Daycare: Raising Baby

Does daycare affect a child's behavior and development? It all depends on the quality of care.

By Hara Estroff Marano, published on April 29, 2007 - last reviewed on May 30, 2007

Memory: Children who spent more time in center-based care displayed an early advantage. They tended to score higher on standardized tests of short-term memory. This effect emerged even before starting school and is maintained during the primary grades.
Cognitive development: Sensitive and responsive care-giving leads to academic achievement throughout the primary grades, as measured by tests of math, reading, and such cognitive processes as memory for sentences.
Social skills: Early positive effects of high-quality care on cooperation, assertion, responsibility, and self control seemed to disappear at later ages—although the researchers point out that long-term positive effects on social development may well reappear at a later age because development is dynamic.
Behavior problems: Even high-quality care did not reduce the number of behavior problems among those in childcare.
Conflictual relationships: More time spent in center-based child-care led to reports of more conflict—with parents and teacher.
Work habits: The greater the amount of time children spent in childcare in kindergarten, the more their teachers later reported that they do not work independently, did not use their time wisely, and did not complete their work promptly in grade school.
Social-emotional functioning: How skilled children are with peers and how well they solve problems with them was negatively impacted by many hours in daycare.