Day care

Peer relations studies. (Peer Eppe, Campbell,Shea)

EPPE project. (UK longitudinal study)Studied over 3000 UK children between 3-7 years old. Children who attended day care showed increased independence and peer sociability at 5 years old. This study also showed that an early start in day care (between 2 - 3 years) was also linked with being more sociable with other children. Being in day care improves peer relations.

Shea (Nursery playground)Video-taped 3-4 year olds at playtime during their first 10 weeks at nursery. Children became more sociable the longer they were in day car. They stood closer together and engaged in more rough and tumble play. Also moved further away from teachers. Being in day care helps social development and improves peer relations

Campbell (Swedish longitudinal study)Children in Sweden who attended child care between the ages of 18 months to 3 and a half years. 9 attended family based care, 30 attended nursery and 9 switched from family to nursery, there was also a control group of children who failed to get a place in day care. All children were assessed at 18 months before and immediately after being placed into day care, this created a base line measurement to compare against. Findings suggest that long days under 3.5 years of age were less sociably competent, where as children who went more days for short periods of time were more sociable. Small children spending a lot of time in day care were tired and frustrated, leading to more negative interactions with other children. This suggests that time spent in day care can alter a child's sociability. Day care harms peer relations of those that stay for long periods of time.

Aggression studies. (Shea Aggression NICHD Eppe)

EPPE project (Longitudinal UK study)Studied over 3000 children in the UK 3-7 year old. Sammons et al analysed the data and showed slight risk of antisocial behaviour when spending more that 20 hours per week in day care. Increased noticability when spending over 40 hours a week. Mehhuish noticed increased aggression amongst children where carers were constantly changing. Day care can increase antisocial behaviour, the longer young children stay at the care environment where there is no constant care figure the more pronounced the aggressive behaviour is.

NICHD (1000 American children)Over 1000 american children from families with very different backgrounds were screened in a longitudinal study. Age 5 the study found that the more time a child spent in day care no matter what quality, more rated as disobedient and aggressive. Full time day care children were almost 3x more likely to show behavioural problems than those at home, eg arguing and temper tantrums. Belsky analysed data as children finished primary and still found the same link of a positive correlation between time spent and aggression.

Shea (Nursery Playground)Video taped 3 to 4 year olds in their first 10 weeks at nursery. Children became more sociable the longer they were there, amount of aggressive behaviour decreased. These changes were greater in children who attended 5 out of 7 days than those who attended 2 out of 7. Day care can increase sociability and decrease aggressive behaviour.

Social Development. (Campbell Anderson Social development EPPE.)

Campbell (Swedish daycare)Children in Sweden who attended childcare from 18 months to 3.5 years. 9 children attended family based care, 30 children attended nursery and 9 switched from family based to nursery. Also a control group of children who failed to get a place in nursery care. Children were assessed at 18 months, before and immediately after being placed into the care environment to create a base line measurement to compare against. impact can be positive or negative depending on age, time and quality. First 3 years is most important development. Long days before age of 3 makes the child less sociable, short days more frequently developed better. Small children spending long periods in daycare may become tired and frustrated leading to negative interactions. Children under 3.5 years at good quality day care had better social ability. This implies that children's social skills have largely developed by 3.5 years then remain constant, therefore a good quality day care is essential for development of social skills.

EPPE project (Longitudinal study)3000 children ages 3-7 years that attended nursery. Sammons et al analysed the data and found risk of antisocial behaviour if attending 20 hours a week, which increased in noticability if the child spent more than 40 hours a week in the care environment. Mehhuish found that increased aggressive behaviour was present if carer was constantly changing. Day care can increase anti social behaviour the longer the child stays there, if there is no care figure present then the anti social behaviour is even more noticeable.

Anderson (Swedish daycare)Studied the social and cognitive development of children attending Swedish day care. Children who attended day care were able to get along with other children better, were more sociable and outgoing and had better abilities to play with their peers than children who did not attend. Being in day care helps social development and improves relations

Evaluation.

The research has high ecological validity, this is because the studies mainly use videotaped or observations, this shows that it was a natural environment. Because of this there will be no demand characteristics as the setting has not been manipulated. Therefore this makes the findings generalisable beyond the research.

Real world application, these studies have affected how day cares are ran and controlled for example quality checks on the providers are now carried out by OFSTED to match regulations and standards expected of them. The studies findings are useful because of this.

Research in this area is often correlational, therefore we cannot infer cause and effect as there could be a third variable causing the findings, for example it could be that more aggressive children are sent to day care to develop their social skills, not that day care causes aggressive behaviour. We cannot rely on the results if we want to know if day care causes any social effects, therefore we're unable to draw conclusions from this research.

The studies can be culturally bias, most the the studies take place in Swedish or the UK, were it is subsided and regulated different to else where in the world, this ma create a more negative view of daycare in one culture than is true to its beliefs.

Research can be low in validity, as in this area it often relies on observations which are open to interpretation to the observer.For example it could difficult to differentiate rough and tumble play from aggression, making the studies finding's validity limited. 

Peer Relations

Aggression

Social Development

Evaluation