Unfortunately, experts say, parents got the wrong message on the connection between day care and future aggressiveness. Six percent of those who spent less than 10 hours a week in such care had the same problems. Concerns about the 17 percent were quickly highlighted to reporters by one of the study's researchers, Jay Belsky, of Birbeck College in London, who had previously angered many of his colleagues by emphasizing negative aspects of child care. When I raised cautious concerns about developmental risks associated with lots of time in child care begun in the first year of life 15 years ago, I was cast as a misogynist. Well, here we are 15 years later, and we find exactly what I had said then.
Kids push their way in line.
They try to get toys from other kids. This is not necessarily pathological. That 83 percent of the children who spent more than 30 hours a week in child care did not demonstrate such aggressive behavior. Children react to the same situation in very different ways and may have sensory or developmental issues that prompt such behavior. That when the same group of children was 2 years old, there was a spike noted in aggressive behavior when they spent more time in daycare.