EFFECTS OF DAY CARE CENTERS ON YOUNG CHILDREN
What are the effects of day care centers on young children and what variables moderate these effects? The purpose of the review of literature presented here is to provide an answer to this question.
In a comprehensive review of the literature on the effects of day care on young children, Sale (1998) noted that most of the research conducted on day care centers was relatively negative indicating that, at least for young school age children, the effects were about the same as for self-care conditions. However, it was observed that over the years, day care centers improved greatly, expanding services to include appropriate educational experiences for children, improved training and education for day care providers. According to Sale, the day care centers of the 1980s reflected strong accomplishments in professional recognition, licensing and regulation, support services for providers, the emergence of the day care center as a small business, and increased research on the effects of day care.
The improvements in day care have produced some very positive outcomes. According to Papalia and Olds (1995), there is substantial research demonstrating that the physical, social and cognitive development of children in good day care is comparable to that of children raised at home. The authors also report that day care is often associated with improvement in children's relationship with their parents because of the enhancement of children's emotional development and because it reduces parental stress, freeing them from the demands of parenting and allowing them to feel secure while earning income because they know that their children are receiving good care.
Other positive effects of day care supported by the empirical literature are: (1) gains in language development (Papalia & Olds, 1995); (2) the production of a compensating influence for moderate to poor maternal care and bonding...