The article Does Daycare Breed Bullies? discusses the reliability of the Early Child
Care study results and the limitations of the investigation process. The claim of
young children who spend more time in daycare are significantly more likely to be
aggressive bullies as they get older is controversial.
The Early Child Care study results do not show that daycare is the reason of bullying
behavior, but only show there is possibly a link between these two. In fact, there are
many other confounding variables that could affect the results of the study. For
example, the amounts of time children spend watching television and playing video
games. Children who are put in daycare could have spent different amounts of time on
watching television and playing video games. The aggressive behavior of children
may be resulted from the violent scenes that are exposed to the children through
television or video games, rather than their daycare experiences. Bullying behavior
can also be learnt from peers or seniors. Children may follow their peers or seniors
who bully others at school and so develop into their own aggressive behaviors. Thus,
the results of the study may overestimate the adverse effects of daycare on childrens
development. Evidence shows that the quality of alternative care (including kinship
care, foster care, other forms of family-based or family-like care) is critical to child
well-being.1
In order to attain more conclusive results, a follow-up study is needed. In designing
the studying process, more factors should be considered. Within the population that is
under Early Child Care study, further investigation about the daily activities done by
children and the stress level of mothers and how this affects their childrens behavior.
The confounding variables that could affect the study results should be considered. To
prove the cause and effect relation between daycare and aggressive behavior, the
study should include a control test so as to ensure the study is a fair test. Therefore, to
modify the study, children of similar backgrounds should be used as the population
size for investigation. In this case, the confounding variables can be minimized.
Regardless the result of Early Child Care study, I think it is better for a parent to stay
at home. Although children can learn to get along with other children in the daycare
center, they may lack love and caring from their parents. Insufficient parental care and
Reference
1. Unicef. (2011). Retrieved from
http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58004.html