Children in Daycare: Science, the Media, and Public Opinion

1
Children in Daycare Science, the Media, and
Public Opinion

• Cathryn Booth-LaForce, PhD, FAPS
• Charles Gerda Spence Professor of
  NursingEarly Childhood Development Lecture
  SeriesMay 2, 2007

2
Public Opinion
3
Examples of things I have heard

• Any family can get along without two incomesthey
  just have to make sacrifices.
• Women shouldnt have children if theyre going to
  have strangers raise them.
• Anyone who puts their baby in daycare doesnt
  have good family values.
• Children learn bad habits in daycare.
• Children learn how to get along with other
  children in daycare.
• The right (high quality, expensive) daycare will
  make my child smarter.
• I raised my child myself and he/she is
  smarter/better behaved/more socially skilled than
  children raised in daycare.

4
Media Reports
5
Some Recent Headlines

• Poor Behavior is Linked to Time in Day Care
• ---New York Times
• Study Links Child Care to Acting Out
• ---Associated Press
• How nurseries still breed aggression
• ---London Times

6

• Day Care is Linked to Behavior Lasting Through
  6th Grade
• ---The Wall Street Journal
• Few Effects of Poor Daycare Last Past Age 11
• ---Reuters

7

• Quality of Early Child Care Makes a Difference
  But Good Parenting Matters More, US Study
  Finds
• ---Medical News Today
• Day Care News Parents, You Count Most
• ---Newsday

8
A day care center, the sort of place in which
bullies are bred, according to a new
study ---New York Times, 2001
9
(No Transcript)
10
Some statistics.
11
National Maternal Employment Statistics (2005)

• 60 of married mothers of preschool children are
  in the work force
• 53.5 of married mothers of infants are in the
  work force
• ---Monthly Labor Review, Feb, 2007

12
Child-Care Statistics

• Each year, parents government spend roughly 50
  billion on child care
• ---Univ. MD, 2006
• About 12 million children are in child care in
  the U.S. (9.8 million under 5 years in 40 hours)
• ---U.S. Census Bureau, 1999

13
Why are young children spending so much time in
daycare?

• National trendsmaternal employment
• Families need two incomes
• Work preference

14
Costs to Women of the Off Ramp

• Short (1-2 year) time outlose 18 of earning
  power (28 in business and banking/finance)
• 3 or more yearslose 37 of earning power
• ---Center for Work-Life Policy, 2005

15
What are the effects of childcare on children and
families?
16
Science
17
NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth
Development
18
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network
Virginia Allhusen Mark Appelbaum Jay
Belsky Cathryn Booth-LaForce Robert
Bradley Celia Brownell Peg Burchinal Bettye
Caldwell Susan Campbell Alison
Clarke-Stewart Martha Cox Sarah L.
Friedman Willard Hartup Ty Hartwell Kathryn
Hirsh-Pasek Aletha Huston
University of California Irvine University
of California San Diego Birkbeck College,
University of London University of
Washington University of Arkansas at Little
Rock University of Pittsburgh University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill University of
Arkansas at Little Rock University of
Pittsburgh University of California
Irvine University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill NICHD University of
Minnesota Research Triangle Institute Temple
University University of Texas-Austin
St. Josephs University Michigan State
University University of Washington Research
Triangle Institute Wellesley College Harvard
University Loyola University Chicago University
of California San Diego University of
Kansas University of Texas-Dallas University of
California Riverside University of North
Carolina at Greensboro Georgetown
University University of Virginia University of
Maryland, College Park Wellesley
College University of Washington University of
Wisconsin- Madison Temple University
Lyz Jaeger Deborah Johnson Jean Kelly Bonnie
Knoke Nancy Marshall Kathleen McCartney Fred
Morrison Phil Nader Marion OBrien Margaret
Owen Ross Parke Chris Payne Deborah
Phillips Robert Pianta Suzanne Randolph Wendy
Robeson Susan Spieker Deborah Vandell Marsha
Weinraub
19
Acknowledgements

• NICHD Grant HD25447
• Susan J. Spieker, Co-PI
• Jean F. Kelly, Co-PI
• Sumi Hayashi, Site Coordinator
• Participating families

20
and a small army of data collectors
21
Purpose of the NICHD Study
To examine how variations in child-rearing
contexts (childcare, home, school, etc.) are
related to childrens social, emotional,
cognitive, and language development and health.
22
Ecological Model Concurrent and Longitudinal
Relations
Family and maternal characteristics
Demographic characteristics
Home environment
Childcare and school environments
Child characteristics
Child Outcomes Social, emotional, cognitive,
language, health
23
Families in the Study

• 1,364 eligible births occurring during 1991
• Sampling designed to assure adequate
  representation of major socio-demographic niches
• Ten data collection sites
• 24 hospitals

Recruited in these locations
24
Exclusion Criteria

• Mother younger than 18 years
• Family planned to move
• Multiple birth
• Infant had disability
• Infant stayed in hospital 7 days
• Substance abusemother
• Mother did not speak English
• 1 hour from lab site
• Extremely unsafe neighborhood

25
Current Locations of the 1009 Study Families
26
Who are the Families in the Study?

• Income-to-Needs (1 m)
• 13 poverty
• 18 near-poverty
• 69 non-poor
• Marital Status (1 m)
• 14 single

• Maternal Education
• 10 no HS degree
• 21 HS degree or GED
• 33 some college
• 21 college degree
• 15 postgrad education

27
Race/Ethnicity ()

• Study USA
• White, non-Hispanic 75 65
• Black, non-Hispanic 13 16
• Hispanic 6 15
• Asian 1 3
• Native American 1 1
• Other 4 NA

28
Work/School Plans at Birth

• Employment/School Plans--childs first year
• Yes 79
• No 18
• Dont know 3

29
Planned Hours of Work/School

• 10-29 29
• 30 67

30
Early Entry into Many Hours of Childcare

• Median age at entry3 months
• Mean hrs per week (1-54 months)31 hrs
• Informal care arrangements most common during
  first year

31
Study Assessment Ages

• 1, 6, 15, 24, 36, 54 months
• K, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Age 15

32
Types of Assessments

• Interviews
• Questionnaires
• Observations
• Direct Assessments
• Records

33
Informants

• Mothers
• Fathers/Partners
• Child-care Providers
• After-school Care Providers
• Teachers
• Principals
• Children
• Best Friends
• Mothers and Teachers of Best Friends
• Nurse Practitioners

34
Contexts

• Home
• Child-care arrangements
• School
• After-school settings
• Neighborhood

35
Number of Variables (birth to Grade 6)

• Raw data70,000 variables
• Analysis data sets8,700 variables
• Data are available to other investigators

36
What did we measure in the child-care setting?
37
Child-Care Measures

• Quantity Hours/week
• Observed Quality (ORCE)
• Type
• Relative/ In Home Care
• Child-care Home
• Child-care Center

38
Quality of Care

• ORCE
• (Observational Record of the Caregiving
  Environment)
• 6, 15, 24, 36, 54 months of age

39
ORCE Behaviors

• Shared positive affect
• Positive physical contact
• Responds to vocalization/childs talk
• Speaks positively to child
• Asks questions of child
• Other talk to child

• Stimulates cognitive development/teaches academic
  skill
• Facilitates behavior
• Mutual exchange
• Negative/restricting actions (reversed)
• Speaks negatively to child (reversed)

40
ORCE Ratings

• Stimulation
• Sensitivity/responsiveness
• Positive regard
• Detachment/disengagement
• Flat affect
• Intrusiveness (at 36, 54 months)
• Fosters exploration (at 36, 54 months)

41
ORCE is related to

• Quality of the physical environment
• Regulable features of daycare

42
Type of CareChild Care Centers

• Larger groups of children
• More toys
• More structured activities
• More children per adult
• Children grouped by age

43
Child-Care Homes

• More informal care
• More time in free play
• Varying ages of children often siblings
• Activities are more home-like

44
Relative/In-Home Care

• Most informal
• Care provider follows usual routine and
  incorporates child
• Little structure
• May be just caregiver and child or other related
  children

45
including Fathers
46
Quality of Care by Type

• Full range of quality in every type of care.
• Especially during the first two years, the
  average quality of care was higher in less formal
  care with fewer children.
• ---NICHD ECCRN, 1996

47
What did we measure in the home setting?
48
Parenting Quality
49
Quality of Mother-child Interaction

• Ratings from 15 minute videotaped structured
  play interactions
• Sensitivity to distress
• Sensitivity to nondistress
• Detachment
• Intrusiveness
• Cognitive stimulation
• Positive regard
• Negative regard
• Flat affect

50
Home Observation for Measurement of the
Environment (HOME)

• Checklist of quantity and quality of support and
  stimulation available to the child in the home
  environment (e.g., books, age-appropriate play
  materials, appropriate responses to child,
  affection)
• Based on interview of mother with child present

51
Is early, extensive participation in childcare a
risk factor for insecure attachment?
52
A 30-sec introduction to attachment

• Secure attachmentcomfortable sense of trust in
  the primary caregiver
• Security is predicted by warm, sensitive,
  responsive parenting from primary caregiver
• Insecurity is predicted by detached, uninvolved,
  unresponsive, intrusive parenting
• Insecurity is a risk factor for subsequent
  behavior problems, problems with peers,
  relationships, poor social competence

53
Attachment Results

• Security/insecurity was related to the quality of
  parenting.
• Security/insecurity was not related to the
  quality, quantity, or age of entry into
  childcare.
• Dual-risk effect Very insensitive parenting plus
  poor quality childcare, or many hours in
  childcaregreater proportion of insecure infants.
• ---NICHD ECCRN, 1997

54
Child Care and Child Outcomes More Questions

• Is child care related to child cognitive,
• language and social outcomes at
• 4.5 years?
• If so, how? What are the specific effects
• of quality, quantity of care, and type of
• care on child outcomes?
• How big are these effects?

55
Statistical Controls

• Site, gender, ethnicity, maternal education,
• proportion time mother had partner in
• household, maternal depression, income,
• maternal sensitivity

56
I. Quality of Early Child Care

• For preschoolers, higher quality care over the
  first 4.5 years is associated with
• better pre-academic skills
• better language skills

57
Differences in Child Care Quality vs. Differences
in Parenting Quality Language Competence
Language Competence
Language Competence
Parenting Quality d .87
Child Care Quality d .29
58
II. Type of Child Care

• More experience in child care centers is
  associated with
• better language skills
• more problem behaviors

59
III. Quantity of Child Care (all types of care)

• More hours of child care over the
• first 4.5 years is associated with
• more problem behaviors
• (aggression, disobedience)

60

• All types of care
• Not a function of quality
• No threshold
• Not just assertive behavior
• Not clinical levels of aggression

61
Differences in Amount of Child Care vs
Differences in Parenting Quality Behavior
Problems at 54 Months
55
55
CaregiverReportedBehaviorProblems
CaregiverReportedBehaviorProblems
m51.7
m51.0
m48.8
50
m48.1
50
45
45
0
0
30hrs/wk
Low
High
Parenting Quality d .23
Quantity of Care d .38
62
Grade 5/6 Results
63
Statistical Controls

• Site, gender, ethnicity, maternal education,
• proportion time mother had partner in
• household, maternal depression, income,
• maternal sensitivity, classroom quality,
• after-school hours.

64
I. Quality of Early Child Care

• Higher quality care over the first 4.5 years is
  associated with
• higher vocabulary scores in Grade 5

65
II. Type of Child Care

• More experience in child care centers is
  associated with
• more behavior problems in Grade 6

66
Comparison of Effect Sizes

• Vocabulary
• Child-care quality--.06
• Parenting quality--.25-.33
• Behavior Problems
• Prop. center care--.08-.12
• Parenting quality--.11-.19

67
Behavior-Problem Mean Scores

• Average score 50.0
• At-risk score 60.0
• No time in child care 49.6
• 1-2 years in center care 50.0
• 3 years in center care 51.4
• (10 of sample)
• 4 years in center care 52.0
• (5 of sample)

68
Effect Size Considerations

• Length of time between measurements
• Parentinggenetic and environmental influences?
• Childcarecumulative societal effects?

69
Classroom effects?
70
ONCE MORE, THE HORRORS OF DAY CARE ---Philade
lphia Daily News
71

• THERE ARE some things that should just . . . DIE
  already
• Photos of Brad and Angelina holding their many
  children. (Mine could walk by age 1 - didn't
  yours?)
• Tube tops, particularly on anyone over the age
  of 25 and with a BMI of more than 25.
• Women who are the fourth wife of a billionaire
  saying the two of them are soulmates.
• Studies that purport to demonstrate that day
  care will irreversibly damage your children.
• Especially poorly designed studies of limited
  usefulness being trotted out by people who can't
  really grasp the limitations of the study but put
  screaming headlines on them designed to sell
  newspapers and scare the stuffing out of working
  parents.

72
So, what are the limitations of the study?

• It is not nationally representative
• We did not include the most high-risk
  disadvantaged families
• It is not an experiment
• Therefore, we cannot claim that child care
  causes child outcomes.

73
What are the strengths of the study?

• Largest, longest-term study of child care in
  relation to child development
• Prospective study
• Began at birth
• Ecological model included data about
• the family, home, school, neighborhood
• Multiple aspects of child development health
• Exceptionally high-quality data
• Diversity of investigators views

74
Summing up What do these results mean?
75
Parent(s) Matter!
76
Parents are spending more time with their children

• 1965--mothers spent 10.2 hrs per week tending to
  their children
• 2003--mothers spent 14.1 hrs per week
• 1965fathers spent 2.5 hrs per week
• 2003fathers spent 7 hrs per week
• 2003 paid work time spent with child 65
  hrs/wk for mothers, 64 for fathers.
• ---Bianchi et al., 2006

77
In our study at 7 months of age

• Compared families in which the infant was
• in 30 or more hours of childcare vs. at
• home with mom since birth.
• Time interacting with motheronly 12 hours
  difference per week.
• Time not related to quality of mother-infant
  interaction or child outcomes.
• ---Booth et al., 2002

78
A conservative politician

• Our study proves what has long been
• obvious, that kids do better if nurtured by
• their own parents.

79
Is there a developmental advantage to staying
home with mom?
80
Thank goodness Im a stay-at-home mom!
81
No evidence that exclusive maternal care is best

• Only 52 children with exclusive maternal care,
  birth to 60 months
• Not different from daycare children in cognitive,
  language, social development
• High-quality daycare exclusive maternal care
  low-quality daycarecognitive and language
  development.

82
Are childcare quality and quantity important?
83
Results of other studies

• Importance of child-care quality for lower-income
  and at-risk children (correlational and
  experimental studies)
• Quantity findings consistent with those from ECLS
  and from a study in England

84
Consider child-care quantity and quality from the
perspective of the childs everyday experiences
85
Quality of Care in the U.S.

• Poor 8
• Fair 53
• Good 30
• Excellent 9
• ---Booth et al., 1999

86
Iras Discount Day Care
87
My Recommendations

• Lets stop making parents feel guilty and focus
  on supporting them
• Lets stop thinking that staying at home with mom
  is the gold standard

88
More recommendations

• Family leave policies
• Flexible employment re-entry strategies
• Improve daycare quality and choices
• Educate parents about their importance practical
  strategies
• Pay attention to what is going on in daycare

89
More science

• What is the role of stress?
• Given the small effect sizes for childcare
  quality, weighing of costs and benefits of
  specific improvements
• More data about daily life
• Classroom effects
• Age 15 results
• Relationship studyAge 17.5

90
(No Transcript)