The Parenting Buzz : Billion Dollar Day Care Studies

Last week’s findings from the federal “day care study” created quite a stir. The initial reaction to the largest, longest-running and most comprehensive study of child care and development conducted in the United States was dire: the more time a child spends in day care, the more likely that child is to display behavioral problems (arguing, getting into fights and being disobedient) in sixth grade. Rewind to 2001 when the same National Institutes of Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care published its findings based on the same children (who were kindergarteners then): children who were in child care were more likely to be aggressive and defiant in kindergarten; and voila, you’ve cracked open a hornet’s nest of controversy about the quality of child care, economics, working mothers and corporate America.

Those who took a moment to actually reflect on the entire study found that the difference between children who went to day care and those who stayed at home in the early years were slight. Quality of day care, total hours per week and total number of years spent in day care also had an impact. And yes, although there were negligible behavioral differences, those same kids consistently performed better on vocabulary scores than their peers.

Now, let’s head over to the other side of the pond, where researchers from the University of Oxford published a report this week based on their study: the National Evaluation of the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative. The findings of this national study of day care (“nurseries”) in the UK: “toddlers spending more than seven hours a day in daycare were more prone to be bossy, tease other children, stamp their feet, obstruct other playmates and get anxious when toys or refreshments were being handed round.” This particular study also identified a “tipping point” for anitsocial behavior, finding that children who attended day care for 30 hours or more a week were more antisocial, while children who attended for 35 hours or more displayed more worried and upset behaviour.

Sound familiar?

After the usual “sky is falling” song and dance, some reporters have chimed in with a more tempered reportage: “Context, however, is critical. It is incorrect to suggest that…preschooling is bad. Rather, the report suggests that full-time preschooling is bad in some aspects.” And on the plus side, the Brits have found that children who spend a lot of time in day care are better with their speech, numerical and motor skills, are more confident and make friends more easily.

Cost of the US study: $200 million. Cost of the UK study: roughly $740 million (370 million pounds sterling). So, for almost a billion dollars, we now have two credible, government-backed national studies from two different continents that have come to more or less the same conclusions: sending your child to a crappy preschool will screw your child for life…but at least he/she will be able to tell you about it quite eloquently. Nice.

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