Psychology Children\'s Behavior in Long-Term Daycare Setting

Psychology

Effects of Long-term Daycare Setting on Children

With the increasing number of women in today's workforce, the number of working mothers with children proportionally grows. Statistics show that more than 40% of working mothers are bringing their young children to daycare centers. Hence, daycare becomes a trend for working mothers who need other's provision of care for their young children. This trend, however, is not totally accepted by parents, neither by those who bring their child to other's care. Most parents with a child at daycare are not entirely at ease while at work. Usually, some keep worrying about the situation of their child, how the child are being taken care of, and how their child feels about being in the care of others.

The issue of how daycare settings affect a child's development has been studied by many child experts and psychologists. Diverse factors such as the amount of time a child stays at daycare, the behavioral tendencies of a child, the child's bonding with his parents, and the social and environment adaptation capability of a child, are being used as measures in examining whether or not daycare causes negative effects to children. Two recent studies, conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Institute of Child Development, show that long-term childcare has an impact in the development of a child. This was indicated in the article The Negative Effects of Childcare, stating that Both studies found evidence that suggests the longer a child spends in child care, the more stress they may experience, and that could lead to the young to become aggressive and disobedient.

Further, in the previous studies of the National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development, it was found that children who spent most of their time in childcare were three times as likely to exhibit behavioral problems in kindergarten as those who were cared for primarily by their mothers

One problem that a child, who spends long hours in daycare, may demonstrate is stress. Goodman, a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU School of Medicine, explains that this problem may arise to children who have shy personality. Children with difficulty in interacting with others may experience an increase of stress level when at daycare. This, however, will decrease once they got home.

The emotional and psychological aspects of children are the critical issues in the effects of daycare, especially on those who attended long-term daycare at an age earlier than 5. Researches have shown that these factors in a child's development are weakened by lack of attachment and bonding from a primary environment that must consists of parents and family. The article Daycare describes two studies conducted by Janice Wallerstien (1995) and Karl Zinmeister (1998). Both studies indicate that even daycares with high quality of service are unable to provide the necessary attachment needed by a child in his childhood. Kelly, on the other hand, in her Child Docs to Parents, states that 85% of daycares do not provide quality service.

Proper attachment and bonding during a child's early years in life are essential in the development of his ability to interact and relate with others. This aspect, as being missed by children who spends long hours in daycare, may cause problems in social relationships as he grows. Day Care Information: Effects on Infants Emotional Development states that child's social, psychological, and emotional development is built upon the foundation of his earliest attachment. If the process of establishing that attachment is disrupted during its crucial stages, the child is at risk of becoming "detached," or emotionally ungrounded and incapable of building relationships based on trust.

Working mothers who use the services of daycares in looking after their children while they are at work sometimes experience mother-child relationship problems. Psychologists indicate that children who spent long amount of hours in daycares develop difficulties in adjusting to environments due to the routine of transferring places at day (which they spend at a daycare) and at night (which they spend at home). Along with the habitual change of environment, there is also a change of atmosphere in interaction and bonding. Exposure to these changes by a child in his early years disrupts the establishment of his capacity to learn and recognize how to interact with others and how to interact with those in his family, specifically his mother and father.

Sometimes, because of lack of time spent with parents, a child may not develop proper parent-child bonding. Hence, such case is said to be detrimental to a parent-child relationship.