More on the daycare study
Jill points us to yet another article about the daycare and bad behavior study. However, this post at Slate is a different take on the situation.
“The Kids Are Alright -What the daycare study really found” is a balanced, and, careful analysis of the study heard round the world this week about daycare being correlated to bad behavior in kids.
Some of the highlights of the analysis:
“Parenting quality significantly predicted all the developmental outcomes and much more strongly than did any of the child-care predictors,” the researchers wrote. Never mind that central, important finding. The downside of day care is what everyone wants to talk about.
The writer even contacted the study’s author:
When I reached the study’s author, Margaret Burchinal, yesterday, she asked if she could explain something she feared had been missed. “I’m not sure we communicated this, but the kids who had one to two years of daycare by age 4½—which was typical for our sample—had exactly the level of problem behavior you’d expect for kids of their age. Most people use center care for one or two years, and for those kids we’re not seeing anything problematic.”
It’s still a complicated matter, that’s for sure.
However, I’m glad to see a story that acknowledges what I’ve been saying all along: the intent of a potentially useful study has been obscured by alarmist and inflammatory headlines in the media that have been fueling the fire of a discussion meant to divide parents rather than support them.
Tags: Career and Kids, Child-Care, daycare-and-behavior-studyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Childcare
3 opinions for More on the daycare study
kendra
Apr 2, 2007 at 11:57 am
Amen. Instead of working against each other, we should support each other. All parents want what is best for their kids, we just all have different ways of obtaining that goal. We really should pull from each other’s ideas and lend the other a hand.
I wrote a post about this last week. I am a part time worker, so I really don’t fit in anywhere, and everyone has something to say to me. I have learned to let it roll of my back. I do what works for my family.
Tam
Apr 3, 2007 at 8:06 am
They never mentioned in the studies what type of daycare, financial class, the hours the parents were working….Look around your place of work,friends or church, can you tell who’s mom stay home with them, and who was in daycare? I don’t think so….It’s all in the parenting, and chosing what best for your family.
Jill
Apr 5, 2007 at 6:33 am
Thanks for the shout out :-)
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