The Trouble with Day Care — A Surprising Source
The issue of day care for children has been hotly debated for decades, with only a few dedicated souls brave enough to speak the truth. A stable, loving home environment with a caring mother is best for children. Where this is not the case -- even where this is not possible -- it serves no honest purpose to deny the truth. Concern about day care now comes from a rather unexpected source. The May-June 2005 issue of Psychology Today features an article entitled, "The Trouble With Day Care," written by Heide Lang. [The article is not yet available on-line, but the magazine is still on the newsstands.] "The raging debates around maternal guilt, work/family balance, money and childrearing often drown out scientific insights into the developmental impactof day care," Lang warns. "But the latest findings, from a huge, long-term government study, are worrisome. They show that kids who spend long hours in day care have behavior problems that persist well into elementary school." Consider this: "Developmental psychologists are sweeping this information under the rug, hoping studies will churn out better data soon, argues Jay Belsky, a child development researcher at London's Birbeck College and a longtime critic of his fellow scientists. He contends that the field of developmental psychology is monopolized by women with a 'liberal progressive feminist' bias. 'Their concern is to not make mothers feel bad,' he says." That is quite a charge, and it represents a brave argument for these times. There's more: "The more time in child care of any kind or quality, the more aggressive the child, according to results published in Child Development. Children in full-time day care were close to three times more likely to show behavior problems than those cared for by their mothers at home." More from the article: "Belsky contends that the current results clearly show children benefit from fewer hours in childcare, especially at a very young age, and parents should be advised to limit the hours their young children spend there. . . . The real question is whether parents can afford to wait years for more answers. What if, Belsky asks, 'kids experiencing long hours in day care are more likely to use drugs, are less ambitious and have trouble with relationships? Parents will say, How come no one warned me? It is our scientific responsibility to tell people what they may not want to know." 
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