Daycare pseudoscience: the evidence doesn't back the panic
Commentators on the right claim daycare traumatizes children, while politicians on the left tout it as a cure-all. But the evidence for both extremes is weak. Studies show daycare has little lasting impact on children's outcomes, except for a small benefit to disadvantaged kids that fades by elementary school. The cortisol stress argument is overblown, and the famous Perry and Abecedarian projects involved intensive interventions, not typical daycare. The real harm may be the anxiety and guilt these claims cause parents.
It appears that whether a child attends daycare usually makes little difference to their outcomes.
- vjk800
I read a bunch of pop psychology books (by supposedly respectably authors who were academic researches on this stuff) on child development when my kids were in that age. Weirdly, the author of this leaves out a completely relevant variable from the discussion: the child's age.
As far as I recall from my readings, daycare might be harmful for very small children (around age 2 and below), who are still very attached to their mothers. Above that, it is a matter of how large the group size is and how professional the daycare teachers are. Children below the age of 6 or so benefit from very small groups, because they don't yet have the social intelligence to navigate multi-person interactions. All children left on their own tend to develop anti-social behavioural patterns (such as taking toys from other by force, etc.), and a qualified daycare professional is supposed to watch for and weed out that kind of behaviour.
- zdc1
Peoples' home lives and school lives can be so varied that I wonder if an A vs B comparison is even appropriate. Are the kids going to be playing outside? On an iPad? With the neighbours? Watching Christian TV? Are there bullies at school? Does their home feel safe?
And even if there's an impact one way or another, daycare has a much bigger role in helping keep women in the workforce. Many don't make it back in after a 5 year break to raise kids. Daycare helps stop them from falling off the career ladder.
- andai
I'm reminded of Bloom's 2 sigma effect. Classroom education is to tutoring as daycare is to parenting.
Or course it helps the disadvantaged. Indeed if the neglect is bad enough, you may get superior parenting from the people at daycare (or indeed at school)!
Personally I had a nice time at daycare. There were toys there, and friends, and people who paid attention to you.