Long-term effects of self-supervised and adult-supervised child care arrangements on personality traits, emotional adjustment, and cognitive development

Abstract

This study investigated long-term effects of being in a “latchkey” or self-supervised child care situation compared with being in an adult-supervised arrangement. Data on former child care arrangements and several measures of cognitive development, emotional adjustment, and the personality traits of dominance, responsibility, and achievement via independence were collected from 248 college students. Students who reported having been in adult care did not differ from students who regularly cared for themselves during out-of-school hours on any of the dependent measures, which concurs with previous findings on short-term effects of the self-care arrangement. Age at which the self-care situation was initiated, and gender, individually and collectively, failed to predict outcome on any dependent measure. These results suggest that children are resilient to short-term separation from their parents and may be able to structure their time constructively during out-of-school hours.