Home And Out-of-home Care In Child Development

Child Health And Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This project involves longitudinal studies being conducted in Goteberg (Sweden) and Berlin (Germany) as well as a series of studies in Berlin. The longitudinal study in Sweden was designed to elucidate the effects of early care arrangements on the development of 145 children recruited in 1982 at an average of 16 months of age. Initial analyses indicated that the quality of home care and the quality of alternative care had substantial effects on the children's verbal abilities, social skills, and personal maturity. These effects appeared to diminish as the children moved into the formal educational system. The psychological status and educational histories of these children at 15 years of age during their final year of school have been and are currently being assessed, and analysis of these data began in FY01. In Berlin, researchers began stuyding the attachments between children and careproviders shortly before political reunification of the city. Comparative analyses show that infants were more likely to establish secure attachments to their careproviders after reunification than before, perhaps because care providers in the later regime focused on the styles and needs of individual infants. In a subsequent study, researchers observed in detail the everyday experiences of toddlers who either did or did not receive regular out-of-home care. The data showed different diurnal patterns of adult attention, stimulation, and emotional exchange, although the total amount of social interaction experienced over the course of the day did not differ depending on whether or not the toddlers spent time in day care. In the Berlin longitudinal study, researchers are assessing the psychophysiological and behavioral tendencies of infants in order to assess the effects of prior individual differences in emotional reactivity and infant-mother attachment on the adaptation to out-of-home center care. Preliminary analyses indicate that the securely attached infants had slower and more variable heart rates at day care when their mothers were present than insecurely attached infants did. The quality of infant-careprovider relations, infant-parent attachment, and infant temperament all appeared to shape adaptation to day care.