Effects of Daycare

1
Effects of Daycare
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Potential effects of daycare on
• Social development
• Cognitive development
• Research studies relevant to this area

2
Daycare
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Defined as being
• Regular temporary separation
• Outside the home environment
• Not with family member
• Can still mean several things e.g.
• Nursery
• Childminder
• Playgroup

3
Daycare
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• 850,000 full-time daycare places in the UK
• 60 of UK mothers with a child under 5 now
  working full time
• Government commitment to universally available
  daycare

4
Effects of daycare
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Social development
• The childs ability to form relationships with
  others and to interact with others
• Cognitive development
• The development of the childs intellect and
  skills

5
Daycare social development
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Bowlbys view
• Repeated separation leads to insecure attachment
• This has consequences for later development
• permanent damage to the emotional health of a
  future generation.

6
Daycare social development
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Penelope Leach
• Nursery staff are not emotionally responsive
  enough to younger (lt18mo) children could affect
  quality of attachment
• After about 2 years relationships with other
  children become more important lots of benefits
• Quality of care is paramount

7
Daycare social development
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Jay Belsky
• Daycare leads to poorer social development
  higher aggression
• Leads to insecure attachment due to insensitive
  mothering
• Main risk gt10hrs/week in first year of life but
  all childcare in the early years is detrimental
  to social (not cognitive) development

8
Daycare social development
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Ted Melhuish
• There are some risks associated with daycare
  under 2 years slightly higher aggression,
  disobedience
• Only appear at gt25hrs daycare, more obvious at
  gt40hrs
• Possibly avoidable with right sort or carers
  but these are expensive

9
Mediating factors
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Daycare effects likely to be mediated by
• Age of child
• Frequency duration of daycare
• Child to carer ratio
• Carer skills and attitudes
• Care staff turnover