The Effect of Nonmaternal Childcare on Parent-Child Relationships: Mixed Findings


                                           Tomo Umemura

                                        Masaryk University



         The Effect of Nonmaternal Childcare on Parent-Child Relationships: Mixed Findings

More than 60 percent of infants and young children under the age of five years experience some type
of nonmaternal childcare (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). Several studies have examined potential
negative effects of the hours infants spend in nonmaternal care on infant-mother relationships.
However, findings on associations between hours of nonmaternal care and parent-child relationships
have been mixed (e.g., Belsky & Rovine, 1988; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1997). In
this paper, I review these mixed finings on the effect of nonmaternal care on parent-child
relationships.


                                            References

Belsky, J., & Braungart, J. (1991). Are insecure-avoidant infants with extensive day care
experience less stressed by and more independent in the Strange Situation? Child Development, 62,
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NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1997). The effects of infant child care on infant-mother
attachment security: Results of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 68, 860 –
879. doi: 10.1037/a0016491

United States Census Bureau (2005). Who’s minding the kids? Child care arrangements: Spring
2005/Summer 2006. Retrieved August 10, 2011 from http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p70-121.pdf