Title: The stress and child care project
1The stress and child care project
- Professor Margaret Sims
- University of New England
- New South Wales, Australia,
- margaret.sims_at_une.edu.au
- www.une.edu.au/staff/msims7
2Background
- A lot of research has argued that child care is
bad for children - Long hours of care or attending from an early age
are particularly problematic - Impacts found on social skills, aggression,
compliance with adults, behaviour, attachments to
parents
3but
- Research also shows that child care benefits
children - Better cognitive and language outcomes
- Australian research better attachment with
parents - Centre-based early intervention programmes (eg
Perry High/Scope) showed long term improvements
in a wide range of areas including less welfare
dependency, better physical and mental health,
better educational achievement, less involvement
in crime etc
4Quality of care NOT who delivers care
- Many American centres are of low quality
- Multiple and/or unstable care arrangements are
problematic - Outcomes are clearly better for children when
quality of care is high - High quality better academic and language skills
irrespective of length of time in care
5Research difficulties
- Impact of care requires longitudinal studies
- Difficulty of isolating impact of alternative
care from other experiences in the early years - Limited projects world-wide have been successful
in getting sufficient money to follow children
over a number of years, and those that have are
generally funded to deliver interventions rather
than investigating the impact of standard
(available to anyone) services
6Cortisol
- Cortisol is a tool we can use to measure the
IMMEDIATE impact of the environment on a child - We see a change in cortisol levels within 20
minutes of experiencing a stressor - In a quality environment cortisol levels should
return quickly to baseline
7Chronic stress
- But
- Where stress is chronic cortisol levels remain
elevated for a long time - Ultimately the body adapts to the atypical
cortisol levels - Hypocortisolism
- Hypercortisolism
8Outcomes of atypical cortisol levels
- Chronic high levels of cortisol behaviour,
depression, type II diabetes, malnutrition,
cardiovascular disease, memory, immune system,
drug and alcohol addiction - Chronic low levels of cortisol chronic fatigue
syndrome, fibromyalgia, immune system (autoimmune
disorders), rheumatoid arthritis, allergies,
asthma
9The research model
- Chronic stress leads to atypical levels of
cortisol - When this happens over sufficient time there are
changes to the brain and biochemistry that lead
to negative long-term outcomes - We can identify if a child is stressed by the
environment and then predict the impact of the
environment on long-term outcomes
10My research
- Collected cortisol levels of children in child
care centres in Perth, WA - Took measures of the quality of the child care
environment - 15 child care centres
- 156 children, 75 boys and 81 girls
- 38 infants (under 12 months of age), 57 toddlers
(between 1 and 3 years of age) and 61 kindy aged
children (between 3 and 6 years of age).
11Child care centre quality
- QIAS principles rated written observations,
checked 25 - Quality Area 1 Relationships with children - 2
of 2 principles used in this study - Quality Area 2 Respect for children - 3 of 4
principles used in this study - Quality Area 3 Partnerships with families -1 of
3 principles used in this study - Quality Area 4 Staff Interactions - 1 of 1
principles used in this study - Quality Area 5 Planning and evaluation - 2 of 4
principles used in this study - Quality Area 6 Learning and Development - 1 of 6
principles used in this study
12- Staff create a happy, engaging atmosphere and
interact with children in a warm and friendly
way. - Staff guide childrens behaviour in a positive
way - Staff initiate and maintain communication with
children, and their communication conveys respect
and promotes equity. - Staff respect the diverse abilities and the
social and cultural backgrounds of all children
and accommodate the individual needs of each
child
13- Staff and families use effective spoken and
written communication to exchange information
about individual children and about the centre - Staff communicate effectively with each other and
function well as a team - Programs reflect a clear statement of centre
philosophy and a related set of broad centre
goals - Programs cater for the needs, interests and
abilities of all children in ways that assist
children to be successful learners
14- Programs encourage children to make choices and
take on new challenges - Staff supervise children at all times
- Toileting and nappy changing procedures are
positive experiences and meet childrens
individual needs - staff ensure that children are dressed
appropriately for indoor and outdoor play and
that rest/sleep time and dressing procedures
encourage self help and meet individual needs for
safety,rest and comfort - Staffing policies and practices facilitate
continuity of care for each child
15Cortisol response to overall quality 3-6 years
16Principle 1.1 interact warmly - differentiation
between satisfactory and high quality (3-6 years)
17Similar patterns for kindy aged children in other
relationship measures
- 1.2 Positive guidance
- 2.1 Respect and equity
- 3.1 Family communication
- 5.3 Programme for childrens needs
- 6.1 Programme for choices
- 7.2 Supervise at all times
- 7.3 routines individualised
- 10.2 Continuity of care
18Different pattern for programming / curriculum
measures of quality 2.2 Individual needs (3-6
years)
19Infants (0-1 year) and toddlers (2-3 years)
- More likely to show increases in cortisol in
satisfactory programmes - ie more vulnerable to less than high quality
20Principle 2.2 Meeting individual needs - 3-6
years on left, babies on right
21We have known about the importance of
relationships for many years
- Demonstrate better school achievement as they get
older - Are more likely to have friends
- Are more likely to be healthy
- Are less likely to have mental health problems
- Have less extreme reactions to stressful
situations and they return to a non-stressed
state more quickly
22but
- We have not had evidence that is judged
appropriately scientific to be credible - Cortisol research and some of the new epigenetic
research is now supporting this
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24Rhesus monkeys those who are genetically highly
reactive
- Remain with poor mothers disrupted sleeping,
high cortisol levels, anxiety, depression,
excessive alcohol consumption, aggression, poor
mothering so inter-generational transmission of
neglect/abuse - Fostered with highly nurturing mothers had good
outcomes good social skills, robust immune
responses, lower cortisol levels, females become
nurturing mothers
25Message for early childhood services
- If children feel unloved, unsafe, unwanted,
insecure, nervous - They will be biologically stressed which means
- They will not learn
- Exciting, challenging, developmentally
appropriate activities will stress them more and
lead to negative long-term outcomes
26Caregivers responses to quality
27Factors impacting significantly on caregiver
cortisol levels
- Quality level of service
- Older caregivers more stressed
- More stressed when more than one trained
caregiver in the room - More stressed when children with disabilities
included - Lower stress when children from CALD included
28Caregiver factors significantly impacting on
childrens cortisol
- Children less stressed when
- caregiver more cc experience
- More trained staff in the room
- Caregivers worked less hours per week
29Caregiver factors significantly impacting in QIAS
scores
- Higher QIAS scores when
- Caregivers have been employed at the same centre
for longer - Better adultchild ratios
- Increasing numbers of children from CALD
30The importance of early childhood services
- Voluntary, high quality, publicly funded
universal pre-kindergarten programme for 3-4 year
olds in America - Cost 6300 per child for 7 million children
- Annual benefits outstrip costs in 9 years
- By 2050 annual benefits 779 billion - 191
billion in government budget benefits, 432
billion in increased compensation of workers,
156 billion in reduced costs to individuals from
less crime and child abuse. By 2050 benefits
exceed costs by 8.2 to 1 (Lynch 2007)
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32There is enough money to develop high quality
services
- 5 of the money spent on military technology and
training in 1999 could have provided basic
education, health care, nutrition, potable water
and sanitation to ALL the people of the world
(Arias, 2000/2001)
33High quality services are those where we focus on
developing and maintaining secure attachments
34Fostering secure attachment
- Children need to develop a sense of trust that
you will meet their needs - You can learn how to develop secure attachments
35Responding to cues
- Learn to read the non-verbal language of each
individual child - always check out your interpretation
- use language even though child does not
understand the words - use voice intonations
- provide opportunities for infants to lead
interactions
36Inter-actional synchrony
- Interactions involve turn taking
- recognise infants turn is non-verbal
- provide time and space for the infants turn in
the conversation - adapt YOUR goals for the interaction to follow
the infants needs and signals
37Positive language
- Always explain what you want to happen, NOT what
you do not want to happen - Thomas is about to empty the bucket of sand over
Janies head. Say Thomas, bring your bucket of
sand over here so I can help you build a
sandcastle - Dont climb on the fence vs Come and climb
over here
38Consistency and continuity
- Infants can not learn to trust a caregiver if
they have a different person each day - services adjust their routines and staffing to
the needs of the infants rather than the reverse - primary caregiver model of service delivery
39Social referencing
- When in a new or ambiguoussituation, infant
looks to attachment figure for clues on how to
react - social referencing experiments on depth
perception - if good relationship between parent and caregiver
infant more likely to feel safe with caregiver
40Handles for attachment
- Stranger and child share happy/fun time together
- link the good time with the person - identify activities children enjoy
- set up situations where child given opportunity
of playing this with you - share time one-to-one and in small groups making
sure it is a happy time for the child
41Holding and physical comfort
- Hugs essential to secure attachments
- never leave child to cry even when rejects touch
- distress must be recognised as valid and real
- use voice for comfort (reassurance) and physical
presence - carrying common in some cultures
- floor useful for contact with more than one
child
42Remember
- Someones child today is our future prime
minister who will determine the level of your
retirement pensions - Do you want that childs experiences today to be
focused more on rationalism than empathy? - WHAT YOU DO TODAY
- MATTERS