A survey of nearly 1,300 Zurich schoolchildren, their parents and teachers, suggested that the more time children spend at outdoor daycare, the more likely they are to display problematic behavior. However, this behavior usually disappears by the end of primary school. The study was published in the journal ‘PLOS One’.
About 67 percent of the children surveyed received outside childcare before entering kindergarten. Of these, 32 percent attended a daycare center and 22 percent attended a playgroup. Another 22 percent received care from an outside family member, 3 percent from acquaintances or neighbors, and 12 percent from daycare mothers.
Researchers asked children, as well as their parents and teachers, about externalizing or internalizing behavior problems, delinquency and substance use. The survey showed that the behaviors observed in primary school-aged children differed by respondents and the type of outdoor daycare. According to parents, elementary school students were more likely to show aggression, exhibit symptoms of ADHD, and experience anxiety and depression the more time they spent in a daycare center before entering school.
This finding was also supported by some children’s own assessments. According to teachers, schoolchildren were more likely to have hyperactivity, lack of impulse control, inattention or aggression who spent more than two days a week with a daycare mother or at least three days a week in a playgroup. How can these findings be explained? “It is possible that outdoor childcare may reduce the strength of child-parent attachment and interaction,” said first author Margit Everdijk.
But it is also possible that children in center-based care or play groups learn problem behavior from their peers and sometimes use it to gain the attention of caregivers. “While we cannot directly investigate which of these mechanisms is the most likely explanation for our results, they both support our findings,” the researcher explained. The good news is that the problematic behaviors seen in primary school-aged children tend to decrease as children get older and mostly disappear by age 13.
The symptoms of ADHD persisted into adolescence. In addition, the researchers found no evidence that generally links outdoor childcare settings with delinquency and substance abuse in adolescents. One exception was the link between daycare attendance and substance abuse, which persisted into young adulthood for people from vulnerable backgrounds.
“Our study indicates that these children are more likely to experience anxiety or depression as they grow up, which may be more intense as a result of parental absence,” Everdijk explained. “Our study highlights some potentially adverse relationships between external childcare and children’s later development,” said final author Manuel Eisner.
However, sociology professors urge not to jump to conclusions. He said that while the study met the highest scientific standards, it was based on observational data and surveys that do not always allow for clear conclusions about causality. In addition, the study was not able to take into account the quality of childcare received outside the family.
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