Children in day care centers scored better on a battery of tests, compared
to those who went to family child care homes or who were left with friends
or relatives while their mothers worked, say Susanna Loeb, Ph.D., of Stanford
University and colleagues.
“Effects of child care type on social development are less consistent,” Loeb
says. For instance, she found that children placed in family child care
homes had more aggressive behaviors than those in day care centers or
cared for by a friend or relative. An earlier, controversial study by the
National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development linked greater time spent
in any sort of day care with problem behavior, assertiveness, disobedience
and aggression in some children.
The study appears in the January-February issue of the journal Child
Development.
Federal welfare reforms of 1996 were accompanied by increased public child
care support programs. An additional 1 million children of mothers in the
welfare-to-work program now spend time in day care, Loeb says.
Her team conducted two rounds of interviews with 451 families living in
San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., and Tampa, Fla., in 1998 (when the
children averaged two and a half years old) and in 2000 (when they were
about four). The researchers assessed behavior and abilities in both day
care settings and in the home.
At the second round of interviews, 83 percent of the mothers utilizing
child care outside the home.
Tests of language and cognitive proficiency and school readiness were
highest among children who attended the day care centers, Loeb says. These
positive effects were also found for children who moved to the day care
centers between the two rounds of interviews, she says.
The advantage of center-based care remained even after
adjusting for such factors as mother’s education, children’s age or mother’s
cognitive level. Whether the mother graduated from high school had no effect
on the children’s cognitive development.
Children in California showed better cognitive development than those
in Florida, a difference which Loeb attributes to the higher day care center
quality seen at the West Coast sites. Children of African-American or Latina
mothers tended to score lower on cognitive outcomes.
Staff quality and training influenced results as well. Children in day
care settings who had better-educated teachers recorded higher measures
of school readiness and language skills. On the other hand, children showed
more social problems when cared for by providers with less than a high
school education.
The home environment still counted for something, however.
“Children whose mothers read with them and take them to the library
or museum more frequently also display fewer social problems,” Loeb
says. They also found that having more books present in the home was
tied to higher rankings on measures of reading and school readiness.
Overall, Loeb says, the study confirms other work on the value of day
care center attendance and the importance of center quality.
“The strong positive effects stemming from center care,” she
says, “as well as from quality and stability, suggest that as government
invests more resources in child care, greater attention should be paid
to the quality of care and ensuring center-based options for more families.”
