More truly aggressive and disobedient behavior...
Published today [July 16, 2003]
in perhaps the most prestigious journal devoted to the scientific study
of child development are the most recent results of the most comprehensive
investigation ever conducted of the effects of day care on child development.
This peer-reviewed scientific report based on the federally-funded National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early
Child Care addresses a long-standing controversy about whether lots
of time spent in nonmaternal care beginning in the first year of life
is related to elevated levels of aggressive and disobedient behavior.
Contrary to the expectations (and desires) of many in the field of child
development, the NICHD Study shows
(1) that the more time children spend in any of a variety of nonmaternal
care arrangements across the first 4.5 years of life, the more aggression,
disobedience, and conflict with adults they manifest at 54 months of
age and in kindergarten;
(2) that these seemingly adverse effects remain even after taking into
account multiple features of children's families, as well as the quality
and type of nonmaternal care which children experienced; and
(3) that more time in care predicts not just more assertive or independent
behavior, but more truly aggressive and disobedient behavior, as well.