There is been significant debate on this sub about daycare and it’s effects on children’s externalizing behaviors (I.e. disruptive behaviors, behavior problems, etc). A new study out in Child Development shows that the number of hours that a child spends in center-based daycares is not related to the child’s externalizing behaviors!! The correlation was 0.00 with a p value of .88.
This study is unique because it had a very large number of children (n=10,105) across 5 counties (2 studies in the US, 2 in Canada, 1 in the Netherlands, 1 in Germany and 1 in Norway). The authors also used longitudinal studies so they could examine both within-person effects (fixed effects) and between-person effects (random effects). Examining within-person effects is helpful because it provides a more stringent control for natural variation in externalizing symptoms that are not caused by center-based care. The studies also included both maternal-report and teacher-report of externalizing symptoms. Finally, they tested both linear and non-linear effects to see if there were any differences at “extreme” numbers of hours.
Across all types of models, they found little to no support for the hypothesis that the number of hours spent in daycare was related to externalizing problems. These analyses were robust to multiple covariates like family income and maternal education, as well as number of siblings, a new sibling in the family, single family households, and parental employment.
Additionally, the authors tested whether family income moderated the effects of daycare on behavior problems (i.e., if there were differences in the associations for low income or high income families). They did not find evidence of any moderation by income.
Overall, these findings suggest that the number of hours spent in center-based daycares do not relate to children’s behavior problems. This is strong evidence from a large, multi-nation, longitudinal study with multiple reporters — in contrast to the studies cited by a certain blog post that has made the rounds on this sub. I wanted to share to encourage parents to make the best care decision for their families and not to fret if that decision is full time daycare.
Full article here
Edit; Multiple people have commented on the age at first entry. This study has three sub-studies that start prenatally, at 5 months, and at 6 months, respectively. Some of those kids attended daycare in infancy based on the data collected. They did not ask about/report on age of daycare in every sub-study either, even though some of those children likely began early (I.e. low income mothers in America). Basically, this is a longitudinal study. While the outcomes of interest are measured in toddlers, the daycare received actually includes kids who were in daycare as infants!! This makes sense because we are interested in kid’s longer term outcomes, not short term/concurrent outcomes. They could not do a subgroup analysis for age at first entry though because they do not have that data from every study, which is a limitation.
Edit 2: For those interested in age at first entry, this study from Norway that was included in the above study. Care traditionally starts around 12mo there, but there is some variation. The study does not show elevated aggression into preschool for any age of entry. They do see some small (in absolute values) changes in aggression at age 2, but those effects do not last. Study Link
Edit 3 to add full text: Full text version
Edit 4: People want to seem to dismiss this study because it doesn’t look at age of entry (it was not designed to do so), but that is not the only salient question about daycare. For instance, this study shows that full time daycare is not related to more externalizing problems than part time daycare. It also shows that income does not moderate the association, contrary to a lot of people’s assumptions. That on its own is important as many parents questions have regarding daycare hours.
This study is unique because it had a very large number of children (n=10,105) across 5 counties (2 studies in the US, 2 in Canada, 1 in the Netherlands, 1 in Germany and 1 in Norway). The authors also used longitudinal studies so they could examine both within-person effects (fixed effects) and between-person effects (random effects). Examining within-person effects is helpful because it provides a more stringent control for natural variation in externalizing symptoms that are not caused by center-based care. The studies also included both maternal-report and teacher-report of externalizing symptoms. Finally, they tested both linear and non-linear effects to see if there were any differences at “extreme” numbers of hours.
Across all types of models, they found little to no support for the hypothesis that the number of hours spent in daycare was related to externalizing problems. These analyses were robust to multiple covariates like family income and maternal education, as well as number of siblings, a new sibling in the family, single family households, and parental employment.
Additionally, the authors tested whether family income moderated the effects of daycare on behavior problems (i.e., if there were differences in the associations for low income or high income families). They did not find evidence of any moderation by income.
Overall, these findings suggest that the number of hours spent in center-based daycares do not relate to children’s behavior problems. This is strong evidence from a large, multi-nation, longitudinal study with multiple reporters — in contrast to the studies cited by a certain blog post that has made the rounds on this sub. I wanted to share to encourage parents to make the best care decision for their families and not to fret if that decision is full time daycare.
Full article here
Edit; Multiple people have commented on the age at first entry. This study has three sub-studies that start prenatally, at 5 months, and at 6 months, respectively. Some of those kids attended daycare in infancy based on the data collected. They did not ask about/report on age of daycare in every sub-study either, even though some of those children likely began early (I.e. low income mothers in America). Basically, this is a longitudinal study. While the outcomes of interest are measured in toddlers, the daycare received actually includes kids who were in daycare as infants!! This makes sense because we are interested in kid’s longer term outcomes, not short term/concurrent outcomes. They could not do a subgroup analysis for age at first entry though because they do not have that data from every study, which is a limitation.
Edit 2: For those interested in age at first entry, this study from Norway that was included in the above study. Care traditionally starts around 12mo there, but there is some variation. The study does not show elevated aggression into preschool for any age of entry. They do see some small (in absolute values) changes in aggression at age 2, but those effects do not last. Study Link
Edit 3 to add full text: Full text version
Edit 4: People want to seem to dismiss this study because it doesn’t look at age of entry (it was not designed to do so), but that is not the only salient question about daycare. For instance, this study shows that full time daycare is not related to more externalizing problems than part time daycare. It also shows that income does not moderate the association, contrary to a lot of people’s assumptions. That on its own is important as many parents questions have regarding daycare hours.