Daycare and the Effects on Children

Daycare and the Effects on Children

With the triumphs of welfare reform and the high turnout of women college graduates, mothers are increasingly, entering the workforce. As affirmed by the Wilson Quarterly (Autumn 98, Vol. 22 Issue 4), "Ben Wildavsky, a staff correspondent for the National Journal (Jan. 24, 1998), provides statistical background. In 1997, nearly 42 percent of women with children under six were working full-time, 5 percent were looking for work, 18 percent had part-time jobs, and 35 percent were not working outside the home" (p.115). Using these figures it is said that 65 percent of women with children aged younger than six are working or would like to be. Daycare is a necessity for the majority of working American mothers.

Within the past 20 years child social developmentalists have gathered facts and evidence to show that unless children gain minimal social competence by the age of six, they have a high probability of being at risk throughout life. (Denham & Burton, 1996) Thus peer relationships contribute a great deal to both social and cognitive development and to the effectiveness with which we function as adults. Others suggest that the number of caregivers and the amount of time children spend away from parents' harms parent-child relationships thus, weakening cognitive and emotional development (Kelly, 2000). This paper will discuss the effects of daycare on children and how to choose one of high quality.

Many daycare opponents believe bonding, a strong emotional attachment that forms between a child and parent, is disrupted when mothers and fathers rely on others to be substitute parents. Children who are securely bonded to parents are more confident in their explorations of their environment and have a higher sense of self-esteem than children who are insecurely bonded to their parents. Dr. Stanley Greenspan, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School, who has authored several books including the recent book, The Irreducible Needs of Children says, "A warm, loving human relationship is very important for intellectual development. Children form their capacity to think and self-image based on these back-and-forth interactions. Fewer of these are happening, because families are so busy and more care is being done outside the home. Studies [show] that for all ages, 85 percent of day care is not high quality" (Kelly, 2000, p. 65).

It has been further proven that the issue is, the quality of the care given in daycare that makes the difference in regards to cognitive, language, and socio-emotional functions. The more quality care the more positive the functional developments. Placing a child in daycare does not exclude them from forming warm, human relationships in contrast it gives them the opportunity to form numerous bonding encounters with other adults and it also permits the formation of strong peer attachments.

A bare reality facing many parents is that quality daycare is hard to find or too expensive. Quality daycare includes a well-trained staff that serves children in small groups. This allows for successful interactions between the caregiver and child. These interactions may be related to cognitive functioning and language development. Preschoolers that have experienced positive interactions given at quality daycare demonstrated better language skills and cognitive functioning than preschoolers who did not experience such childcare as infants. (Burchinal, Lee, and Ramey, 1989) Without these interactions children who receive lower quality daycare or children reared at home scored lower on measures of academic achievement when tested against those children who were experienced.

In the study done at State University of New York College in Buffalo, they explored the relation between time spent in daycare and the quantity and quality of exploratory and problem-solving behaviors in 9-month-old infants. It was hypothesized that, given the presence of high quality care, infants who spent greater amounts of time in center-based care would demonstrate more advanced exploratory and problem-solving behaviors then infants who did not spend as much time in center-based care (Schuetze, Lewis, and DiMartino, 269). The results suggested that the amount of time spent in center-based care predicts more frequent and varied exploratory behaviors and the more successful problem-solving abilities. Infants are motivated to affect and master their environment and high quality daycare centers provide infants with age-appropriate play materials and responsive caregivers who, presumably, are frequently encouraging them to explore their surroundings which, in turn, affords them the opportunity to develop exploratory strategies. (Schuetze, et al, 273).

"Emotional competence is central to children's ability to interact and form relationships;" as stated in the opening paragraph of the study done by Susanne A. Denham and Rosemary Burton from George Mason University (1996). Their study focuses on the importance of children being able to (1) form a secure attachment with a primary caregiver, (2) acquire the ability to consciously recognize and label emotion and (3) develop skills to problem solving with peers. For when a child forms a secure attachment the child feels confident to explore the social world. When a child has the ability to consciously recognize and label emotion the child has a vehicle with which to regulate emotions. The child who can consider alternative solutions to problems is less likely to take a toy out of the hands of another without consideration of the others desires (Denham, 1996). All of these abilities are better learning in a center based environment were there are more opportunities to develop and master these skills. Early research did support that there were some adverse effects on development for infants attending daycare, such as emotional competence deficits. But these findings presumably are more strongly related to a daycare of poor quality that would neglect social development instead of enhancing it. Recently, research has suggested that infants reared in a daycare setting do not suffer any long-term consequences from center-based care (Clarke-Stewart, Gruber, and Fitzgerald, 1994; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1997).

There are some aspects of daycare that may increase the probability that children will behave in socially inappropriate ways. The relationship between daycare and aggression is currently unclear at the present because of the numerous conflicting conclusions. "Honig and Park (1993) assessed aggressiveness in preschoolers using ratings by head teachers as well as ratings of videotaped free play behaviors in the daycares. They reported that children who had been in daycare longer received higher