NewsRelease

UNCG RESEARCHERS CONTRIBUTE TO STUDY LINKING
LONG HOURS IN CHILD CARE TO BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

GREENSBORO -- Researchers from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro have contributed to a study released today from the National Institutes of Health, linking the quantity of child care to increased risks in behavior problems, and the quality of child care to better language and memory skills.

"Early child care continues to be a thorny issue, and this is a mixed review," said Dr. Chris Payne, assistant professor of human development and family studies. "While we find the quantity effect of long hours in child care may result in problem behavior by children, on the other hand those in high quality child care center go into kindergarten with higher language skills and cognitive skills, and those are good things. Ultimately, it's up to parents to look at amount and quality of child care, and to examine those issues carefully, and make those choices depending on their own situation."

Payne has been tracking the development of children in western North Carolina since the study began in 1989 and plans to continue until they are at least through the 6th grade, and possibly beyond, depending on funding. The site is one of 10 across the United States that involves a total of 1,300 children enrolled in the study since infancy.

Dr. Marion O'Brien, another co-principal investigor who recently joined the faculty of UNCG, has been tracking children in the study's Kansas site. She reported on one portion of the study at a meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development today.

The study introduced other findings, including those demonstrating that preschoolers who experience higher quality care scored higher on tests of cognitive skills and language ability than did children in lower quality care. Payne said the findings linking hours spent in child care to behavior is getting the most attention because it has been a subject of the most scrutiny and controversy for 20 years.

The NICHD study is largest long term-study of child care in the U.S.  It found that when they are four-and-a-half years of age, and later, when they are in kindergarten, children who spent more time in child care during the first four-and-a-half years of life were rated as having more behavior problems than did children of the same age who spent less time in child care.

Child care was defined as regular care by anyone other than the mother that was routinely scheduled for at least 10 hours per week. The researchers noted that, between three- and 54-months of life, children were in non-maternal care an average of 26 hours per week. The upper limit for hours in non-maternal care was 76 hours per week. The ratings of problem behaviors, however, were mostly within the normal range.  In general, the relation between time in child care and ratings of behavior problems was small-to-moderate.

The NICHD Study of Early Child Care enrolled just over 1,300 children at birth at 10 research sites throughout the United States, including one in western North Carolina. To date, the researchers have followed the children through infancy, toddlerhood, and the preschool years. Children participating in the on-going study were placed in a variety of child care arrangements, ranging from the most informal (care with relatives), to the most formal (center care). Periodically, researchers associated with the study provide updates on the children’s progress as they proceed through the childhood years.
 Results from the paper on the quantity of child care and children’s social development show that
 

• Children who spent more time in child care were rated as more aggressive toward other children and disobedient and/or defiant, not only when they were four-and-a-half, but also when they were in kindergarten.
• Children who spent more time in child care were rated as more fearful, shy and sad compared to children who spent less time in child care.  These differences disappeared, however, by the time children were in kindergarten.
• The quality of child care tended to offset slightly the association between the amount of time in child care and children’s behavior.  Specifically, when children were in high-quality care, teachers were somewhat less likely to rate children in more hours of care as more aggressive than other children.
• When children were in center care, teachers were somewhat more likely to rate children who spent more hours in child care as more aggressive than other children. Nevertheless, the statistical links between time in child care and ratings of children’s problem behavior were still evident even after quality of care, center care experience, and maternal sensitivity were taken into consideration.

The aggression and non-compliance/defiance reported were all mostly within the normal range. It is important to note, however, that 17 percent of the children who were in child care for more than 30 hours each week over their first four-and-a-half years of life were rated as being aggressive toward other children in kindergarten; only 6 percent of the children who were in child care for less than 10 hours per week on average were rated the same way. The researchers added that it is not yet possible to determine whether the children who were rated as aggressive will continue to show problems with aggression, as they grow older.

The researchers concluded that the findings of this study suggest a need for further discussion and debate concerning options such as family leave, flexible work schedules, and child care at the work place.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is part of the National Institutes of Health, the biomedical research arm of the federal government. The Institute sponsors research on development before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. NICHD publications, as well as information about the Institute, are available from the NICHD Web site, http://www.nichd.nih.gov, or from the NICHD Clearinghouse, 1-800-370-2943; e-mail NICHDClearinghouse@mail.nih.gov.

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