Outline and Evaluate the effects of Daycare on aggression (12 marks)

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H/W                                                                                11th November 2011        

Outline and evaluate the effects of Day care on aggression

The NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) studied children who were 4 and a half years old and in kindergarten, data was being recorded on their social competence and problem behaviours, including being aggressive, but also behaviour that you might classify as challenging; examples of this are talking back to adults and demanding a lot of attention (NICHD 2003). In comparison to the one-to-one care offered by childminders, the group care offered in day nurseries tended to have more adverse effects. It was shown that more time children spent in group care, the more aggressive and disobedient they were between 2 and 6 years old. Even when quality and type or childcare, maternal sensitivity and other family background factors were taken into account, these effects remained. Following the introduction of universal day care in Quebec, the proportion of children places in day care between the ages of 0-4 rose by 14% along with and increase in the number of women returning to the workplace. Baker et al ((2005) analysed data on 30,000 children of two-parent families, and found that in the post-universal day care period, aggression among 2-4 year olds increased by 24% in Quebec which strongly contrasts with 1% in the rest of Canada. The wellbeing of parents has also declined showing greater incidences of hostile parenting and dissatisfaction with spouses.

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Sammons et al (2003) study and results show that there is a slight risk of increased antisocial behaviour when children spend more than 20 hours per week in nurseries and this risk increases noticeably when they spend more than 40 hours in care. This supports the NICHD study above, as they both suggest that the more time spent in day care as opposed to at home or with a childminder receiving personal attention. Larner et al (1989) carried out a longitudinal study of 120 Swedish children, beginning at age 12 months and following the children up until the age ...

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