Attachment - Daycare Flashcards
Why might we expect day care to affect social development?
First socialization (new stimulus other than family) having to share ect.
No primary care-giver (sharing carers)
Disruption to attachment/separation from parents
Why is it difficult to study day care and social development?
Because you can’t manipulate the independent variable because you can’t impose bad quality day care on children in comparison to good quality day care - unethical.
You can’t randomly allocate children
Why might the characteristics of mothers who do and don’t choose day care differ?
Those who choose day care are more likely to be busy, working mother in contrast with those with plenty of free time, not rushed ect.
What is a problem with drawing conclusions from research into daycare?
Many different types of day care (nurseries, nannies, relative care)
State 2 studies which look at the affect of day care on attachments and outline their results
Clarke-Stewart: Found no evidence of attachment differences in children home reared, child-minders or group based care
Belsky & Rovine: Found that children who spent more time (>20 hours a week) in daycare were more insecurely attached than home-reared children
Name the studies looking at the effects of day care on peer relations
Campbell
Field
DiLalla
Outline the procedure of Campbell’s research
Studied a group of children in Sweden attending childcare between 18 months and 3 1/2 years, 4 at a child minder and 30 at a nursery. Their social competence was tested at 6 1/2, 8 1/2 and 15.
State the results from Campbell’s study
Long days in day care = less socially competent
More days per week but with shorter days = more socially competent.
Describe Field’s study
Examined time spent in day care and quality of care received.
Found that the more time spent in daycare the more friends they had and in more extra-curricular activities. Higher quality care meant more physical affection to peers
Describe DiLalla’s study
Looked at how day care effected pro-social behaviour.
Found a negative correlation between amount of time in care and their pro-social behavior. The more time in day care the less cooperative they were with peers.
Give 3 evaluative points for Campbell’s research
- Controlled families: The comparison was made between families in daycare and those who applied but didn’t get it; similar to a matched pairs design
- Population validity: just in Sweden, just one group of people (those who apply for daycare) cannot generalize
- Self Report: Subject to bias; not likely to say they have no friends at 15.
Name the studies looking at the effects of day care on aggression
Belsky
Baker et al
Borge et al
State the procedure for Belsky’s study
Carried out a longitudinal study in the US, looking at more than 1000 children from birth. They were followed up at 4 1/2 and 15 years, looking at their aggression levels
State the results for Belsky’s study
Children who experienced day care show advanced cognitive and language development, but higher levels of problem behaviors including aggression towards peers and being less obedient to authority figures
Describe Baker’s study
Analayzed data on 33,000 children, finding that in the post day care period, aggression among 2-4 year olds increased by 24% in Quebec and 1% in the rest of Canada.
