[Link] Childcare : what the science says
post by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2022-06-24T21:45:23.406Z · LW · GW · 4 commentsThis is a link post for https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4
This is a pretty good summary of the research on daycare effectiveness. It is a Much More Than You Wanted To Know-style post from a science blogger criticalscience who has some interesting posts on Medium.
TL;DR:
- Adverse effects on children younger than three years old.
- The effect is worse the younger the children are.
- The effect is stronger for longer hours.
- The effect is
weakerCORRECTION [LW(p) · GW(p)]: worse for children from socio-economically better-off families. - Nannies are OK.
Childcare : what the science says
4 comments
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comment by mingyuan · 2022-06-26T20:23:06.224Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This is great, thank you for the link! My 16-month-old niece recently started daycare and that's seemed like a shame to me since she was thriving on tons of one-on-one attention (being with a rotation of loving relatives from 7am to 5pm on weekdays, and parents the rest of the time). I think her parents made the switch because they want her to be socialized but I now see that that's not a thing; maybe I can get them to pull her back out and wait until she's older! :D
Replies from: Gunnar_Zarncke↑ comment by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2022-06-26T21:59:58.189Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I think socialization may play a positive role later on in school, but for toddlers in daycare, the results are indeed very clearly negative.
comment by mikbp · 2022-06-28T12:05:36.099Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
That's an awesome text, thanks!
The 4th point in your TL;DR seems wrong to me, though. What I understand from the text (in relation to socio-economic status of the family) is that daycare may even be good for babies of worse-off families even when the babies are really young, but that it is clearly negative for babies of better-off families until they are 3+.
Replies from: Gunnar_Zarncke↑ comment by Gunnar_Zarncke · 2022-06-28T13:21:45.908Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
You are correct. The relevant section is this (emphasis theirs):
All of that is for an average income family. Low-income children benefit from starting earlier, and high-income children from starting later. (It’s likely not just actual income that matters, but socioeconomic factors — but income is easy to measure objectively so researchers measure it.) The most deprived children can actually benefit from starting as 1-year-olds.
I correct the TL;DR.