rising out of my sick bed to make a few comments abou this study. Has anyone else read the thing or are you all just following the agenda of media hysteria? Look at the numbers, less than 3% of the variance in behavior problems can be attributed to daycare. Three percent. That's noise. Only when the numbers involved are very large does anything like this become "statistically significant."
What I noticed that the article did not discuss in any detail are those factors that accounted for a greater proportion of the variance, such as parental involvement with kid in school, conditions at home, the family's economic situation to do the same. If there was even a small amount of knowledge about statistics this hysteria would have died a very fast death. larry > Am I Hurting My Child With Day Care? > Posted by Jamie Heller > > Day-care parents, brace yourself. A new study is out about our > children, and it's not reassuring. According to the study, published > in the March-April issue of the journal Child Development, children > who spend large amounts of time in child-care centers exhibit more > minor behavior problems, such as aggression and disobedience, than > other children, at least through sixth grade. My colleague Sue > Shellenbarger writes about the study here: > > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117486330461648401.html > > When studies like this came out in the past, I tended to ignore them, > especially when they grouped different forms of "non-maternal" care > together (see this article: > > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB111223054814593805-search. > html?KEYWORDS=day+care&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month > > ). It seemed the only way to avoid the apparent negative results for > non-maternal care was to provide maternal care. Since I was set on > working, for financial and professional reasons, it didn't matter > much > to me what experts thought, because I knew child care was the right > solution for my family. > > But this study seems different ? it suggests that between child-care > centers and nannies, child-care centers are worse. The question, then, > > for me and other day-care parents, is whether to switch. For my big > boy, six, the dice are rolled. He's been in child-care/preschools > from > the get-go, and now he's in kindergarten. But for the little guy, > just > turning three, I could give up the full-time preschool and opt for a > nanny for the next couple of years. > > My gut reaction is to say, study, shmudy ? it's a great school and > besides, I truly believe we are good parents. The study researchers > themselves say "the quality of parenting children receive is a far > stronger and more consistent predictor of achievement and social > functioning." > > But part of me has to acknowledge that the study plays to my worst > fears. More than my big guy, my little guy gives us a run for our > money. He upsets easily. Today, when I asked him for a kiss, he > bonked > me on the head. Still, he's not exactly at a mature age; and the > teachers insist he's a delight. I am reluctant to switch to a nanny > for the reasons I outlined in this prior post. And I hate the idea of > letting so-called experts influence decisions on which I think I > should know best. > > I wonder, though, whether I'm being wise by staying the course, or stubborn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:231726 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
