The Impact of Day Care

Agression

The NICHD study

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in America started a longitudinal study in 1991 to study many aspects of child development. Over 1000 children from diverse families from 10 different locations are involved. The children and their parents have been assessed at regular intervals in order to establish the effects of various experiences such as day care on children's development

When the group of children was studied at the age of five, the data showed that the more time a child spent in day care of any kind or quality, the more adults rated them as aggressive, assertive and disobedient (NICHD, 2003). Children in full time care were close to 3 times more likely to show behaviour problems than those cared for by their mothers at home. The behaviour problems included frequent arguing, temper tantrums, lying, hitting and unpredictable conduct. 

More reports (e.e. Belsky et al., 2007) looked at the same children at the end of their primary eduction and still found a link between day-care experience and aggressiveness.

The EPPE study

Effective Provision of Pre-School Eduction (EPPE) project (Sylva et al., 2003) was the first major European longitudinal study of young children's development between the ages of 3 and 7. The team collected a wide range of information on 3000 children looking at background characteristics of the children, including home environment and experience of day care. Day care settings included local authority day nurseries, private day nurseries and nursery schools. A sample of 'home' children, who…