Long‐term cumulative effects of childcare on children's mental development and socioemotional adjustment in a non‐risk sample: the moderating effects of gender

Abstract

We studied the long‐term cumulative effects of two common indices of childcare—the total number of hours of non‐maternal care and the mean hour‐weighted child‐to‐caregiver ratio per caregiving situation—on mental development and socioemotional adjustment from birth to 4.5 years old in a non‐risk middle‐class sample of girls and boys after taking into consideration child (gender and sibling status), maternal (education and concepts of child development), and family selection (socioeconomic status [SES] factors. Childcare indices did not differ in girls and boys year by year. Children experienced less non‐maternal care in their first year of life, but afterward children encountered more children in their caregiving situations in proportion to the number of caregivers. At age 4.5 years, girls scored higher on cognitive and language measures than boys, and boys exhibited more externalizing problem behaviors than girls. Hours of non‐maternal care were not a predictor of mental development or socioemotional adjustment; however, the child‐to‐caregiver ratio was. For cognitive outcomes, the ratio exerted a positive effect on children from higher SES backgrounds versus no effect on children from average or lower SES backgrounds. For behavioral adjustment outcomes, a higher ratio was associated with fewer behavioral problems in girls and more behavioral problems in boys. Different basic indices of childcare appear to have different long‐term cumulative effects for different domains of development in girls and boys.