How day care affects children's social development

The affects:


Andersson (1089)
Found children in lower and middle class homes including 1 and 2 parent families in daycare are more sociable and outgoing and have higher IQ.
HOWEVER
-Also conducted same thing in Texas and found the opposite.
-This is because;
in Sweden, their first year is spent with carer so they form stronger attachments before they start care. Therefore the stress of going to care will have less effect as they are securely attached. Sweden also has more financial support resulting in lower child/carer ratio and highly trained staff.
In Texas they may have less time to form this close attachment first. Low standard and poor quality of care.


Campbell, Lamb and Hwang (2002)


Aim: aimed to examine the effects of day care on children.
Procedure: Studied 18mths-3.5 years of kids in Sweden.
-9 attended family based care, 30 nursery and a further 9 switching from family to nursery. They were compared with kids who didn't get into day care due to competition.
-At 18mths (before daycare) kids were observed playing with family. Researcher assessed standard of care they were receiving.
-They were then observed at day care for 30 mins, repeated at ages 2.5 and 3.5.
-Age 6.5 their social competence was measured by asking carer.
-At 8.5 teachers were asked to give their perceptions on behaviour.
-At 15 they visited their homes asking them to complete questionnaires on social development and style.
Result:
- Day care kids before 3.5 have better social abilities.
-Social competence stable between 3.5 and 15 yrs.
-Kids social skills developed by 3.5 yrs.
Conclusion: Good quality care for children up to 3.5 yrs important for development of social skills and competence persists through childhood and adolescence.
Kids who spend long at day care become tired and frustrated to share adult attentions leading to bad interactions. Those who spend more days and shorter sessions gain better social benefits.
Evaluation:
Used perspective approach following children to 15 yrs allowing us to see long term effects.
Study required sensitivity with dealing with both kids and parents.
All kids were assessed beforehand providing baseline of social skills at start


Can day care have negative effects


Borge (2004)
-Found in Canada more aggression in kids that were home reared than day care.
Clark-Stewart (1992)
-argues children simply learn to look after themselves at and early age if attend day care.
Maccoby and Lewis (2003)
-Argued more hrs spent in day care before 4.5 yrs correlated with negative social outcomes.
-These findings are a result from kids need to develop independence at early age if attend day care.


Comparing different types of day care


Melsuih (1990)


carried out a quasi experiment comparing 3 groups of kids in London who started day care before 9 months old.
-3 day care settings: relative care, childminder and private nursery.
-Assessed children at 18 months and 3 yrs for their language skills and ability to cooperate and share with others.
Result: at 18 months the relative group showed highest level of language skills.
At 3 years, the nursery childen were less advances but showed higher levels of pro social behaviour.

Difficult to assess the effects of day care because:

• Families using day care differ from those using relatives for childcare
  Those using family based care have stronger identities as mothers.
• Different temperaments of children
  Some will benefit more from day care than others.
  
• Variety of day care settings
  Arrangements differ in terms of adult-child ratios, family or nursery based
• Time spent in day care
  Children start at different ages so it is hard to compare
• Varying quality of day care settings.