Impact of day care on social development

Factors that may affect social development. Research By Bowlby- Frequent and prolonged separation may cause delinquency. Continuity Hypothesis- If children start in secure relationships with important figures they are likely to have positive relationships when they are older. Social development- Having older siblings or having a set amount of hours at day care may lead children to learn negotiation and social skills quicker than children who do not have these opportunities.

What must be taken into consideration is methodology… There are number of methodological reasons why it is difficult to quantify the effects of day-care. How could you conduct effective investigations with a experimental (day-care) & a control (at home) groups? The short answer would be- you couldn’t, this would be unethical. The above is just an example of how methodology in this area is a prickly subject!!

Other factors that may effect the quantifying of the impact of day-care on social development. Types of day-care- Nurseries, minders, extended family,playgroup,or pre-school. Each offer a different experience for children. When you add into this hotchpotch nannies au-pairs. After school clubs etc we begin to understand how big the field of childcare really is. They will all have different adult-child ratios and some may not even have childcare qualifications. Quality of day-care- We would need to consider type of physical provision, training of the staff, type of children recruited, staff turnover etc. All the above factors produce variance, this in turn makes measuring the effects/impact difficult.

The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) This project followed the progress of over 300 children in the UK in a variety of pre school settings. The findings indicated that there appears to be sufficient evidence to indicate that children are at a slight risk of increase in anti-social behaviour if they spend more than 20hrs per week in childcare settings. This evidence ties in with a previous study carried out by Belsky & Rovine (1988). Another finding suggested there would also be a increased risk of aggression if the children's carers did not remain stable.

So what does this information actually tell us??? Thus far we have learnt children are vulnerable to changes. These changes/factors can have a lasting impression on a child and cause a number of difficulties both emotionally/socially. All studies come with their strengths and weaknesses, and should be measured with this in mind.

Talking of weaknesses..! There are times when the information taken form studies can be very mixed...the EPPE project is no different. Children were described as being at Children who were in pre school risk if in care for more than 20hrs were measured as more cooperative per week & sociable POSITIVE! NEGATIVE!

Effects of day care on peer relations One of the areas of interest in the EEPE project were the findings on peer relations and how these are effected by day care. In good quality day-care sociability of the children was good. Further investigation by Field (1991) also found these children werealso more likely to show more physical affection during play. To add further support Clarke-Stewart et al (1994) found children who performed greatest at negotiation with peers were children from group based day-care rather than minders or at home care.

Therefore……… All the studies indicate the same outcome…..when deciding whether childcare will be beneficial there are a number of factors to take into account including: Support for the family. Occupational and domestic duties. Quality of care. It’s a very delicate balance that is usually an emotional & difficult decision by the parent(s). Getting it right takes thought and consideration of all the factors and the implications for the present and the future.

Implications for child-care. The key issues Consistency and quality of care: Ideally each child to be assigned to a key-worker who can be available for the child. Plenty opportunity for verbal interaction, & sufficient stimulation. Research: Improvement of provision has occurred as a result of the research) Provision in this instance includes hospitals (children experience separation if they are ill) Think Robertson (Little John study!) Therefore hospitals are made more friendly and parents can visit frequently. Adoption: Children and mothers treated differently now, with more sensitivity. The theatre of attachment- Used with adoptive children and prospective parents when the children have come from abusive backgrounds. Through make believe fantasy etc (play!) they explore troublesome problems and create new post vie methods of dealing with issues. The shared experience brings parent and child closer together. New programmes (Sure Start) Children from less beneficial backgrounds given the opportunity to become involved in extracurricular activities and provide support for young families who may not have access to said networks previously.