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Better child care, better behavior

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Relationship with mother still most important factor

April 3, 1998
Web posted at: 8:22 p.m. EST (0122 GMT)

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Young children who are cared for in "high quality" settings, where caregivers actively play and talk with them, have fewer behavioral problems than children cared for in settings where they don't get such intense attention, according to the results of an ongoing federally-sponsored child-care study.

Researchers have also found that children do not always respond better in settings where they received one-on-one attention from a hired caregiver, rather than being cared for as part of a group.

"Children who were cared for where there were groups of children -- at least three other children -- showed some benefits," said Marion O'Brien of the University of Kansas, who is leading the study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. "They were more cooperative with their care provider. It appears that having a group of children is a very positive factor in child development."

However, O'Brien says that a mother's relationship with her child is still a more important factor in determining a child's behavior than the type of child care he or she receives.

"The mother's relationship with the child over the first three years of life is most important," she said. "The positive, warm, sensitive relationship between a mother and her child is very important in children's early social development."

O'Brien's team has been following 1,300 families in 10 communities nationwide since 1991, when the children in the study were newborns. The study will continue until the children are age 7.

This weekend, researchers are presenting what they have discovered to this point at a meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Atlanta.

The results released so far pertain to 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds. Among the findings:

  • 2-year-olds who received care with other children tended to be more compliant with caregivers and to have few behavior problems when they reached 3.

  • 2-year-olds who spent more time in child care had more behavior problems than others of the same age who spent less time in such care.

  • Children in both age groups who had high-quality care had fewer problems than those who didn't receive that kind of care.

The quality of caregivers was measured by trained observers who watched the child and the caregiver for two half-hour periods at a time.

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O'Brien says a high-quality caregiver "is child-centered, really focuses their time and attention on the child. When the child is happy they are happy."

"Poor quality in these terms has to do with a care provider who is uninvolved, who is emotionally not involved with the children," she said.

O'Brien recommends "that parents observe the care provider that they are thinking of placing their child with and actually see what that care provider does with children."

Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland and Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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