Developmental Effects of Infant Care: The Mediating Role of Gender and Health

Abstract

This research used the 1986 merged child‐mother data file from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to explore how various forms of infant care in a child's first year were linked with scores at ages 1–4 on the Memory for Location, Motor and Social Development, and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test measures. The extent to which these linkings were mediated by an infant's health and gender was examined and important distinctions were noted. In particular, healthy infant girls received some cognitive advantage by being cared for extensively by caretakers other than their mother during infancy, whereas infant boys with health problems gained socioemotionally by spending more time with their mothers. More generally, it was concluded that usually, the average young child's ability to cope intellectually and socioemotionally (as measured on the above scales) is not affected in major ways either positively or negatively by the generic nature of his or her child care arrangement.