• the impact of different forms of day care on children's social developemnt, including the effects on aggression and peer relations.
• how reserch into attachment and day care has influenced child care practices

'any seperation from mother has negative effects child's development and in particular would weaken the attachement bond'

Bowlby's report to the WHO (1951)

The use of day care will lead to:

"permanent damage to the emotional health of a future generation."

• childhood presents many oppertunites to interact with others
• it is from the experiences that a child develops its social behaviour:
• from being shy or insecure to being self-confident and assertive, socially skilful or aggressive

research has been carried out into other possible effects of day care:

• aggression
• family background
• temperament of child and gender of child

• children in day care experience group care
• it has been suggested that these children may be more aggressive than children cared for at home as there is more oppertunity for physical aggression.

• On the other hand, they may be less aggressive. - in day care they may learnt o resolve disputes with others without resorting to fighting. - ie beneficial to social development.
• aggressive behaviour reaches its peak in the pre-school years
• research has shown that early aggression is a major risk factor for later anti-social behaviour (Tremblay, 2000)

• this research compared the impact of different forms of day care in children's social development (including levels of aggression).

they conducted a study comparing the experiences of children in: 

1. home care (being looked after at home by a parent or child minder) 
2. centre care (those being looked after in a nursery or pre-school.)

• social competence (including aggression) was related to quantity of childcare.
• in home care: the more they had, the greater the development of social competence.
• in day care: (the opposite was found) children spending the most time (measure in hours per week and number of months) showed the poorest development of social competence

• it appears that being around a variety of other children, esp older ones = more positive social interactions (playing, co-operating, less aggression) BUT:
• they found that this mainly applied to children who were in part-time care.

Aspects of poor social development, including higher levels of aggression, are linked to unstructured and unstimulating environments.

Vandell et al (1988)

Researched: Good quality daycare.

Conclusion: their research supports Clarke-Stewart et al.

• good quality day care leads to better social competence.
• suggested factors that lead to good quality day care.

Field et al (1991)

R: the balance between quality and quantity.

C: while any amount of high quality day care is better than poor quality, benefits are best when there is both quality and quantity.

Violata and Russel (1994)

R: the negative effects of day care.

Observational study: found that under certain circumstances, day care can have a negative effect on social development.

Vliestra (1981)

R: compared full-day and half-day care.

Observational study: investigating the effects of quantity:

• they found it affected peer relations and aggression.

Belsky et al (2001)

C: Increasing time in day care seemed to be related to more aggressive behaviour.

Haskins (1985)

R: The age entered day care and impact on aggression

C: Children who entered centre-based day-care during their first year of life showed greater levels of aggression than children who began daycare after their 1st year.

Social relationships and aggression:

a mixed picture

• some studies in the USA show that children attending day care centres are more helpful, more independant, more co-operative with peers

BUT

• they can also be less polite and more aggressive! (Howes and Olenick, 1986)

Aggression

findings in this area are inconsistent:

• Honig and Park (1993) found that there was a link between higher levels of aggression and spending longer in day care

BUT

• Shindler found that time spent in day care was positively correlated with social play - suggesting lower levels of aggression.
• Hegland and Rix (1990) found no signifigant difference in observer ratings of aggression when comparing children in day care and children cared for at home.

Borge et al (2004)

AIMS

• compared rates of physical aggression shown by children in day care and those looked after at home by their mothers. 
• and to look at the possible effects on aggressive behaviour of factors leading to aggressive behaviour.

Borge et al (2004)

PROCEDURE

the mothers of 3431 Canadian 2-3yr olds completed a questionaire. 3 ques were included, which asked how often, from a choice of 'never', 'sometimes' or 'often', their child:

• kicks, bites and hits other children
• reacts with anger and fighting when another child accidently hurts him/her
• gets into many fights

A measure of family risk factors was also developed. high-risk factors included:

• low socio-economic status
• mother's low educational standard
• a greater number of siblings
• poor family functioning

this aimed to assess whether social factors led to an increased risk for physical aggression.

Borge et al (2004)

RESULTS

• Aggression was significantly more common in children looked after by their own mothers than in those attending daycare.
• physical aggression was significantly more common in children from high-risk families.
• there was no difference in levels of aggression between children in low-risk families (84%) in day care and those looked after at home.

Borge et al (2004)

CONCLUSION

• day care does not lead to aggression in children
• may even be a protective factor for those in high-risk homes

Borge et al

CRITICISMS

:) A large scale study

:) supported by Papero (2005), who suggested that high-quality daycare may be an appropriate intervention for children with mothers suffering from depression.

:) day care may also provide positive oppertunities, not readily available in the home, to learn ways of managing disputes.

Borge et al

CRITICISMS

:( possible that some children were looked after at home by their mothers rather sent to daycare because they had shown early signs of disruptive behaviour.

:( higher levels of aggression could be related to the characteristics of the child rather than the type of care that they experienced.

BUT

since it is such a large sample - unlikely to have an effect.

DiLalla (1998)

AIMS

• investigated the relationship between daycare experience, temperament and social behaviour

DiLalla 1998

PROCEDURE

• in a laboratory playroom
• 62pairs of same sex 5yr olds who had not met before played together for 20mins.

DiLalla 1998

PROCEDURE cont.

• they were rated for pro-social behaviour:

1. talking politely
2. inviting other children to play
3. smiling at other children in acknowledgement or praise
4. helping

DiLalla 1998

PROCEDURE cont.

• and rated for aggression:

1. teasing
2. hitting
3. grabbing
4. yelling
5. throwing toys

parents completed questionaires on daycare experience, temperament and behaviour problems.

DiLalla 1998

RESULTS

• children who experienced little or no daycare were more likely to behave pro-socially
• those with a difficult temperament showed less pro-social behaviour

HOWEVER

• day care and temperament didnt seem to be overall important factors for aggressive behaviour.
• though, boys who had experienced day care when they were toddlers = more aggressive, compared to those who had experienced day care from infancy or not at all.
• gender was a significant predictor of both aggressive and pro-social behaviours
• boys being both aggressive and more pro-social.

DiLalla 1998

CONCLUSION

• day care may have a negative effect on the developement of pro-social behaviour, but does not affect aggressive behaviour.
• other factors such as gender and temperament need to be taken into account when assessing the effects of daycare on social developement + aggression.

• there is a vast amount of research into the effects of home or day care on children's social development (including levels of aggression.)

HOWEVER

• findings remain contradictory and relatively little progress has been made in determining the exact influence of daycare.

• these studies into the impact of different childcare settings on children's social development and aggression include daycare settings that offer widely different conditions and qualities of care.
• impact have been found to be both positive and negative in both types of settings.

• the socio-economic make-up of children in daycare.
• daycare research may not be open to true experimentation
• most research is carried out over a short space of time
• the effects of daycare may be reflection of the personality of the caregiver(usually mother)
• methodoligical issues
• wide range of experiences

• random assignment of children to different childcare conditions is neither practical or ethical.
• researchers rely on inferring casual relationships from the methods that they are able to use. - usually observational and correlational analysis.
• with so many extraneous variables to control (and many not controlled) it is almost impossible to rule out the likelihood that there is more than 1 possible explanation for a research finding.

• cannot be certain about the long-term effects of daycare.
• or to what extent we can generalise the findings of this small scale research to the much greater, wider population of children in daycare.
• when there are longitudinal research - there are so many methodoligical problems that drawing the conclusion that it is early daycare that is responsible for the problem is very difficult.

the effects of daycare may be a reflection of the personality of the caregiver (usually mother)

• more social (extroverted) mothers might enter their children earlier + for longer to ensure that their children participate in lots of activities
• and to encourage larger friendship groups, encourage more assertive behaviour in their children etc

• according to Asenio (2004) methological issues might account for some of these differences in findings and conclusion
• studies tend to adopt diff methods of rating childrens' behaviour
• some studies use only the mothers to do the observing and ratings
• others use a combination of mother, caregiver and teacher because they see more children than the mother - better at assessing behaviour.
• on the other hand, mothers could be biased to see less undesirable behaviours in their own children.

• day care environments vary considerably, differing for example in physical environment:

1. the materials available for the children
2. group sizes
3. the quality of caregiver
4. nature of the interactions betweencarers and children.

daycare is not a single 'thing', often rendering comparisons of findings virtually meaningless.

clearly research findings are not as a result only of the type of setting, but various other factors

these include:

• quality (includes physical environment/ stimulation/ staff to child ratio/ staff training and turnover.)
• age of child when care starts
• length of time spent in daycare
• individual difference such as personality factors
• family background