Working parents who leave their kids in child care facilities need not feel guilty anymore. All those fears about toddlers turning into violent and misbehaved brats in nurseries are dismissed by a recent study. In fact researchers even go on to say that time spent in the care of other adults can actually improve the behaviour of infants.
The study, carried out by the Boston College of Massachusetts, observed 939 children and focussed on the time spent in child care facilities at ages six months, one, two, three and four years old. Professor Eric Dearing, lead author of the study said, “From a public perspective, our findings are important because they should help ease parents’ fears about the potential harms of early non-parental child care,” as reported in the Daily Mail.
Professor Dearing’s team also interviewed the parents the 939 children about the time spent in childcare at various ages. He told the Daily Mail that, “One surprising finding was that the longer children were in non-parental care, the smaller the effects on aggression became.”
This study was published in the journal Psychological Science.
