Videotaped to assess
for assertiveness,
affection & playfulness
Subjective
Demand
Characteristics
Ethics
Extraneous
Variables
Teachers given
questionnaire
PROBLEMS
Don't know
children well
enough
Ethics
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Validity?
FINDINGS
Going to daycare
More
attractive
& popular
Higher
self-esteem
Less aggressive
Better leadership &
assertiveness skills
More experience with
other children in good
quality daycare leads
to development of
greater social skills
Vandell (1988)
Studied
children at 4
& 8 years old
Covert Observation
Subjective
Ethics
FINDINGS
Compared to
children from poor
quality daycare,
children in high
quality daycare
showed
consistently more
friendly
interactions &
fewer unfriendly
interactions
Suggests, if quality of
daycare is good, then peer
relations can be good
AGRESSION
NICHD Study
Longitudinal
study in
America of
over 1000
children
Population Validity
Assessed for
aggressive
behaviour
First by parents then
by teachers & carers
Bias
Subjective
More time spent
in daycare =
more aggression
Belsky
Teachers &
Mothers asked to
rate how aggressive
children were
More time spent
in daycare =
more aggression
EVALUATION
STRENGTHS
Correlational
Ethical way of
collecting data
No manipulation
Practical Applications
LIMITATIONS
Correlational
Variables impacting on child
Hock et al
Reported that aggressive & difficult
children are more likely to be placed in
daycare, as their parents require a break
Poor home
environment /
Low maternal
sensitivity
Cannot draw cause
& effect conclusions
Difficult to
operationalise
variables
Field & Dilallo
Field measured sociability
in terms of number of
friends a child has
Dilallo measured
how co-operative &
helpful children were
Studies
often reach
contradictory
conclusions
Field - More time in
daycare = more friends
Dilallo - More time in daycare
= less co-operative & helpful in
relations with other children
Relies on
ratings &
observations
by parents
Bias
Subjective/Objective
Good Daycare?
1. Low staff turnover
Children form
relationships
with staff
2. High ratio of
caregivers to
children
Allow interaction
3. Child form relationships
with more than one caregiver
in case of staff illness