Does daycare turn children into monsters?

Children who spend time in day care centres or with child minders are more likely to have behavioural problems including hyperactivity, new research has found.Experts at the University of Oxford set out to examine how different types of care influence child behaviour in light of the ‘dramatic increase’ in the number of working mothers in […]

Children who spend time in day care centres or with child minders are more likely to have behavioural problems including hyperactivity, new research has found.
Experts at the University of Oxford set out to examine how different types of care influence child behaviour in light of the ‘dramatic increase’ in the number of working mothers in recent decades.
They found the strongest and most consistent influences on child behaviour came from the home environment and the level of care given by mothers.
But they also uncovered significant trends relating to children being cared for away from their parents.
‘Spending more time in day care centres, over the total period was a predictor of total problem scores,’ the team, led by Professor Alan Stein, of the university’s Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, wrote.
 ‘Children who spent more time in day care centres were more likely to be hyperactive. Children receiving more care by child minders were more likely to have peer problems.’
More time in child minding was also associated with more hyperactivity, they said.
The researchers also found that children who spent more time in pre-school playgroup had fewer problems with their peers but those who spent more time in the care of their grandparents tended to have more peer problems.
More time with a nanny predicted higher levels of ‘prosocial behaviour’ – showing willingness to help others. The authors said the 2010 Marmot report on health inequalities had highlighted the importance of children’s early experiences in influencing their later emotional and behavioural development.
Their study, published in the journal Child: Care, Health and Development, looked at 991 families recruited when the children were three months old. All the mothers were over 16 at birth with an average age of 30.
Assessments were made around 51 months, when the children were at school entry age, through questionnaires about their behaviour and emotions completed by both teachers and parents.
Researchers also carried out direct observations of caregiving provided by mothers and observed non-parental care for at least 90 minutes for children placed in other forms of care.
The total number of hours in some kind of care away from the child’s mother was not related to the overall levels of problems, whether rated by mothers or teachers.
However, it remained the case that children who received more group care in day care centres had more behavioural difficulties, according to both their mothers and teachers.
Teacher assessments showed children who spent more time in day care centres had ‘more total problems and more conduct problems’. Children spending more time with child minders were also rated as having higher levels of total problems.
‘The findings in relation to child minding suggest that it might be out of home care rather than group care that raises the risk of behavioural difficulties,’ the authors said.
They said the strongest influences on behaviour and emotional problems came from the home, including lower socio-demographic status, poor maternal care giving and parental stress.
‘These findings suggest that interventions to enhance children’s emotional and behavioural development might best focus on supporting families and augmenting the quality of care in the home,’ they concluded.
Professor Kathy Sylva of Oxford University told MailOnline: ‘Studies of early childcare on which I have taken the lead in Oxford have shown that early childcare before 18 months was related to slightly higher mental ability and no adverse effects.
‘The same study showed that childcare of higher quality had a benefit for children’s learning. Overall, research shows that it is the quality of care that matters much more than whether the child is at home or in childcare.’
Culled from Mail Online