They also evaluated youngsters with sophisticated tests of language and mental development and interviewed mothers about their levels of depression and their toddlers' behavior. We only find that working more hours is related to less sensitivity when we compare mothers with similar levels of education and income, but not when we compare mothers regardless of their education and income. Women reporting more depression had less positive relationships with their offspring. Race made no difference in the findings. Other results from the study suggest that the small negative effects of child care were not big enough to disrupt secure attachments between infants and mothers, researchers concluded.
More time is better than less time.
Most of the children, who are from racially and socially diverse families, now are in the third grade and will be followed at least through the sixth. Investigators considered their sample moderately but not perfectly representative of U.S. mothers and their children, Cox said. Strengths of the study include its large sample size, the repeated direct assessments and the diversity of subjects, a quarter of whom were minorities. Besides UNC-CH, which follows 130 children, other data collection centers are located at the universities of Arkansas at Little Rock, California at Irvine, Kansas, New Hampshire, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Washington at Seattle, Wisconsin and Temple University. Research Triangle Institute staff in Research Triangle Park, N.C., also participate in the project.