Study links child care to poor behavior

[Maddy McCall]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Children who got quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did youngsters who received lower quality care.

Also, the more time that children spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behavior.

The findings come from the largest study of child care and development conducted in the United States. The 1,364 children in the analysis had been tracked since birth as part of a study by the National Institutes of Health.

snip/

In the study, child care was defined as care by anyone other than the child's mother who was regularly scheduled for at least 10 hours per week.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHILD_CARE_HEALTH?SITE=MSJAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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More of article at provided link.

[physioex]

1. B.S. article of couple of paragraphs.....

Look the realities of todays world is that one income just won't cut it. Long gone are the days of "Leave it to Beaver". So the key is for the parents to find quality care. There is quality care available the hard part is to find that service in an affordable manner. Also I don't think there is enough because of the low salaries and training required of most of the workers in this field....

[Scairp]

2. So, they are back to blaming mommy working

For the behavioral issues of children later in life. What utter crap. I thought we had put this nonsense to bed already. If that's the problem, put affordable daycare in place and/or daycare subsidies, problems solved. Oh, I forgot, that makes too much sense, and besides, we need money that could be used to fund these programs to fund the illegal, immoral war in Iraq for the foreseeable future, and the hell with the future of our children. Typical right wing family values at work once again.

[fasttense]

3. Off topic, I found this interesting poll on their site.

Should the ‘No Child Left Behind’ law be effectively abolished?
Number of votes cast: 24
Yes - 66.7%
No - 33.3%

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/poll?Category=opinion

This link will let you vote http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

It is on the right about a third of the way down on the page.

Edited for better link.

[aquart]

5. All BushCo legislation should be voided. All of it.

[Donnachaidh]

4. blame mommy? How professional of child care advocates

Let's THEM off the hook for any of the massive shortcomings Parents find when they are looking for *quality* childcare. How professional of them. :sarcasm:

[electron_blue]

6. Mother?? So what does this mean - being with a child's father is considered childcare?

[bigworld]

7. Just the usual sloppy writing

.. there are a lot of us stay-at-home dads out there. We see that everyday.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

13. When someone refers to a father "babysitting" I ALWAYS correct them. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

8. The report actually finds it mostly doesn't matter.

"The researchers said the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development."

Duh.

But the barefoot and pregnant crowd will glom onto that headline as proof of something or other.

[happyslug]

9. Actual Report, if anyone wants to read it.

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/seccyd.cfm

Part III of the study (1st grade through 6th is NOT out yet, so you have to look at the Pres report for that segment of the study:
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/mar2007/nichd-26.htm

The Big factor seems to be in the years BEFORE the child is 54 months old, and then the issue seems to be how exposed to adult language is the child as opposed to who was going the child care.

From the News release:
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.

i.e. the issue is NOT who is providing the Child care, but how much is the child exposed to adult language (and by adult language the researchers means language used by adults in the business community NOT offensive language). This confirms other reports in that the more a child is read to and interact with adults the "smarter" the child is later on in life. Thus the report does NOT say stay at home mother is the best, but HOW much is the person taking care of the Child is talking to and relating with the child BEFORE the child turns age 5.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. This would make more sense

In addition, it's not even entirely new information. I've read before that the level of adult interaction with an only child promotes the child to develop greater skill in language arts than in homes where the child has siblings and interacts more with them.

[electron_blue]

17. Thanks for the clarification. Too bad it's being spun differently in the media.

[Coventina]

10. Every mother I've known has wanted to "stay at home" with small children

At least to SOME extent.

One was itching to go back to work part-time after 6 months, but that's the earliest one I can think of.

Maybe if our society ACTUALLY cared about children, there would be REAL subsidies and supplemental income for parents who want to care for their children in the home.

But then, if our society ACTUALLY cared about children there would be universal healthcare, something would be done about the shameful rate of childhood poverty and "food insecurity."

[karynnj]

11. 10 hours a week is a pretty strict definition of "child care"

I assume that this would even include some SAH mothers who use baby sitters.

[EFerrari]

12. And isn't that a somewhat small sample?

[karynnj]

15. The sample size doesn't bother me that much - it cuts down the

precision and makes it less likely that they will find anything where the difference is large enough to be significant significant. But as long as the design was appropriate, it could be a well done study (there's not enough inforamtion to tell from what is here.)

[electron_blue]

16. And what about sahms who lean heavily on their own moms or other relatives?

I'm just sayin... I've known several sahms who made me feel bad for using childcare when they claimed they didn't use any bcs it was so important to them that they are home for their kids and I come to find out later that grandma is always there for the kids when she has to run errands or needs a night out, or what have you, to the tune of 10 hrs a week. I'm trying to point out that I don't think you can strictly account for all care for children outside the parents in a study like this.

[rainbow4321]

18. Double income couples growing in the US-- in 57% of US couples, both work

Saw this while surfing..


http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/World/20070327/621453.html

Both the wife and husband hold paying jobs among more than half of married couples in the United States, and their number is expected to increase in the next decade. Although such dual-earner couples have bolstered family incomes, they also have had to find creative ways to nurture family life.

The US Labour Department reports that in 57 percent of married couples husbands and wives work. Coping with two jobs and rearing children leaves many couples hard-pressed to find time together.

In 1979, women who worked full-time earned 63 percent as much as their male counterparts. By 2006, they earned 81 percent of what men earned. Wives' earnings contribute 35 percent of family income in the United States, and in one-third of dual-earning couples, the wife brings home the bigger pay cheque.


US law allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain workers to take care of a sick family member or a new baby. It covers a little more than half the work force. When compared to other countries, "we have a reputation that we work a lot," said Bianchi.