Effects of Day Care on Child Development

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Discuss the effects of day care on children's social development (12 mark) Many observations and studies have been carried out to see whether the effects of day care on a child's social development is positive or negative. Violata and Russell( (1994) conducted a meta analysis on 88 studies, they concluded that regular day care for 20+ hours a week had a negative effect on a child's social development. Their findings were that day care promotes aggressive behaviour in children both verbal and physical. It can be argued that thinking that the cause only cause of aggression amongst these children is day care, is a reductionist thought. As they sated that day care was the only reason for increased aggression in children and didn't taken into account environmental factors, previous experiences etc. One other weakness of Violata an Russell' meta-analysis is that some of the studies that were analysed were over 10 years old, therefore may not be relevant to today as day care techniques, methods and training has changed a lot. One observation completed by Clarke-Stewart et al (1994) deemed the effects of day care on a child's social development positive, in terms of there are no negative effects. Clarke-Stewart's found that those who spent 30 hours a week in day care were no more distressed than those who didn't. They also found that children who were in day care, were more sociable and interactive with other people, therefore showing positive signs on the children's social development. Clarke-Stewart also found that those in day care for longer hours seemed to speed up a child's social development, therefore learning social skills from a earlier age. Similar to this, Field (1991) also conducted a observation to see the effects of day care on a child's social development. He found a positive correlation between the time a child spent in day care and the amount of
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