"Researchers Find a Link Between Behavioral Problems and Time in Child Care," read a recent headline in the New York Times. An article in the Washington Post declared, "Child Aggressiveness Study Cites Day Care." Both headlines are misleading from the start.
The articles covered a report released by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a government institution and a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The report, called the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, was based on a study of 1,300 children at 10 sites across the country since 1991. Of the 13 million preschoolers in child care in the United States, including infants and toddlers, nearly 30 percent are in child care centers, 15 percent are with family child care providers, and 25 percent are cared for by relatives.
The NIH study defined day care as supervision of children for at least 10 hours a week by anyone other than the child's mother. Roughly 75 percent of all preschoolers are in some form of day care, according to the Children's Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.
The Post said the report is "bound to rekindle the debate over child care" on questions such as, "How should people balance work and family? And how should parents, especially mothers, resolve the demands that are placed on them to be both breadwinners and Supermoms?"
Professor targets day care
A news conference releasing the report and earlier press coverage focused on the opinions of one of the lead researchers, Jay Belsky, a professor at the University of London. Belsky, a developmental psychologist and former professor at Pennsylvania State University, has promoted the view for the past 15 years that it is better for mothers to stay home to care for their children. Belsky presented the results from the "comprehensive" study at an April 19 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Minneapolis.
"There is a constant dose-response relationship between time in care and problem behavior, especially those involving aggression and behavior," he told the press of the report.
Children who spend more than 30 hours a week in child care "scored higher on items like 'gets in lots of fights,' 'cruelty,' 'explosive behavior,' as well as 'talking too much,' 'argues a lot,' and 'demands a lot of attention,'" Belsky said.
The New York Times summed up the conclusions this way: "The more time young children spent being cared for by someone other than their mothers, the more likely they were to be aggressive, demanding, and disobedient as kindergartners." Belsky proudly told the Times that he has "a reputation for being a difficult person." The article did not report how much, if any, time he had spent in child care.
Belsky's conclusion: "Reduce the time in care. Extend parental leave and part-time work."
With these kinds of statements and conclusions in the big-business media, what exactly do the researchers say their study revealed?
In answers by parents, teachers, and caregivers to questions such those listed by Belsky above, children were given a "behavioral rating." The report says that 17 percent of the children in child care for more than 30 hours a week received answers classifying them as "aggressive," compared with 6 percent for children in child care for less than 10 hours a week. News reports did not comment on what percentage were deemed aggressive for "talking too much," "arguing a lot," or for "demanding a lot of attention." Nor did the health and well-being of the other 83 percent of children get much play in the coverage.
Despite the widespread media attention, the Times admitted the study has not "undergone the rigorous scientific evaluation known as peer review." Both Ellen Galinsky, of the Families and Work Institute, and Claudia Wayne, former director of the Center for the Child Care Workforce, said other circumstances, such as the quality of the child care or longer working hours of parents, could account for the results, rather than the amount of time in child care.
At the press conference announcing the report, Sarah Friedman, coordinator of the project for NICHD, clashed with Belsky over his statements. "NICHD is not willing to get into policy recommendations. There are other possibilities that can be entertained" to explain the results of the study, she said. Friedman noted that the children's behavior was "in the normal range" and did not mean they needed medical treatment.
Several news articles briefly mentioned that the study also found children in child care more than 30 hours a week displayed better intellectual skills in language and memory. No headlines featured that aspect of the study.
Last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 60 percent of women with children under three years old held jobs outside the home. The number of single-parent households, the overwhelming majority of which are headed by women, has increased rapidly from 12.7 percent of all families in 1960 to 32 percent in 1998.
The 1996 "welfare reform" act signed into law by former president William Clinton with the support of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, eliminated federally guaranteed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and cut off food stamps for many working people.
Meanwhile, state officials across the country are eliminating thousands of women from welfare assistance. In New Jersey 11,000 women who are single and solely responsible for their children are being targeted. In 1997 Gov. Christine Whitman signed legislation dubbed "Work First New Jersey," under which 55,000 women have already been dropped from government-guaranteed assistance.