What We Know about Childcare / Edition 1

by Alison Clarke-Stewart, Virginia D. Allhusen

Overview

Nearly three-quarters of American mothers work full- or part-time—usually out of financial necessity—and require regular child care. How do such arrangements affect children? If they are not at home with their mothers, will they be badly behaved, intellectually delayed, or emotionally stunted?

Backed by the best current research, Alison Clarke-Stewart and Virginia Allhusen bring a reassuring answer to parents' fears and offer guidance for making difficult decisions. Quality child care, they show, may be even more beneficial to children than staying at home. Although children who spend many hours in care may be unruly compared with children at home, those who attend quality programs tend to be cognitively ahead of their peers. They are just as attached to their mothers and reap the additional benefits of engaging with other children.

Ultimately, it's parents who matter most; what happens at home makes the difference in how children develop. And today's working mothers actually spend more time interacting with their children than stay-at-home mothers did a generation ago.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674017498
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2005
Series:	The Developing Child , #45
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alison Clarke-Stewart was Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior and Associate Dean of Research at the University of California, Irvine.

Virginia D. Allhusen is Research Associate in Psychology and Social Behavior and a senior researcher in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

PART ONE: A NATION TRANSFORMED

1. Making the Best of Difficult Choices

2. The Evolution ofChildcare in the United States

3. Childcare in the United States Today

PART TWO: A QUARTER CENTURY OF RESEARCH

4. Studying Childcare

5. Effects of Care

6. Variations in Care

7. The Caregiver's Role

8. The Family's Place

PART THREE: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

9. Making Better Childcare Choices

10. Planning Better Childcare Research

11. Implementing Better Childcare Solutions

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

What We Know About Childcare...offers an exhaustive, evenhanded account of what the latest research proves—and what it disproves—about childcare's impact on children.

Child - Pamela Kruger

Clarke-Stewart and Allhusen have amassed wonderful data and detailed descriptions of the social, psychological and political issues that continue to surround childcare in the U.S. in this new millennium. Engaging such a broad audience in these issues is a difficult, but worthy task. Their effort certainly deserves much praise.

Families in Society - Julie Cooper Altman

Clarke-Stewart and Allhusen have amassed wonderful data and detailed descriptions of the social, psychological and political issues that continue to surround childcare in the U.S. in this new millennium. Engaging such a broad audience in these issues is a difficult, but worthy task. Their effort certainly deserves much praise.
— Julie Cooper Altman

Families in Society

What We Know About Childcare...offers an exhaustive, evenhanded account of what the latest research proves—and what it disproves—about childcare's impact on children.
— Pamela Kruger

Child