Key Question - What issues should parents consider when making decisions about daycare for their child?

AO1

• Daycare is a form of temporary care (i.e. not all day and night long) not provided by family members or someone well known to the child and usually takes place outside of the home 

• Decisions that parents will need to make when deciding on daycare could include: the number of hours the child is in daycare for, which daycare centre to pick, their own socio-economic status and pricing, any special requirements of the child 

• This is an important Key Question in informing parents on whether daycare is a good option for their child, important in providing children with intellectual and social development. Daycare is a form of short-term, temporary deprivation; therefore, it is important for parents to choose a suitable daycare and understand the associations of this. Changes in deprivation have the potential to impact the attachment style of their child, potentially forming insecurely attached babies, or implicate upon their internal working model 

• In the UK, childcare providers have to be registered with Ofsted, and are inspected regularly to ensure the quality of care. Providers must show that they are following the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum which sets standards of care for children aged 0-5. Parents can use these reports to examine the quality of daycare 

AO2 (regarding how parents might decide on attendance/timing etc of daycare)

• (EPPE Project) Government-funded longitudinal study following 3000 children aged 3-11. Found that the earlier the child started daycare, the better their intellectual improvement, and that full-time attendance led to no better results than part time – parents may therefore be able to adjust their working hours around this knowledge, knowing that reduced daycare will not implicate upon their child’s cognitive development. Disadvantaged children were shown to benefit more from good quality daycare 

• Not only the quality of daycare that is important, but also the timing of the daycare. (Li et al) 

AO2 (regarding attachment issues surrounding daycare)

Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory emphasises the importance of a ‘continuous’ relationship. Frequent staff turnover can lead to disruption of attachment bond

(Belsky & Rovine) Sample of 149 12–13-month-old babies. Used the Strange Situations Test procedure and found higher rates of insecure attachment in children whose mothers worked 20 hours a week or more, and they spent that time in daycare (43% showed Type A) 

• However, Schaffer and Emerson challenged Bowlby by showing children can form multiple attachments - if a nursery provides a stable Key Worker system, the child can thrive by having several secure attachment figures

AO2 (regarding quality of daycare)

• High quality daycare includes a good staff to child ratio (in the UK this is 1: 3 for babies under 2 and 1:5 for older children). Assign responsibility of carers to individual children, a ‘key carer’ as a replacement attachment figure. Parents must decide on a setting with a low staff-to-child ratio

• Ainsworth’s caregiver sensitivity hypothesis suggests that for a secure attachment to form, the caregiver must respond sensitively to the child’s needs (a lower ratio allows a key person to provide this sensitive mother like response)

• Li et al. found that high quality care in period 2 (pre-school), regardless of care in period 1 (infancy) was linked to better language and preacademic skills such as maths and prereading skills. Parents can use this information to help decide where their money is best spent in childcare at what times 

• (NICHD study) American longitudinal study following children from 1 month to 16 years, finding that low quality care involved less emotional sensitivity and a higher ratio of children to carers. Gathered data via observation and interview, finding that early and intensive nursery care (as opposed to home care) led to improvements in cognitive and language development but increased behavioural problems such as aggression and disobedience