Working mothers this week took another blow with the release of data from the largest and longest-running study of American childcare. Reported throughout the mainstream media from The New York Times, to NPR, and the Today Show, the study found that "keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that child would become disruptive in class through the sixth grade."
The study went on to report the effect was slight and well within normal range for healthy children.
So here's my beef with this and every other study that is publicized in the media. How do these researchers come to their conclusion? What do we NOT know about these preschoolers who spent more than a year in a day care center? Were their parents spending quality time with them outside of day care? What kind of care were they receiving once they were enrolled in school? What kind of school environment were they in? What was their behavior like before preschool? Are we to infer they were angelic toddlers who sat quietly and ate all of their peas, slept through the night, and potty-trained themselves before they entered the dreaded day care center?
I'm certainly no expert on this subject (as we all know). I have studied only one preschooler and this is what my totally unscientific study reveals:
In a Manic Mommies study of one preschooler who never spent a day of his life in a day care center, researchers found that this preschooler was likely to interrupt in class (see recent post "He is Me" at manicmommies.com for scientific documentation of this subject). The effect was slight to constant, however, is believed to be well within normal range for a healthy almost five-year-old.
Why is it that working moms continue to bear the brunt of these studies? Dads don't seem to care. I put this study in front of my husband yesterday and to my surprise he had neither a) heard about it or b) cared to learn more. Are we moms doing ourselves harm by investing too much time and mental energy worrying about countless studies that contradict themselves?
I appreciate that this was the largest study of its kind and the researchers were just reporting their findings. And I recognize all too well that day care is a serious—and consuming—issue for working parents. There's hardly a working mom in my network who hasn't shared her story of the day care arrangement that didn't quite "work out."
Obviously this is a broader societal issue that, once again, working moms are left to struggle with. Without the benefit of complete information or practical solutions, what's a mom to do?
Feel guilty, I guess. Now where's the study on the effects of that?
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Comments: 8
I was a working mom when my first born was a preschooler and he was disruptive to a point at that age. Now he would never misbehave and he's 9. My other one has never been in preschool and he is a lively, disruptive one now at almost three years old. We'll see what he is like when he is school age.
I taught Jr.high for four years and it is hard to pin point these things there are just too many variable that account for their behavior later in life. IMHO anyways.
" Coming up at 10... why being a role model for your child may cause permenant brain damage."
The raw data is probably too narrowly focused to take into consideration the family life of the children.
Do you really care? As a parent, you're doing the right thing for your child. It is sad that people may judge those who use daycare.
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/mar2007/nichd-26.htm
The press release starts like this:
"The most recent analysis of a long-term NIH-funded study found that children who received higher quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did children who received lower quality care.
The study authors also found that the more time children spent in center-based care before kindergarten, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report such problem behaviors as "gets in many fights," "disobedient at school," and "argues a lot."
However, the researchers cautioned that the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development than was type, quantity, or quality, of child care. "
So...somehow the good news, that kids who go to daycare have better vocabularies, got lost in the bad news, that kids who go to daycare have more "problem behaviors." And we completely lost the last line, that parenting quality is the most important predictor of all of good child development.
Sheesh! Why does the media ALWAYS focus on the negative????
That is very helpful. Another reader directed me to this article on Slate http://www.slate.com/id/2162876/ which also helps break down the study—and the headlines.
1. It's not realistic to be middle class on a single income.
2. Corporate America is continuing to increase the workday (when did 9 to 5 start sounding like a part-time job?), but not the available childcare options.
3. Daycare salaries haven't matched rising costs of living which leads to increased turnover, which the NYTimes article mentions may have been an immeasurable factor affecting the outcome.
4. Most schools don't match hours with the workweek, which means that many daycare kids are also in after school programs (the study didn't seem to mention if that was a factor).
So, we can keep blaming the moms (although the article admirably tried to keep it gender neutral), many of whom don't have much choice in the matter (as it's clear the "opting out" stories are a myth as that's an option for a very small percentage of the population). Or, we can explore the effects government subsidies would have on retaining daycare employees, or encouraging companies to have flexible work options. Personally, I prefer the proactive approach rather than sitting around placing blame.
Lisa