Nonparental Child Development

Some families are not able to provide childcare when they need it for their kid(s). “The cost and the scarcity of day care have helped create what sociologist Joya Misra calls “the motherhood penalty”” (Quart). Some families have to have only one income so that one parent could stay home to watch the kid(s). Single parents have to move in with their parents for help because they can not afford the care. People should not have to quit their jobs to take care of their kids when there are multiple daycare facilities.

Is child care having a negative effect on the development of children in the United States? Studies show that there are indeed negative psychological and developmental effects on children. Scientists in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are coming to the same conclusion. It is best for a child to be cared for at home.

It is common knowledge that a parent is considered the most efficient caregiver for their children. It’s also known that with daily responsibilities of caring for a child financially, parents partake in full-time and/or part-time employment. While needing to do so, many children attend daycare/preschool facilities. Granted, it is the parent’s responsibility to cautiously select where they decide to take their children. This is because parents know that while they are away for numerous hours of the day, their children are in the hands of another care provider and that their care would have an enormous impact on their children. At a young age, a child’s social and cognitive skills are continuing to take shape and the amount of time spent in

Families' reliance on childcare has risen significantly over the past 30 years. In 1993, 9.9 million children under age 5, needed care while their mothers worked (Bureau of the Census, 1995). More than two-thirds of all infants receive nonparental child care during their first year of life, with most enrolled for about 30 hours each week (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1995).

For many working families paid childcare is not an option, but a necessity. Paid childcare aids parents, especially mothers, in taking care of their children while they work. As noted by Hutchison (2015), about 68% of children younger than 5 years have been engaged in non-parental care. As a person who has youngest siblings in daycare, I often think about how my nieces and nephews behave in comparison to those children who stay home. It has been empirically shown that children involved in childcare may be better prepared developmentally, emotionally and socially compared to those who stay home. However, there is literature indicates that children in daycare who require individual attention might be developmentally affected as their needs are

A child’s first 12 months is described as being a “critical” time in it’s development, and nature versus nurture begins to take place in its development from the earliest of stages. According to Christopher Ruhm, “environmental factors are also likely to be significant in the formation of learning skills, self-esteem, and emotional security” (Ruhm, 2007). If mother’s are forced to go back into the workforce due to lack of funds or job security, this most likely means that their child will have to be placed into a daycare of some sort, unless a family member is able to care for the child while the parent is away. While daycares may aid in cognitive development and social development due to the nature in which day cares are run, a mother may be compelled to raise the child in their own way, and provide the environment in which they would like to have their children raised. Although the difference is small between children who were home with their mothers versus at daycares, if a mother is able to be home and commit her time to raising her child, it has been shown that the child will in return perform better in a variety of areas. According to the Ruhm, “maternal employment during a child’s first year appeared to negatively affect subsequent cognitive test scores and was associated with increases in behavioural problems” (Ruhm,

With the entry of women into the labor force, arrangements for child care have shifted from care in the home to care outside the home. Additionally, no one knows how many American children function as guardians for younger brothers and sisters while their parents are at work, latchkey children are certainly underreported. We must also consider that most children are not being raised in traditional nuclear families. Stepfamilies can be complex, even though they may start idealistically, the members need to deal with conflicting traditions, loyalties, power struggles, since the stepparent role does not approximate that of a biological one. Then we also have single parent families, many of which live below poverty level. Single mothers run up

In an area where so many households require two incomes in order to survive, child care has become a necessity. Unfortunately, there are many issues within the daycare structure that impair parent’s ability to go to work, or forces parents to take time off they cannot afford. The parents who are unable to work because the cost of daycare is too expensive that face issues with gaps in their employment history, which reduces their future ability to be hired and the pay rate they will receive. Parents who end their children to day care, but the day care does not cover all of the hours needed face the issue of missing work, therefore making a bad impression upon their employer. The Daycare system needs to be more affordable and offer more hours in order to be a greater benefit to families.

The prevalence of out of home care is that 30 percent of children in preschool that have mothers who work out of home expend their time in a child care center. In addition, two-thirds of children around the age of six months are receiving care from other people and not their parents throughout the day. Mainly children previous to the age of four months receive thirty hours of care from other people and not their mothers. Child care out of home seems to increase as they age, especially around the age of 4. According to the book, 54 percent of children are receiving child care while their mothers are working or out and about. Most importantly, the quality of care that children that receive outside the home tend to be improved socially and are

Childcare are regular, monetary arrangements that temporarily provide caregiver’s to a child in the absence of their parent/s, whether within the home or in centre-based environments (Howes & Hamilton, 1992; Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook, 1992; Merz et al., 2015; Berry, Blair, & Granger, 2016.). Research has suggested that childcare has had a negative impact on a child’s psychological and physiological development due to rises in their cortisol levels during childcare hours (Badanes, Dmitrieva, & Watamura, 2012; Lumian et al., 2015; Berry, Blair, & Granger, 2016). On the other hand, other studies have suggested that childcare assists opportunities of growth in executive functions (Merz et al., 2015) and social development (Connell & Prinz, 2002). However, there are many asterisks that come with these findings as quality, type, time spent, and ratio of teacher to child in the childcare must also be considered (Howes & Hamilton, 1992; Howes, Phillips, & Whitebook,

Child-care or non-maternal care of a child also has an impact on a child’s development. Research has found that child-care quality is positively correlated with family income indicating that those children living in poverty would be more likely to receive poorer child-care (NICHD, 1997). Studies show that quality early child-care

Human development (NICHD) Early Childcare Research Network (ECCRN) has investigated closely the relation between early childcare experiences and behavioral consequences and concluded that time spent in childcare (i.e center-based care or non-maternal home-based care) had consequential and positive correlations with subsequent negative behaviors, such as externalizing problems (Belsky. et al. 2007; Jacob 2009; Mc Cartney et al. 2010; NICHD ECCRN 1998, 2003, 2004).

When families need child care for their children, it is important they get the child care that they need. Children who have spent more time in a child care have results from their experience. They will more likely show results including better math and reading scores, and social skills as well.

Infant’s effect of full time daycare is becoming more prevalent among families with the rise of both parents working full time. There are several aspects that have been questioned regarding the length of stay and the development of infants such as reunion behaviors with parents and resistance and avoidance later in their life (Schwarts, 1983). An infant’s development in a daycare facility can impact them based on the attention they receive, or lack thereof (Schwarts, 1983). There is a said effect of early and repeated separation form the mother primarily with their attachment bond (Schwarts, 1983). There is also an effect of daycare infants that is based upon the facility being attended. A daycare that fails to provide the infant with personalized attention, quality of toys, caregiver resources and no direct stimulus throughout their day will have an increased in heightened emotions during separation (Schwarts, 1983).

Literature review The general topic chosen to research relates to the effect attending childcare has on a child’s social and emotional wellbeing.' Print and digital secondary sources of data including an article and video were reviewed in order to establish current knowledge and derive relevant information on the effects of childcare centres on children's social and emotional wellbeing. The article ‘Promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing in childcare centres within low socioeconomic areas’ was sourced from EBSCO and the video ‘Good & Bad Childcare’ was sourced from Youtube.. Through thorough analysis of these different sources, overall trends suggest childcare can have a positive and negative impact on a child's social and emotional wellbeing.