as an adult.

Read the abstract of Margaret Sims' recent study:
'What cortisol levels tells us about quality in childcare centres'.

Read the abstract of Deborah Phillips address:
‘The effects of early environments on human development: Lessons from the integrated science of early child development'.

Read The Australian's:
‘Depressed childcare staff a risk'.




Home Early childhood news Early childhood news archives April 2007 - US study into effects of long day care on developing children