How does placement in daycare affect attachment

Research Gaps It remains unclear why results from different locales produce variable findings. Implications The fact that detected effects of day care on attachment security vary substantially by national context means that it is precarious to draw strong inferences from attachment theory as to what the effect of day care will be. References Bowlby J. Attachment and Loss.

Vol 1. Belsky J, Steinberg L. The effects of day care: A critical review. Child Development ;49 4 Effects of maternal absence due to employment on the quality of infant-mother attachment in a low risk sample. Child Development ;58 4 Infant day care: A cause for concern? Zero to Three ;6 4 Early Childhood Research Quarterly ;3 3 Emanuel Miller Lecture: Developmental risks still associated with early child care. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry ;42 7 Belsky J, Rovine M.

Nonmaternal care in the first year of life and the security of infant-parent attachment. Child Development ;59 1 Facts, fantasies, and the future of child care in the United States.

Psychological Science ;1 1 Selective review of infant day care research: A cause for concern. Zeroto Three ; Clarke-Stewart KA. Infant day care: Maligned or malignant? American Psychologist ;44 2 Child Development ;78 2 Child Development. In press. Having identified a link between childcare and object attachment, it is of further interest to better understand the developmental implications of a child having an attachment object for childhood and later on.

Most published studies show no association between object attachment and concurrent behavioral disturbances e. Still, it is by no means an essential developmental step, as many children do not develop such emotional dependencies toward non-social objects, and there may be some less optimal long-term associations related with this behavior e. For example, the presence of strong and persistent attachments to objects during childhood was linked with higher excitability, restlessness, and impatience among college-age young adults Cohen and Clark, Such findings may suggest a common underlying cause for object use and emotion and stress regulation patterns.

Further study is needed to test such hypotheses. On a related point, we found a substantial portion of the variation in object attachment to be attributed to genetic factors. Over recent decades, behavior genetic research has demonstrated that genetic variability serves as a foundation for individual differences in many complex traits Plomin et al. Further studies are needed to clarify the meaning of this genetic basis; for example, it would be interesting to test whether object attachment in children is tied to biological functions i.

This study has a few limitations. First, findings are based on maternal reports. That said, the use of surveys enabled us to reach hundreds of twin pairs across the country. Second, the sample is comprised of twins only, who may not be fully representative of all children of the same age in terms of the measured variables. In addition, this paper adds to the gradually accumulating appreciation for the origins of this intriguing behavior in young children, which occupies many parents and other care providers, though clearly much is left to be explored on this topic to be translated into practice toward optimal development of children.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. We also thank the research assistants who collected and coded the data.

Data collection was supported by grant No. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by Starting Grant no. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Front Psychol v. Front Psychol. Published online May Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Reviewed by: Jeffrey R. This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Received Mar 30; Accepted May 4.

The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.

No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Keywords: childcare, day care, object attachment, transitional object, LIST. Risk at birth Twins are at a higher risk for being born preterm average gestational age at twin delivery is 36 weeks and at a lower birth weight than singletons e. Table 1 Twin probandwise concordances on object attachment by zygosity.

Open in a separate window. Table 2 Tests for sex differences. Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Infant day care: a cause for concern? Emanuel miller lecture developmental risks still associated with early child care. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 42 — The three year old and his attachment to a special soft object. Psychiatry 20 — Attachment and Loss: Vol. First year maternal employment and child development in the first 7 years. Child Dev. Development of emotional and behavioral regulation in children born extremely preterm and very preterm: Biological and social influences.

Transitional object attachments in early childhood and personality characteristics in later life. Quality of care and temperament determine changes in cortisol concentrations over the day for young children in childcare. Psychoneuroendocrinology 25 — Birth weight standards in the live-born population in Israel. Twin relationships: a comparison across monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, and nontwin siblings in early childhood. Differential genetic susceptibility to child risk at birth in predicting observed maternal behavior.

Transitional objects and the process of individuation: a study in three different social groups. Child Psychiatry 9 — Invite a friend and get free access Invite a friend. Subscribe and get an instant access See our plans. Policies Privacy Policy.

Terms Of Service. Honor Code. Community Guidelines. Services Study Homework Help.