Day care

Day care

1. Belsky and Rovine (1988) found support for Bowlby’s theory of permanent harm. If the child is in day care for more than four months in their first year they are significantly more likely to develop insecure attachments. Sroufe (1990) suggested therefore that children should not be placed in daycare until at least the age of one.

2. Shea (1981) videotaped children in a day nursery and compared the behaviours of those attending for different lengths of time. (Interesting for two reasons: clear ethical issues with taping young children playing and also the very early days of video!). He found that children who attended more regularly were more active, more sociable in that they went looking for people to talk to, and made more contact with others. This increase was greatest in those attending day care most often (every week day) suggesting a correlation between time spent in day care and sociability.

3. Quality of daycare is a crucial variable, sometimes being provided by qualified and experienced professionals and unfortunately sometimes not. Much research has shown that only high quality daycare will be beneficial to the child. Children who get good quality daycare tend to come from well-educated middle class backgrounds (Marshall 2004).

4. The most researched area of policy based on attachment research however has been into ways of improving day care. What constitutes good care isn’t easy to define but the following variables seem important: Plenty of verbal interaction, especially between the child and carer which seems to result in higher quality day care. However, it is important to mention that verbal interaction between parent and child tends to be more complex and beneficial simply because they can provide undivided attention to their children rather than have to divide it between many.

5. Sensitive responsiveness of the carers is, according to the NICHD, the single most important factor. In one survey they discovered that only 23% of carers provided ‘highly sensitive’ care with 20% being ‘emotionally detached’ from the children in their care.

6. Consistency of care is also important. Low staff turnover provides opportunities for children to form attachments with the care givers.