Mommy Guilt and the Truth About Leaving your Child
The only sound bite that was audible as a result of the study was, "Daycare makes children aggressive." Many reputable media outlets got on board to decry all childcare outside the home unfit:"Does Day Care Make Kids Behave Badly? Study Says Yes" (ABC). "Child Care Leads to More Behavior Problems" (Fox). "Day-care Kids Have Problems Later in Life" (NBC). "Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care" (New York Times). "Bad Mommies" (Slate). Unfortunately, these headlines gave little breath to the important findings that followed. And we wonder why we have mommy guilt? 2007 NICHD Study
The 1,364 children were tracked since birth as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the largest, longest running, and most comprehensive study of child care in the United States. Families were recruited through hospital visits to mothers shortly after the birth of a child in 1991 in 10 locations in the U.S. The children studied were not a representative sample of children in the U.S. population.During the study, researchers measured the quality, quantity and type of child care the children received from birth until they were 54 months old. Child care was defined as care by anyone other than the child’s mother that was regularly scheduled for at least 10 hours per week. This included care by fathers, grandparents and other relatives. The researchers then evaluated the children’s academic achievement, cognitive (intellectual) functioning from kindergarten through fifth grade and social development through sixth grade. Other factors, such as parenting quality and the quality of classroom instruction, were also measured. These other factors were taken into account when examining the association between early child care and children’s subsequent development. The study tracked children’s experience in child care. It was not designed to determine cause and effect and so could not demonstrate conclusively whether or not a given aspect of the child care experience had a particular effect. For more information about the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, visit: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/seccyd.cfm. In the current analysis, the researchers evaluated whether developmental characteristics that had been observed between kindergarten and 3rd grade were still present in fifth or sixth grade and if any new patterns had arisen. An evaluation of the children in fifth grade showed that the children who had higher quality child care continued to show better vocabulary scores, a correlation that was seen previously from kindergarten to third grade. Vocabulary was assessed using the Picture Vocabulary subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery – Revised, which measures children’s ability to name objects depicted in a series of pictures. The researchers found that the correlation between high quality care and better vocabulary scores continued regardless of the amount of time the child had spent in child care or the type of care. The researchers wrote that this finding was consistent with other evidence indicating that children with greater early exposure to adult language were themselves more likely to score higher on measures of language development. However, child care quality was not associated with improved reading skills after 54 months of age. The researchers also found that, as in the earlier grades, children with more experience in child care centers continued to show, through sixth grade, a greater frequency of what the researchers termed teacher-reported externalizing problem behavior. These behaviors were listed on The Child Behavior Checklist Teacher Report Form, which consisted of 100 problem behaviors. Using this report form, teachers were asked to rate the child on items such as: child demands a lot of attention; argues a lot; bragging and boasting; cruelty, bullying or meanness to others; destroys things belonging to others; disobedient at school; gets into many fights; lying or cheating; screams a lot. Children who had been in center care in early childhood were more likely to score higher on teacher reports of aggression and disobedience. This was true regardless of the quality of the center-based care they received. The researchers emphasized that the children’s behavior was within the normal range and were not considered clinically disordered. It would not be possible to go into a classroom and with no additional information, pick out which children had been in center care, Dr. Belsky explained. The study authors suggested that the correlation between center care and problem behaviors could be due to the fact that center-based child care providers often lack the training, as well as the time, to address behavior problems. For example, center-based child care providers may not be able to provide sufficient adult attention or guidance to address problems that may emerge when groups of young children are together, such as how to resolve conflicts over toys or activities. Dr. James Griffin, the NICHD Science Officer for the Study, noted that the persistence of these findings demonstrates the importance of longitudinal research studies that follow children from infancy onwards. “These findings add to the growing body of research showing that the quality and type of child care a child experiences early in life can have a lasting impact on their development” said Dr. Griffin. The authors stressed the importance of continuing to follow the children’s development in high school to see if the effects shown in the current paper persisted. Important Comments On This Study:
“Aggressive behavior” sounds horrible. However, this scale looked at a wide range of behaviors, many of which you might not associate with aggressive behavior. For example: “argues, brags, demands attention, is jealous, talks a lot, is loud, is stubborn,” are all behaviors that were assessed. For most of these, “aggressive behavior” is not what comes to mind when reviewing this list. They are all on this scale. So even the words “aggressive behavior” need to be tempered when you look more closely.Likewise, 83 percent of children who spend 30 hours or more in child care are doing just fine! This means that eight out of 10 kids are learning and growing in their child-care settings and not showing signs of “aggressive behavior.” We shouldn’t forget that when we think of the 17 percent and 19 percent.Also not reported in the flurry of headlines was that “family effect” on aggressive behavior was just as strong an effect as the number of hours in care. Maternal sensitivity, for example, was significant. So while the same study found that hours in care and maternal sensitivity are both associated with increases in aggressive behavior, what was heard was “the more time spent in child care, the more aggressive a child is.” Perhaps the most frightening discovery, which no one is focusing on, is that the study also found that 57 percent of the child-care settings looked at had low-quality care. That’s more than half!The important question is not why do 17 percent of kids in child care for more than 30 hours a week have a higher level of aggressive behavior than kids who spend less time in care. It’s why, when we know quality child care can have hugely positive effects on the development of young minds and bodies, do we find that 57 percent of the care in this study is low quality? One reason for this situation is that in this country we do not feel early childhood education is a public responsibility. We are still ambivalent about mothers working. While this ambivalence is effective in making parents feel guilty, it doesn’t help to improve the quality of the care families use. With more than 65 percent of families with young children using child care, we should be looking at what is relevant to the question of quality care,. We accept elementary school, high school and even college as public responsibility, so why not early childhood education? By focusing on the hours spent in child care and aggressive behavior we are diverted from the more important issue. -Betsy Weaver, United Parenting Publications 2001 (on early results from the study) Margaret Burchinal, the study's author, points out that on average, day care for infants and toddlers is worse than for preschoolers. It's more expensive because states require more staff for babies. And the littlest kids don't get much out of being in a group like the older ones do. The youngest thrive on one-on-one attention, and it takes considerable skill and experience to deftly juggle the needs of a bunch of them. So maybe the real lesson here is a reminder: Day care for infants and toddlers is the hardest to do well. And lower-quality care, coupled with three or four years spent at a center, doesn't appear to serve kids quite as well as other arrangements (though the difference in slight). The TOPLINE on Child Care Centers and Mommy Guilt
17% of children in the study were deemed to have aggressive behavior, but (big but!) 17% of the normal population of children have these same traits.Aggressive behavior only showed up among children who spent 3-4 years in day care before the age of 4-1/2, but (big but!) the ones with behavioral "problems," spent 3-4 years in daycare that was of lower quality. Higher quality child care was associated with increased material sensitivity, and maternal sensitivity was strongly associated with maternal education. Parenting quality significantly predicted all the developmental outcomes and much more strongly than did any of the child-care predictors. The BOTTOM LINE on Children of Working Moms and Mommy Guilt
It's you, mom. The buck stops here. Instead of feeling mommy guilt, feel mommy empowerment. Use your female sensitivity and channel it into making sure that your child's care is the best it can possibly be. Make frequent, unannounced trips to your child care provider. Make sure they have programs and activities that stimulate your child. Use your intuition. You know if something doesn't feel right. If it's not working, change it immediately. And as women, let's focus on helping each other promote good childcare, instead of arguing over who's doing the best thing for their child.
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