• Mayall and Petrie: the effects of a child being looked after by a childminder appear to depend heavily on the quality of care
• some provide excellent care/come provide an unstimulating environment

• childminding is unreliable. (no guarentee of acceptable premises/experience for the child.)
• childminding is poorly paid
• that attempts to raise standards by insisting on minimum standards/ childminders being registered would lead to an increase in use of unregistered childminders.

• that some childminders do not want to form an emotional bond with the children/ give them a stimulating environment.
• instead they reward them for being quiet- leading to the children becoming passive and apatetic.

compared the experiences of 18month olds interacting in diff types of day care settings:

• at home
• cared for by a relative
• cared for by a childminder
• cared for in nursery

there was alot of variation within each setting but overall, childen cared for at home, by a relative or childminder had more stimulating interactional experiences than children in a nursery.

• found that most childminders cared for the children as competently as they cared for their own children
• found that problems only arose when the children had particular problems outside the minder's experience - an issue that could be addressed by making more support available to carers.

• most studies have indicated that daycare need not have adverse consequences for young children. BUT...

Belsky (1988)

AIMS

• to assess the quality of attachment in children who spent time in daycare
• the effect of the amount of time spent in day care on attachment

Blesky (1988)

PROCEDURE

• sample size: 464
• quality of attachment of children who spent time in daycare was compared to that of children at home with their mothers
• it was assessed using the Strange Situation Test
• also analysed in terms of the age children started day care and how long the spent there each week.

Belsky (1988)

RESULTS

• more likely to have an insecure attachment if:

1. they started day care before their 1st birthday
2. spent more than 20hours a week there

• more children in daycare had insecure attachment (43%) than children who were not in daycare (26%)

Belsky (1988)

RESULTS

secure attachment + more than 20hours:

• 59%

secure attachement + less than 20hours:

• 74%

insecure attachment + more than 20hours:

• 41%

insecure attachment + less than 20hours:

• 26%

Belsky (1988)

CONCLUSIONS

• these findings seem worrying at first 
• they seem to imply that children in daycare are more likely to form insecure attachments, which may put their future development at risk

Belsky (1988)

CRITICISMS

• however SST does not take the child's previous experiences into account.
• could be argued that children in daycare have learned that seperation is only temporary and that the mother will return
• therefore - not overly distressed when the mother leaves, nor are they overly demonstrative when she returns
• they may then be classified as type A: insecure avoidant even though they are actually securely-attached

Belsky (1988)

CRITICISMS cont.

• his study doesn't take into account factors other than being in daycare that could lead to insecure attachment
• eg: there could be differences between mothers who use daycare and those who don't.
• there was no account taken of the individual differences of the children.

Howes et al (1992)

distinguish between structural and functional factors

functional factors

• the motivation of the carers
• their sensitivity and warmth towards the child
• the caregivers abilities to adjust to the child
• the child - caregiver attachment relationship

research showing benefits of childcare for disadvantaged children.

US research:

• children who attend pre-school programmes eg, head start, are more likely to succeed in school + are less likely to be placed in special education.
• the long-term benefits of head start are small or non-existent for middle class children

• head start provides a good quality experience
• more caregiver attention
• more educational activities

middle class people usually get these experiences at home whereas disadvantaged children don't.

how research into attachment has influenced childcare.

Conclusions from Belsky et al (2007)

• whilst timing, amount + quality of childcare are important factors influencing a child's experience - it is that children recieve non parental childcare of any kind which is of crucial importance.

• the more time children spent in non-parental care from birth to pre-school, the more behaviours were observed in adolescence. (arguing, disobedient, aggression.)
• the study suggests that the vast number of children in non-parental care, and potential problems being created, makes them very significant indeed.