Childhood Study

Supportive of At-Home Parents

A controversial study by the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth released 10/14/99 concluded that "children who are enrolled in early childhood programs and day-care centres appear to get a head start in school over youngsters who stay at home with a parent." Now, a new study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care has concluded that "the more hours a child spends during the first three years of life in nonmaternal care the less positive the child's interactions with his/her mother".

Study Findings

Some of the findings of this new study, as published in the November issue of Developmental Psychology published by the American Psychological Association were:

• Children who regularly spend time in non-maternal care have "somewhat less positive" interactions with their mothers than children who spend less or no time in non-maternal care.

• Longer hours of child care are associated with some diminished familiarity and less ability of mother and child to be "in tune" with each other.

• Maternal education was a much stronger predictor of maternal sensitivity than either child care hours or the quality of that care.

What Do You Think?

While this study seems generally supportive of at-home parents, many of our readers felt the findings sent mixed messages. From our discussion forum:

• From SURFNMOMMA:
  "It's nice to see something more positive yet it's almost like society is scared to tell to the truth. I am referring to the paragraph that says, "better educated and higher income moms tend to relate to their kids better...." stuff like that really irks me --- I have been to university and have an education. I was a "higher income female" but when I became a mom I dropped my career not because I didn't love my career but because I knew my priorities (must have been all my years of education?)"

• From CYNDIMOORE:
  "Anyway, this study was obviously not funded by the government, or the results would be skewed in the other direction!"

• From Pathfinder:
  "It's is so disturbing, that even when the statistics say one thing, the media will still paint the picture choosing their own hues and tones." (Referring to "Was Grandma Right?", an ABCnews article about this study.)

Please visit our discussion forum and share your views on this new study.

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