Daycare services and child development outcomes for preschoolers

Working Parents and Daycare

Within this paper, an examination of factors related to daycare for preschool children in the U.S. will be presented. As working parents have increasingly had to rely on daycare as an option for child care and as a means for insuring that they were able to maintain employment and wages for their families, the information provided offers an analysis of daycare services and their potential influence on developmental outcomes for children. An effort is made within the paper to discuss current findings on daycare in relation to conceptualizations of child development, including Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, Mahler's individuation/separation theory, Montessori's theory of environment/activities theory, and Bandura's social learning theory.

Background Information

According to information provided by the U.S. Bureau of Census, between 1977 and 1994, there has been an increase in the number of working mothers using daycare centers for their preschoolers, from 13% to 29%. On the basis of data from the 1997 National Survey on America's Families, as reported by Capizzano, Adams and Sonenstein (2000), nationwide a large percentage (76%) of preschool children with employed mothers are regularly cared for by someone other than their parents. For more than half of preschool children with employed mothers, the primary child care provider is not related to the child. Thirty-two percent of children are in center-based child care arrangements, while about half as many (16%) are in family child care. A relatively small percentage of children (6%) are regularly cared for by a baby-sitter or nanny in the child's home.

In contrast, as reported by Capizzano et al. (2000), less than half of preschool children with employed mothers are cared for primarily by relatives or by parents. Twenty-three percent of preschool children have a relative as the primary child care provider -- 9% in the child's home and 14% in the home of the relative -- while 24% of children are in parent care.

According to Capizzano et al. (2000), working parents are faced with making choices about child care arrangement and most make such decisions on the basis of the age of the child. As noted by the authors, parents also consider that preschool children of different ages have varying developmental needs, and certain forms of child care are often more readily available for children in particular age groups. Therefore, Capizzano and colleagues examined separately the types of child care arrangements made by working parents for infants and toddlers and the choices made for three- and four-year-olds.

On the basis of their examination, Capizzano et al. (2000) found that infants and toddlers are most often cared for by with relatives and in parent care, while three- and four-year-olds are more often found in center-based arrangements. Among infants and toddlers, 27% are in relative care and another 27% are in parent care, while smaller proportions are found in center-based care (22%) and family child care (17%). Among the older preschoolers, relative and parent care are used less often as primary arrangements (17% and 18% of the children, respectively), while more three- and four-year-olds are found in center-based care (i.e., daycare) than in any other arrangement (45%). Similar to infants and toddlers, only 14% of three- and four-year-olds have family child care as their primary arrangement.

Daycare and Children's Development

As utilization of daycare has increased over the past several decades, questions have also arisen as to how and the degree to which a child's development is affected by the quality of child care services available to working parents. As parents and child care professionals have learned, determining high quality daycare can be difficult; however, few disagree that daycare programs should enhance the development of children rather than place them at risk for current and/or future developmental problems. A number of developmental theories on child development exist, including Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, Mahler's separation theory, Montessori's theory of development, and Bandera's social learning theory. Efforts to evaluate daycare programs and their effectiveness in facilitating and supporting children's development may be further aided in examining such programs on the basis of recommendations found within these theories.

While it has been documented that most children from most daycare settings do not experience behavioral difficulties as a result of their daycare experiences (Lamb & Steinberg, 1990) and that daycare settings have been found to increase children's social adaptability (NICHD Early, Child Care Research Network, 1997), it still remains important to consider and evaluate the degree to which particular daycare programs may place a child at risk for developmental and behavioral problems. Therefore, major findings associated with daycare will now be reviewed and analyzed as to their effectiveness in facilitating and supporting child development.

Quality of Daycare Services

Another important area related to and important for further examination when considering the impact of daycare on child development focuses on the quality of daycare services offered. Research conducted in this area has suggested that the implementation of certain daycare practices and the creation of particular environments can lead to better outcomes for children (Frede, 1995; NICHD, 1998). However, as noted by Patton and Ricks (2000), there is little evidence that suggests that high quality daycare services cause positive effects. Overall, as noted by Patton and Ricks, prior research on the quality of daycare services has led to the general conclusion that other factors combine with child care quality to produce long-term effects on children, and that some other factors are stronger predictors of outcomes than is child care quality.

On the basis of the findings from the NICHD (1998) study, it would appear that high-quality daycare services operate to produce positive outcomes in some cases and fail to do so in other cases. As reported by NICHD, children who attended child care centers that met American Public Health Association/American Academy of Pediatrics (APHA/AAP) showed greater school readiness, higher language test scores, and fewer behavioral problems than their peers in other centers. As was also reported, child care quality influenced children's cognitive and language development. However, as was evidenced within the NICHD report, findings regarding the positive influence of quality of daycare services were strengthened when certain family factors were present, including family income and maternal vocabulary. In fact, as reported by NICHD, the presence of a combination of family factors tended to impact developmental outcomes than the quality of daycare services. According to Patton and Ricks (2000), this finding also emphasizes that families with certain characteristics tend to choose high-quality care and that positive developmental outcomes may stem more from those characteristics than from high-quality care.

In relation to quality of daycare services, Patton and Ricks (2000) offered the conclusion that quality does not represent the primary cause of positive developmental outcomes, nor is low quality the chief cause of negative outcomes. Overall, as suggested by the authors, the findings suggest that high-quality care may offset risk factors for some negative outcomes. Citing the work of Burchinal (1999), Patton and Ricks also indicated that high-quality preschool does have extensive and long-lasting effects on the development of children from families living in poverty. Similarly, as noted by Patton and Ricks in citing the Carolina Abecedarian Project (1999), children who received high-quality child care had higher reading, math, and mental test scores from their toddler years through age 21, and were more likely to be in school at age 21, than those in the non-treated group. Further evidence was cited by Patton and Ricks (i.e., Schweinhart et al., 1993) as to the potential impact of high quality daycare services. Schweinhart et al. compared individuals who had been part of a high-quality preschool in the 1960s with those who had not. The findings suggested that those adults who had participated in high quality daycare services as children showed a greater likelihood of responsible behaviors, including fewer arrests and higher IQs, education levels, incomes, rates of home ownership, and rates of marriage.

The findings on the influence of daycare services on children's development help to emphasize what all theories of child development posit - the family, the environment as well as significant others within a child's life all play a role in facilitating successful developmental outcomes for children. While discussed somewhat differently, Erikson, Mahler, Montessori and Bandura all emphasize the importance of parental relationships, family relationships, peer relationships and the environment in aiding children to progress successfully developmentally through early childhood to adulthood and onwards. While the nature of activities within one's environment are important, without adequate parental, family, peer and significant other influence, children are not as successful in progressing through the developmental phases and tasks associated with childhood. Thus, quality daycare services without the presence of supportive and helpful parental, family and environmental influences cannot be expected to help children achieve developmental milestones.

Conclusion

As evidenced within the paper, daycare services provide working parents with child care options that are not necessarily harmful to their children. While evidence exists that suggests that daycare can be problematic, the findings of prior research clearly suggest that potential negative influences of daycare can be outweighed by the efforts of parents, families and others to insure that the developmental needs of children are attended to by all. Essentially, as children develop, daycare cannot become a substitute for parents and families. All must work together to aid a child in achieving successful developmental outcomes.