Federal study links time spent in day care to aggressiveness

The more time young children spend in day care, the more likely they are to be aggressive or disobedient, says the latest report from an ongoing federal study, released today.

This link “occurred across all family backgrounds and all types and quality of care,” said the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which involves more than 1,000 children and is conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

The study does not, however, say that long hours in day care cause behavioral problems, cautioned Sarah L. Friedman, one of the NICHD researchers.

There are many influences on a preschooler’s behavior, with a mother’s sensitivity to the child being especially important, she said yesterday.

The NICHD study also showed that “the vast majority” of preschoolers “are doing just fine,” Ms. Friedman said.

Almost all the 4-year-olds — including those with elevated levels of aggression or disobedience — scored within the normal range.

Thus, even though more hours spent in child care is linked to higher scores in problem behaviors in some children, the scores “still don’t hit the level that is in any way worrisome,” she said.

It’s like a normal-weight person who gains 3 pounds — “it’s not something to worry about,” she added.

Problem behaviors, according to the NICHD study, include disobeying adults, destroying other people’s possessions, arguing, fighting, lying, cheating, screaming, bragging or bullying.

The NICHD study was started in 1991, looking at more than 1,000 children to assess the impact of lengthy, nonmaternal care on infants and children. Its latest findings, which were first reported in 2001, appear in the new issue of Child Development, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Society for Research in Child Development.

NICHD researchers found evidence of the importance of quality day care: Children whose caregivers were warm, positive, sensitive and provided intellectual stimulation had fewer problem behaviors than other children.

This finding could be pertinent to congressional discussions this month, as the Senate Finance Committee takes up a welfare bill with child care components. Earlier this year, the House passed a welfare bill that adds $2 billion over five years to the $4.8 billion in existing child care funding.

The Children’s Defense Fund, an advocacy group for children, believes that federal child care programs are grossly underfunded and has urged Congress to increase funding by $11.25 billion over five years, plus set aside a sizable portion to increase the quality of child care.

However, the NICHD study had a caveat about high-quality child care: It found that the quality of child care “did not eliminate the link between hours in care and behavior problems.” It also found that the link between long hours of care and higher levels of problem behaviors was particularly strong among children in center-based day care.

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